Shrigley County Down.

Named from Pot Shrigley in England.

The village of Shrigley just outside Killyleagh on the Crossgar road, was founded in 1824 by the Martin family, who came from Pott Shrigley in Cheshire England. The Martin's owned a spinning factory on the site of the Northern Ireland Plastics factory. Power for the factory was supplied by a river with its source in the Cley Lough's nearby, a tall mill chimney survives so it seems likely steam power was also used also.

The paragraph below is taken from.
Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Ireland

The cotton manufacture is carried on upon a very extensive scale. Some large mills were built upon a copious stream, in 1824, by Messrs. Martin and Co., and were greatly enlarged in 1828: in these works are 13,798 spindles, employing 186 persons, and 244 power-looms attended by 156 persons, constantly engaged in weaving printers' cloths for the Manchester market; and connected with this manufactory are more than 2000 hand-looms in the neighbouring districts. The buildings, which are very spacious and six stories high, are lighted with gas made on the premises, and the proprietors have erected a steam-engine of 35.horse power.

Begun in 1824 the village consisted of 137 terraced houses built in the local blue stone, these were grouped around the company grocery store 'The Co' as was the norm of the time for mill houses none of them had running water or toilets, all the water was drawn from the village pump.

The original village's main street was the road between Killyleagh and Derryboy, which was straightened and built on the rubble of the old village in 1966 when it was redeveloped.

All that remains of the old village is the imposing Victorian clock tower built in 1871 as a memorial to the Martin family. Funds were raised locally by a door to door collection, following a competition to design the monument which was won by a young Belfast architect Timothy Hervey. It is said that no one in Shrigley needed a clock as the tower could be seen from every house in the village. Today the monument has several small trees and some vegetation growing on its stonework, it is vitally important that whoever has jurisdiction over the monument have these removed as soon as possible to avoid further deterioration of the structure.

With the decline of the linen industry the mill closed in 1930, it lay until 1937 when it was bought and converted into a tannery by the Utitz family from Prague, in Czechoslovakia. The factory continued to be used as a tannery until the 1960's when it closed, it is remembered today in the river which discharges into Killyleagh harbour which is known locally as the Tannery River.

The new village was built between 1966 and 1970 by East Down Rural District Council, on a site a little to the west of the old main street. It consists of 174 houses arranged around a village shop which has recently been demolished (September 2006)