A Little Bit More About Comber

Short History of Comber

The name Comber derives from the Irish word comar which means the confluence of two rivers, in this case the Glen River and the Enler River which meet at the town. There is believed to have been a church here since the time of St Patrick, while a Cistercian abbey was founded around 1200 on the site of the present Church of Ireland chapel, a site likely chosen to take advantage of the good access to Strangford Lough. After Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1541, the abbey fell into ruins and its stone has since been used in other buildings.

During the influx of Scottish people in the early 1600s, a settlement grew up at Comber, although it was focused about a mile further south than at present, in the townland of Cattogs, and there is evidence that the settlement was a port used by traders and fishermen. By the 1700s, however, the focus of the town had moved to the area of the present Square and Comber established itself with several mills.

The Andrews family made Comber a centre of both linen production and grain processing by the second half of the 1700s, and whiskey distilling was a prominent industry by the mid 1800s. By 1841 the town had 1,400 inhabitants.

One very famous member of the Andrews family, Thomas, rose to fame as designer of the ill-fated Titanic, although he tragically lost his life when the ship sank in 1912. The twentieth century saw Comber lose much of its industry but re-establish itself as a commuter town for the Belfast urban area, swelling in population from 4,000 in 1961 to 8,933 in the 2001 Census.

In Comber square, you can to see the statue of Major General Rollo Gillespie. Gillespie was a local war hero from the 19th century famous for his heroic exploits in India. It was unveiled on 4th June, 1845 (St. John's Day). Fifty lodges of the Masonic Order were present, in what is believed to be the biggest Masonic gathering in Irish History. It was calculated that 25,000 to 30,000 people crowded into the town to witness the ceremony. The column is 55 feet high. At the foot of the column are many Masonic symbols and his famous last words "One shot more for the honour of Down".