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The
town of Bangor probably came into existance about the year 555, when St
Comgall founded a monastery there
Three bronze swords unearthed near the Ballycrochan
Road in 1949 prove that the area around Bangor has been inhabited since
at least the late bronze age.
The name comes from the Irish Beannchar which means
'College'' Bangor was at a time the premier site in Europe of academic
Christian learning at St Comgalls Abbey founded in AD 558 nothing remains
of the abbey today except for a manuscript called "The Bangor Antiphonary"
the oldest known Irish written hymn sheet, which dates from the 680's
it is now in the Ambrosian Library in Milan, Italy.
With the coming of the railway
Bangor enjoyed something of a renaissance, the railway company gave away
free ten year first class season tickets to new householders. A spate
of house building ensued as the middle class of Belfast sought property
in Bangor
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