Lambeg Drums - Twelfth - Newtownards 1970's

Family History is a great way to explore history, old stories, memories! Recently, I was very kindly given this photograph - of the Newtownards Twelfth Parade, early 1970's.

The lambeg drums were very prominent in Orange Parades then. A closer look at the picture and you can see in the background, just between the two drums, tall with black hair and a coat over his left arm - my late father, Blakely Clarke Anderson.

Dad was a life long member of the Orange Institution - Mill Street Hero's LOL 1908. He never really explained why he was a member of this Lodge, as he was very much a Greenwell Street man all his life, we never shared the same Orange Lodge, but we did share all aspects of our Orange Traditions!

HMA