Boundary Post, Shandon Park Golf Club, Knock Road, Belfast BT5 6QD

Boundary Post, Shandon Park Golf Club

This cast-iron boundary post dates from 1918 and marks the outer extent of the administrative jurisdiction of Belfast Corporation (as Belfast City Council was then known) and of Pottinger District Electoral Division and Ward. It stands unaltered in its original setting, embedded in concrete on a woodland golf course on the east side of Knock Road.

The post has a slightly tapered cylindrical profile, measuring approximately one metre high by 0.3 metres in diameter. It features a banded octagonal base and an oversailing flat octagonal cap with a dentilled cornice and a slightly smaller fluted circular upstand. The front face bears the shield of Belfast Corporation's coat of arms, beneath which is an attached plaque secured with four countersunk screws, reading "Parliamentary and Municipal Boundary of Belfast Pottinger Division Pottinger Ward 1918". An identical shield appears near the top on the rear face. The post is painted gloss black with the cap, dentil band, both shields, and circular and octagonal bands painted gold. The post leans slightly to the north.

The post was created following the Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918, which increased parliamentary constituencies for Belfast from four to nine, with Pottinger being one of the new divisions. The post marked the boundary when first used in the 1918 General Election on 14 December, held under the Representation of the People Act 1918. This election was historically significant as the first to permit all men over 21 and all women over 30 to vote, and the first to be completed within a single day. With the establishment of the devolved Northern Ireland parliament at Stormont in 1922, the Pottinger parliamentary constituency was abolished after just four years, though the municipal ward continued in modified form. The post is relatively rare, as many such boundary markers have been lost to road widening and removal. It has group value with three nearby boundary posts along the line of the Knock River.