Central Belfast also suffered from pollution ... MAX: It’s 1701 and there are loads of families in the countryside growing and spinning flax and weaving linen. They produce 200,000 yards ...

Within days of moving to Tennant Street in Belfast, Alexander had found work in the Agnes Street spinning mill – dividing his time between the machine room and the adjoining classroom.

A similar number have been reduced in size or modified - including gates at Flax Street in north Belfast which replaced a barricade that closed the road for 40 years. Traffic and people now move ...