THE ROSS INN

The Department's description

Historical information

This site is shown developed on an estate map of 1767 and all others thereafter. The present building is more recent, however, having been built in 1893 after the destruction of the previous structure in a fire which seems to have destroyed both the property on this site as well as that at no.1 Church Street. The new properties were constructed for Arthur Hughes, with no.2 Bridge Street becoming the ‘Central Hotel’ and no.1 Church Street a grocery; the identity of the architect is not known.

In the 1901 census, the 48 year-old Mr Hughes (‘hotel keeper’) is noted as living here with his wife, Bridget, their 11 year-old son, Arthur John, and a domestic servant, with the building itself noted as a ‘1st class’ public house with 20 rooms in use by the family. Interestingly, the younger Arthur was born in the USA, indicating that the family must have lived there for a time. By 1911, an older son, Daniel (26, an auctioneer), was living there, he too stating in the census return of the year that he had been born in the USA.

Hughes family retained the hotel and shop until 1913, when it was acquired (or passed to) Patrick Morgan. The Morgan family appear to have held the properties until 1944, when Henry Smyth is listed in the valuation records as holding the lease from the Ross of Bladensburg estate, followed by Mary Smyth in 1957 and Margaret Baxter in 1958. Ms Baxter was still there in 1972.

In its original form the north (Church Street facing) elevation of no.2 possessed a carriage entrance to far left, then two regular-sized windows (as the upper floor), and then a pub front that consisting of a large window either side of the corner entrance with a continuous signboard linking these and slim pilasters classing each of the three openings. On the Bridge street side there was a doorway and another regular window, whilst the property possessed four chimneys, instead of the current solitary stack. No.1 Church Street originally had a doorway and separate shop window to the ground floor, and did not possess a dormer.

The Square / Church Street

The north-east to south-west line of what is now Church street and The Square is not depicted on Sloane’s or Kennedy’s maps of of 1739 and 1755, appearing for the first time on an estate map of 1767. It is probable that the thoroughfare was established as part of the laying out - or upgrading - of the road (present B25 Kilbroney Road) linking Rostrevor to the new village of Hilltown, which began to be developed by Wills Hill (later 1st Marquis of Downshire) in the 1760s. As its generous breadth - and name - suggests it is likely that it was also intended to act as a market place, and it is perhaps no coincidence that in April 1769 Rostrevor’s then landlord, Robert Ross, obtained a patent allowing him to hold a weekly market and quarterly fairs within the settlement.

The 1767 map shows the eastern and western sides seemingly developed as far as the present extent to the south-west and to the site of the current parish church in the north-east. The church itself was completed in 1821, forming a ‘closing of the vista’ of the broader portion of the street. By the time of the the 1834 OS map the extent of development we see today was in place, with buildings shown opposite the church and further along the narrower part of the carriageway to the north-east. The OS Memoirs of October 1836 provide what is perhaps the earliest description of this particular part of the town, telling us that ‘“Main Street” runs north east and south west, 620 yards in length, the breadth of that part contained between the new and old church (a distance of 180 yards) being 120 feet broad, the remainder averaging 30 feet in breadth. The houses in this street are nearly all 2-storey high and the greater part of them in good order, a number of them having furnished lodgings for the accommodation of strangers in summer. On coming into the town at its lower or south western extremity, this street presents a grateful “coup d’oeil”, the most pleasing and remarkable object of which is the new church, situated at the extremity of the broadest part of the Street and standing in line with its direction, its body and square tower appearing in good relief against the thick and luxuriant foliage of the trees to the north of the building.’

References - Primary sources
1 PRONI T1763/2 Map of County Down by Oliver Sloane, 1739
2 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
3 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie, accessed 2020.06.30]
4 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’, (Belfast, various dates, 1910-19)
5 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
6 PRONI VAL3C/4/23, 1936-57
7 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
8 PRONI VAL4B/3/81, 1956-72
9 OS map, sheet 277, 1979