4 BRIDGE ST.

The Department's description

Historical information

This site is shown developed on the OS map 1834. In the first valuation of 1835-36 the house is noted a slated building in good condition which was known, or perceived to be, over 25 years old at that point. Its dimensions are recorded as 16ft x 20 x 17 which appears to have been leased to ‘Mrs Traynor or Mr Greer of Newry’, but was at that date unoccupied. An update of c.1838 within the same valuation book lists the tenant as J.J. Doyle.

In the 1861 valuation Mary Ann Doyle is noted as the tenant with the property housing a ‘small drapery’. The dimensions are recorded as 5yds 1ft x 6yds 2ft x 2[storeys]. In 1877 Catherine Fitzpatrick is listed as the occupant, followed by Bernard Dunn in 1893, Thomas [?Mahood] in 1894, [?Peter ?Mahood] 1899 and Peter Murphy in 1906. In the 1911 census Mr Murphy, a 40yr-old grocer, is stated to be living here with his wife, Mary Ann, their young son and a house guest, Bridget Barry, with the property a ‘2nd class…shop and private dwelling’ with 4 rooms occupied by the family. Peter Murphy was still living here in 1930, and a Patrick Murphy is recorded as still holding the property in 1972.

Various late Victorian and Edwardian photographs show that the ground floor of the property has been taken up by a shopfront since at least c.1900.

BRIDGE STREET In origin, Bridge Street was part of the road from Kilkeel, connecting the latter with the original roads to Rathfriland (present Greenpark Road) and to Newry (a route which appears to have followed present Warrenpoint Road before heading inland along today’s Rath, Donaghguy and Greenan Roads). Oliver Sloane’s County Down map of 1739 shows the settlement of Rostrevor comprising solely of buildings along the northeastern side of the road, suggesting that this side of of Bridge Street may well mark the earliest part of the village. Development on both sides of the street is shown on an estate map of 1767 and Williamson’s 1810 county map, and this had reached its present extent by the time the 1834 first edition OS map. Known in the 1830s as ‘Post Office Street’, owing to the presence of that establishment, this title had been modified to ‘Old Post Office Street’ by 1861, and finally in c.1894, to ‘Bridge Street.

The 1836 OS Memoirs describe the street as ‘leading from the centre of the main street in a south easterly direction to the bridge of Rostrevor…155 yards long, 95 feet broad at its broadest or north and western end and 25 feet at its narrowest part next [to] the bridge. The houses are of 2-storeys, in good order, all used for shops and having furnished lodgings for the accommodation of strangers.’

References - Primary sources
1 PRONI T1763/2 Map of County Down by Oliver Sloane, 1739
2 HERoNI Map of County Down by James Kennedy, 1755
3 PRONI D671/M7/2 Map of Rostrevor and surrounding lands, 1767
4 ‘A Map of the County of Down…by James Williamson, (1810)
5 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834
6 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36)
7 Day, Angelique and McWilliams, Patrick ed. ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…vol.3’ (QUB, 1990), p.35 (1835-36)
8 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
9 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
10 NLI Lawrence Photograph Collection, - 'Bridge Street Rostrevor 3255.W.L', c.1900'
11 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie, accessed 2020.06.30]
12 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’, (Belfast, various dates, 1910-19)
13 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
14 PRONI VAL3C/4/23, 1936-57
15 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
16 PRONI VAL4B/3/81, 1956-72
17 OS map, sheet 277, 1979