32 BRIDGE ST.

The Department's description

Historical information

This site is shown developed on the OS map 1834. The valuation book of the following year is difficult to decipher but it suggests that this plot and that of the present no.34 were at that point taken up by a ‘not new’ house measuring 27ft x 21 x 14½ , then occupied by John Dunn, a Tailor.

By 1861 the plot had been divided with the dwelling on this site recorded as measuring 4½yds x 7 x 2[storeys], with the occupier noted as Arthur Fagan, and Rose Feran the immediate lessor.

In 1874 the rateable value of this house and the three similar dwellings to the immediate northwest and southeast [nos.30 and 34-36 - see HB16.06.027D, F-G] rose from £3-10-0 / £3-0-0 to £5-15-0, indicating that all four were either substantially refurbished or rebuilt at this time. The overall uniformity of the properties, and details such as the bevelled window reveals, suggests the latter, although, that said, there is no annotation on the contemporary valuation town plan of Rostrevor to indicate wholesale rebuilding.

The new (or largely rebuilt) house was first leased to Archibald Girvan, followed in 1880 by John Fitzpatrick, John Orr in 1883, Bernad Dunne in 1884, Charlotte Bushell in 1885, Catherine Fearon in 1891, Patrick Cole in 1892, Marshall Weir in 1894, and Elizabeth Weir in 1896. In the 1901 census, Mrs Weir, a 40yr-old widow who worked as a laundress, is noted as living here with here three children, with the building itself recorded as a ‘2nd class’ dwelling with four rooms in use. The next tenant, in 1912, was Martha Fearon, then Edward Fearon in 1915, Maria Hillis in 1920, Gertrude Hynes in 1929, William John Parr in 1936 and James McGivern from 1965 until at least 1972.

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 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
8 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
9 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1902
10 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
11 PRONI VAL3C/4/23, 1936-57
12 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
13 PRONI VAL4B/3/81, 1956-72
14 OS map, sheet 277, 1979