GLENSIDE

The Department's description

Historical information

A building matching the plan and location of the present is shown on the OS map of 1834. In the valuation of 1835 it is recorded as a ‘new’ dwelling measuring 28½ft x 19 x 15, with office (i.e. outbuilding) of 32 x 16½ x 15, occupied by Alexander Broom (or Browne), who held a 31yr lease for which he paid £14-10-0 per year. The date of construction is not known, but the appearance of the building suggests c.1810-20, and it is undoubtedly one of the ‘3 good private houses’ along this stretch of Water Street mentioned in the 1836 OS Memoirs (see below.)

By 1861 the property, recorded as measuring 9?yds x 6 x 2[storeys] with office of 8½ x 3? x 1, was ‘let furnished’ by John Fitzpatrick to William Calvert, who is listed in the ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ of the same year as a ‘general grocer’. By 1869, according to the valuation books, Mr. Calvert had leased (presumably sub-let) the house to a Mrs. Sutcliffe, and in the same year the some outbuildings to the north were added into the overall valuation for the property, lifting it from £8 to £11. Mrs. Sutcliffe was followed by Elizabeth Tumulty in 1872, William Lyons by 1881, Edwin H. McMullen in 1904, Annie Cromie in 1908, Martha Fearon in 1909, David Dunegan in 1913, Robert Wilson in 1914, Annie [?Mullery] in 1915, Patrick Cole in 1918, and Thomas and Mary Rainey in 1940. Mr and Mrs Rainey were occupying the house in 1972.

WATER STREET The L-shaped Water Street is depicted with an approximately similar extent of development as today on the OS map of 1834. The Rostrevor Conservation booklet of 1979 identifies the street as the town’s earliest place of settlement; however, it is not indicated on any map prior to that of 1834. It appears more likely that the that the Bridge Street - Mary Street crossroads was the original nucleus of the town, with Water Street developing off the former at the end of the 18th / beginning of the 19th century when Rostrevor began to develop as a popular resort for the gentry. Referred to as ‘The Back Lane’, the OS Memoirs of 1836 provides perhaps the earliest description of the street, describing it as running ‘at right angles to the main street, a little above the church in a south easterly direction to the Rostrevor or Kilbroney River’ and linking to ‘the lower end of Post Office Street by a short street on the northern side of the river. It is 155 yards long and 300 feet broad. The houses and cottages in this lane are in good order. On the communication between the Back Lane and Post Office Street are 3 good private houses’. These three properties are still in place - nos.31, 33 and 37 (see HB16.06.29, 30 and 31

References - Primary sources
1 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834
2 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36)
3 Day, Angelique and McWilliams, Patrick ed. ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…vol.3’ (QUB, 1990), p.33 (1835-36)
4 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
5 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
6 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1902
7 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
8 PRONI VAL3C/4/23, 1936-57
9 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
10 PRONI VAL4B/3/81, 1956-72
11 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 12 August 1969, p.2
12 OS map, 1979