28 WATER ST.

The Department's description

Historical information

This small single-storey dwelling is shown as an annotation on the town plan accompanying the 1861 valuation and first appears in the valuation book in 1883, so it must have been built within or shortly before the latter year.

The original tenant is noted as James Cunningham, holding the property from the Balfour family of nearby Fairy Hill, who in turn held it from the Ross estate. In the 1901 census, Mr. Cunningham, a 60yr-old widower working as a labourer, was living here with his two grown-up sons, with the building itself noted as ‘2nd class’ dwelling with two rooms in use by the family.

Mary Ward assumed the tenancy in 1903, followed by James Gorman in 1905, James McKenna in 1906, and John Hanley in 1908. In the 1911 census, Mr. Hanley, a Dublin-born 26yr-old accountant, is recorded as occupying the house with his wife, Sarah, and their two infant children. The Hanleys appear to have remained until c.1919 when Michael [?McAnally] is named as the householder, with Eddie McDonnell living here in 1921, William McAnally in 1928, Hugh Murphy in 1929, Patrick Murphy by 1936, Margaret Keenan in 1939 and James McClorey from 1955 until at least 1972. The building is not marked with a house number on the 1979 OS map, suggesting it had ceased to be occupied by that date.

A small extension, (possibly a shed), was added to the north end of the building sometime between 1950 and 1979, but has since been removed.

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 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1860
5 VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
6 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
7 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie, accessed 2020.05.19]
8 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1902
9 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
10 PRONI VAL3C/4/23, 1936-57
11 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
12 PRONI VAL4B/3/81, 1956-72
13 OS map, sheet 277, 1979