13 THE SQUARE

The Department's description

Historical information

This site is shown developed on an estate map of 1767 and all others thereafter. In the first valuation book of 1835 the property is recorded as a relatively new house and shop in the possession of a Mrs Sculford, measuring 38 x 23½ x 20½, with a return of 16 x 16½ x 16 and offices of 17 x 7 x 10 and 21 x 19 x 13 (the latter a ‘bake house’). The appearance of the building suggests it may date from c.1810-20.

In the second valuation of c.1861 it is noted as a ‘small drapery shop and private lodgings’ which seems to have been held on a long lease by Robert Willis. Its dimensions are listed much as before but the return recorded in two sections of 7yds x 2 x 2[storeys] and 5½ x 5 x 2.

Mr Willis sublet the property in 1866 to a P. Graham, who was followed in turn by Ellen Lindsay in 1867. William Shaw took up the tenancy in 1872, and before 1877 the shop had become the local post office (taking over this role from the present no.4 Mary Street – see HB16/06/052A). In the 1901 census Mr Shaw is noted as a 57yr-old retired postmaster (he appears to have retired relatively early as he was blind), who was at that time living with a niece, Sarah Mary McNeilly (the postmistress), Martha Louisa McKeown (possibly also a niece) and a domestic servant, with the building itself noted as having 12 rooms in use. Miss McNeilly is listed as the tenant in 1902, and Robert Armstrong in 1910, by which point the post office had transferred to 7 Bridge Street (see HB16/06/043).

Mr Armstrong was still residing here in 1929, but by 1936 the shop section had become a branch of the Belfast Banking Co. with Thomas Craig (presumably the manager) occupying the living quarters, succeeded by Wilfred Purdy in 1940. Around this time the building appears to have adopted the name ‘Bank House’. It remained a bank (transferring to the Northern Bank, when the latter merged with the Belfast Banking Co. in 1970) until at least 1975

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 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 marketplace, 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 northeast and southwest, 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 southwestern 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 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 County series, Co Down sheet 54 – 1834, 1859, 1901-02, 1919, 1950
6 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36)
7 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
8 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
9 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’, (Belfast, various dates, 1877-1975)
10 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie, accessed 2020.06.30]
11 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
12 PRONI VAL3C/4/23, 1936-57
13 PRONI VAL4B/3/81, 1956-72
14 OS map, sheet 277, 1979