4 MARY ST.

The Department's description

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the 1834 OS map. In the 1835 valuation this is recorded as a ‘new’ house (grade ‘A’) belonging to Joseph White, a surgeon; however, the dimensions of the property - 23½ft x 30 x 20, with return of 10 x 7 x 11, basement of 23½ x 30 x 7½ - are smaller than at present. The valuation makes no mention of the carriage arch to the west end of the building, (the valuers usually recorded the space taken up by these in order to subtract it), so it is likely that this end is a subsequent addition. It is possible that the original portion of the house is part of the development shown along this part of Mary Street on James Williamson's 1810 county map.

The western end was added some time prior to 1861, as it is shown on the valuation town plan of that year with the building recorded in the accompanying valuation book as measuring 13yds x 10 x 2[storeys], with the space taken up by the gateway amounting to 3 x 10 x 1, whilst the outbuildings to the rear are noted as consisting of three sections of 6½ x 6 x 2, 4 x 6 x 1 and 8 x 5 x 1. By this date the property was in the hands of Thomas Emerson (who at this point also held the neighbouring property to the east no.6 Mary Street - see HB16.06.052B), and contained the local post office. It may have done so for some considerable time prior to this, for an annotation in the 1835 valuation suggests that the property contained a shop at some stage after this date (possibly c.1839), and indeed it is marked as a post office on the 1860 OS map with Mr. Emerson listed as a postmaster in an 1861 village directory. A photograph of c.1870 shows that the post office itself was entered via a relatively narrow arched doorway just to the right of the carriage arch. It is possible that the whole western section of the building was purpose-built to accommodate the post office itself.

Mary Emerson is recorded as the leaseholder and occupant in 1892 and in the 1901 census the 59year-old Miss Emerson is recorded as occupying the house with her unmarried younger brother, Robert James Emerson, and a domestic servant, with the building itself noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 10 rooms in use. By this stage the property appears to have ceased to contain the local post office.

In 1923 Lucy Porter is listed as the occupant, Peter Murphy in 1928, J. Conolly in 1956, Brigit Connolly in 1958 and George Mahood from 1961 until at least 1972 (during which period the property is recorded as containing a shop, and - just prior to 1969 - the local post office once again.)

The projecting shop front appears to have been added some time between 1950 and 1969, its addition covering up the access formerly used for the post office.during its original term in the building.

MARY STREET - WARRENPOINT ROAD This thoroughfare on the western side of Rostrevor lies along the original route between Kilkeel and Newry, and by the late 1760s it had come to form the western end of the village’s main northeast-southwest axis. A large house is shown in this general vicinity on James Kennedy’s map of 1755, and although the scale of the map makes it difficult to draw any conclusions as to the actual location of this building, it may relate to the fact that the present ‘Old Hall’ (see above) takes its name from a pre-1800 mansion that is said to have stood on or close to this site. It is possible that this older house may equate to either the ‘castle’ built by Edward Trevor in 1611-12, or that (presumably earlier), said to have belonged to Rory Magennis, that stood ‘near the centre of the town between the main street and the shore’.

The south-eastern corner of Mary Street is shown developed on a 1767 estate map, with buildings at the opposite junction with present Green Park Road and several more scattered structures along the southern side of the street depicted on James Williamson’s map of 1810 and on the OS map of 1834. The extent of development did not expand much beyond this until the 1960s, when the housing schemes to the north were created with the equally large schemes to the south following around the turn of the 21st century. Long before this, in 1877, what is now Shore Road was cut to the south of Mary Street in order to carry the Warrenpoint and Rostrevor Tramline. This horse-drawn service ran approximately three miles from Warrenpoint railway station to Rostrevor Quay. It was operated from July 1877 until January 1915, when a combination of falling revenue and damage sustained in a recent storm lead to its closure.

References - Primary sources
1 HERoNI Map of County Down by James Kennedy, 1755
2 PRONI D671/M7/2 Map of Rostrevor and surrounding lands, 1767
3 ‘A Map of the County of Down…by James Williamson, (1810)
4 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834
5 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36)
6 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1860
7 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
8 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
9 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie [Accessed 12.08.2020]
10 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1902
11 12 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
12 PRONI VAL3C/4/23, 1936-57
13 13 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
14 PRONI VAL4B/3/81, 1956-72
15 OS map, sheet 277, 1979

Secondary sources
16 McCutcheon, W.A, 'The industrial archaeology of Northern Ireland', (HMSO Belfast, 1980), p.163