8 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’) leased by the Ross estate to Rev Benjamin Jacob, then curate of the parish of Kilbroney, and measuring 39½ft x 27 x 20, with a return (along present Greenpark Road) of 8 x 20½ x 20, a full area 7ft high basement (a quarter of which was used as a store), and an outbuilding of 26 x 17½ x 14½ which stood a distance to the west. Minus the return and the outbuilding, would appear to be the same house we see today. It is possible that the house is part of the development shown along this part of Mary Street on James Williamson's 1810 county map.

In the 1861 valuation approximately the same measurements are recorded - 13yds x 10 x 2½[storeys] with ‘good basement storey’. By this date the property was in the hands of Hannah Maria Spencer. A Mrs. Hamilton was the next tenant, in 1866, followed by Mary Grace Emerson in 1871, who appears to have been the wife of Thomas Emerson, who at this point held the two neighbouring properties (present nos.4 and 6 Mary Street.) The house is recorded as vacant in 1888 with Mary Kielty listed as the tenant in 1892. In the 1901 census, Mrs Kielty, a 57yr-old widow, was occupying the building with her unmarried daughter, a domestic servant as well as six ‘visitors’ (i.e. temporary residents), suggesting that at that point the property was acting as a lodging house. By 1911 Mr. and Mrs. John Elliott had become the tenants, followed by Sarah Ryan in 1920, Mathilda Roachford in 1922, Emily Mason in 1924, Grace Walker in 1929, James F. Sherwood by 1936, Charles Hanlon in 1953, Jonathan McCloy in 1956, Laura Evans in 1963 and Margaret Mayston from 1969 until at least 1972.

The rear return appears to have been converted to separate properties some time before 1979, and replaced with the present terrace to this side (nos.1-6 Greenpark Road) in c.2000.

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 HB16.06.055A) 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