OLD HALL

The Department's description

Historical information

Old Hall is believed to be the ‘lodge’ mentioned in ‘The Newry Register’ of May-June 1815, that had been ‘lately fitted up in a very handsome style’ by Smithson Corry. Thus it is likely to have been built shortly before this date, and may be one of the two buildings shown fronting on to the road in this vicinity on James Williamson’s county map of 1810.

The name is thought to derive from an earlier residence that stood on or close to this site, but little is known of this. A castle belonging to Rory Magennis, Lord of Iveagh, is said to have stood ‘near the centre of the town between the main street and the shore’, and a large house is shown in the vicinity on a county map of 1755, but whether there is any correlation between these buildings and the original ‘Old Hall’ is uncertain.

The builder, Smithson Corry (1780-1856), was the son of Isaac Corry (c.1723-1809) of Abbey Yard, Newry, and as such a member of the prominent merchant family of that town. He is noted as the occupant in the 1835-36 valuation, with the house itself recorded as a ‘new’ building measuring 47½ft x 22 x 18, with a porch (i.e. the entrance bay) of 8 x 5 x 18, ‘wing’ of 18½ x 23 x 20, returns measuring 9½ x 14 x 9, 9½ x 13½ x 18 and 36½ x 17 x 18, a ‘scullery office’ of 13 x 8 x 6, other ‘offices’ (i.e. outbuildings) of 59 x 18 x 8, 28 x 13 x 7 and 11 x 9 x 7, a gate lodge of 21 x 12 x 7½ with return of 13 x 6 x 5; there was also another ‘office on the opposite side of road’ amounting to 24 x 14 x 6. The gate lodge stood to the west of the house, and to the south and west was a large garden with an even larger garden opposite this on the north side of the road, whilst where the former bordered on the shore of Carlingford Lough what may have been a wall or a ditch is marked on the 1834 OS map, with a small building (possibly a belvedere, or a summer house) at its southern end. Abutting the house to the east side both then and now was a separate residence (the present 12 Warrenpoint Road - see HB16.06.055B). The continuity of the roofline and eaves detailing between both properties suggests they were built at the same time.

Smithson Corry’s widow, Jane Adelaide Corry [nee Douglas] is listed as the occupant in the 1861 valuation, with the property described as ‘a very commodious house’ which ‘looks into very beautiful grounds, [and] also [a] fine view of hills and sea’. The building is noted as consisting of portions measuring 12yds x 6yds 2ft X 2[storeys], 6 x 7 x 2, 9 x 7½ x 2, 3 x 5 x 2, 3 x 3 x 2, 4½ x 6yds 2ft X 1, 4 x 4 x 2 (‘conservatory’) and 12 x 6 x 2 (‘return’), an ‘office, partly finished as house’ 12 x 6 x 2, another office of 8 x 5 x 1 and an additional conservatory of 13 x 5 x 1.

Mrs Corry died c.1881 and Mary Jane Vandeleur (most likely a relative of Ormsby Vandeleur of nearby Drumsesk House - see HB16.06.057) is recorded as the occupant in 1884. The details of the household or not recorded in the 1901 census, but in that of 1911, Miss Vandeleur, a 68yr-old spinster from Co. Dublin, was living here alone save for two domestic servants, whilst the house itself is noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 13 rooms in use.

Miss Vandeleur died c.1926 and the house passed to Cecil E. Vandeleur. He appears to have acquired the freehold from the Ross estate and in March 1937 put the house up for sale, the newspaper notice describing the ‘exceptionally charming old residence…which generous expenditure and refined taste has made one of the most attractive houses in the district’ as containing a drawing room, dining room, library, conservatory, 9 bedrooms, bathroom, lavatories, kitchen, pantries, china and glass storeroom, maids’ sitting room, servants’ bathroom and lavatory and chauffeur’s room, whilst in the outbuildings was a garage and stables and lavatories fitted with electricity and all other modern convenience.’

By at least June 1942 a Miss Anne Edith Yorke Hewson was living there, remaining until her death in March 1955. Both Old Hall and ‘Oak Cottage’, a small house built in within the grounds in 1897, were advertised for sale later that year. It appears to have been following this that the house was divided into two properties, for John James Patterson and Gerald Sydney McVittie (d.1962) and his wife and Dorothy
are all noted as being of ‘Old Hall House’ in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. The OS map of 1979 suggests it contained three properties by this date, one located in a now demolished section of the rear return.

Old Hall was listed in 1981. In c.1990s the garden to the grounds to the south and west were developed for housing.

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 ‘The Newry Magazine or literary & political register for 1815’, (Newry, 1815)
4 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834
5 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36)
6 Greer, E., ‘Picturesque handbook to Carlingford Bay’, (Dublin, 1846)
7 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1860
8 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
9 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
10 Census of Ireland, 1911 - online [Accessed 13.09.2021]
11 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1902
12 12 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
13 PRONI VAL3C/4/23 (1936-57)
14 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 27 March 1937, p.1; 23 June 1962, p.2; 18 July 1963, p.7; 7 January 1970, p.2
15 13 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
16 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 30 May 1955, p.1; 6 June 1955, p.1; 5 November 1955, p.3
17 PRONI VAL4B/3/81 (1956-72)
18 OS map, sheet 277, 1979

Secondary sources
19 ‘Archaeological survey of County Down’, (HMSO, Belfast, 1966), p.263
20 McCutcheon, W.A, 'The industrial archaeology of Northern Ireland', (HMSO Belfast, 1980), p.163