TREVOR LODGE

The Department's description

Historical information

A house of similar plan to the present is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834 attached to ‘Old Hall’ - the present 16 Warrenpoint Road (see HB16.06.055A). Old Hall itself is believed to have been built shortly before 1815, and as No.12 share shares the same roofline and eaves detailing, it is quite possible that they are contemporaries.

In the first valuation of 1835-36 No.12 is noted as a ‘new’ house measuring 40ft x 30 x 18, with a return of 15 x 7 x 13, ‘offices’ (i.e. outbuildings) of 20 x 8½ x 5½ and 57½ x 17 x 12, along with a ‘good yard’ and enclosed garden of 44yds x 14, but - as it faced directly on to the road - ‘no front lawn’. The occupant at this time was Wheeler Barrington Esq., a local magistrate, and it is undoubtedly ‘that commodious house adjoining Mr. S. Corry’s which is well adapted for a respectable family, having nine rooms with excellent offices and a walled-in garden, planted with a quantity of healthy fruit trees etc in full bearing’, which Barrington put up for let in June 1835.

Wheeler Barrington, (who may have been a distant relative of his Old Hall neighbours, the Corry’s), died in January 1837. His entire estate was left to his three grandchildren, (who were all at that point minors), but became the subject of a protracted legal dispute in the Court of Chancery which seems to have lasted until 1844-45 and ended up with this house being put up for sale in January 1846. The sale advertisement describes the property as ‘a capital dwelling house, two stories high, with an excellent coach house and stabling, back-yard and garden…[which would] make a delightful residence for any respectable family.’

It is not clear who acquired the building as a result of this sale, but in the 1861 valuation field book, it is noted as being occupied by Thomas Evans with Mary Souter named as the immediate lessor. The dimensions are roughly similar to those recorded in the previous valuation with the house consisting of two piles of 13yds 1ft 6yds 1ft x 2[storeys] and 10 x 3? x 2 [these dimensions had been combined in 1835-36], the return amounting to 6 x 5 x 2, but with only one office noted, measuring 19½ x 6 x 2. The valuers remark that the house had ‘two neat low windows’, clearly a reference to the front bays, and that the property was ‘let furnished to lodgers’.

By 1863 Mary Souter is named as resident and Rev. James Anderson the lessor. From 1869 the outbuilding (or possibly only part of it) was rented out as a ‘workshop’ with James [?Dunnon] noted as the tenant, renting initially from Daniel McCormick, whilst in the following year George Copeland is listed as leasing the main house from David Martin, with Elizabeth Olive succeeding Mr. Copeland in 1875, who in turn was followed by William J. Black in 1878 and Thomas Seaton in 1880, with seaton also holding the workshop. William Henry became lessor in 1886 and rented the entire property to Elizabeth [?Caw] in the same year, followed by Jesse Whitby in 1892, James Roberts in 1894, William Henry Lemon in 1896. In the 1901 census Mr. Lemon, a 38yr old native of Dublin, is recorded as living here with his US-born wife, Dora, their five young children and a domestic servant, with the house itself noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 15 rooms in use. Elizabeth Oswald followed the Lemon family in 1908, to be followed in turn by Susan Warnock in 1912, and Sarah M. Henry in 1922.

At some point in the early 1930s the property took on the name ‘Trevor Lodge’, possibly bestowed by Hugh and Margaret Hegan who lived here from at least 1934 until c.1943. A Mr and Mrs A.W. Ball appear to have succeeded the Hegan’s c.1945 and a Mr and Mrs. T.I. McCullagh (or McCullough) were living there from c.1950 until at least 1961 and who appear to have run the property as a guest house for at least part of this time.

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)
5 ‘Belfast Commercial Chronicle’, 11 November 1826, p.2; 22 March 1838, p.2
6 ‘Newry Telegraph’, 25 September 1829, p.2; 23 June 1835; 29 April 1841, p.2; 10 January 1846, p.3; 11 April 1846, p.3
7 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834
8 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36)
9 Greer, E., ‘Picturesque handbook to Carlingford Bay’, (Dublin, 1846)
10 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1860
11 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
12 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
14 Census of Ireland, 1901 - online [Accessed 23.09.2021]
15 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1902
16 12 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
17 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 18 August 1934, p.1; 1 April 1960, p
18 PRONI VAL3C/4/23, 1936-57
19 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 12 January 1943, p.1; 3 August 1945, p.3; 27 November 1950, p.2
20 13 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
21 PRONI VAL4B/3/81, 1956-72
22 OS map, sheet 277, 1979

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