29 Bridge Street

Exterior description and setting

Plain, formal two-storey end of terrace house and shop, built in 1897. The ‘shop’ section has been converted to a public house (now is integrated with nos.31-35 Bridge St.)

SETTING Village location, on the SW side of Bridge Street in the centre of Rostrevor.

GENERAL The building consists of the main front two-storey block with a pair of gabled rear returns, that to the SE (at back of what was the shop) much longer than its neighbour to the rear of the house section. Behind the shorter return is a small garden, with a tall retaining wall against the higher ground to the NW and SW.

FRONT (NE) ELEVATION House entrance to right of centre with original panelled timber door and overlight. Standard ratio window to far right with 2/2 timber sash frame now with plywood insert and painted stone cill. To the left of the house entrance is the shopfront, which has been refurbished in a traditional manner. To the first floor are four evenly-spaced windows as right on ground level. Noticeably tall area of walling above upper floor windows denoting substantial attic level. The front is finished in painted lined render with plain plinth, raised ‘in-out’ quoins (right / NW end only), and a moulded eaves above a plain frieze.

NW ELEVATION Gable of main block is finished as front and devoid of openings. The NW sides of the rear returns could not be observed.

OTHER ELEVATIONS The other elevations could not be observed. The long SE return is abutted a ground level by a flat-roofed addition to the rear of neighbouring no.31-35 (which along with no.29 is now one property), and a taller structure to the SW end. The exposed upper level of the return is finished in cement render and has a five squarish windows of slightly varying size, all with relatively recent multi-pane timber frames.

ROOF etc The gabled roof of the main block is slated with two large Velux type skylights to the front and three part rendered, part brick, chimneystacks. Metal RW goods to front.

Historical information

The map that accompanies the first valuation book of 1835-36 indicates that only the north-westerly half of the present plot was developed at that date, the book itself noting that this was occupied by a small dwelling in the hands of John Goodwin which was composed of a section measuring 8ft x 20 x 13 and another of 11 x 20 x 6. By the time of the second valuation of 1861, two 2-storey houses occupied the whole plot, that to the north-western side vacant and ‘dilapidated’, with its neighbour a ‘lodge [ie lodging] house’ leased by John Feenan, the pair rated at the modest sums of £1-10-0 and £3-10-0 respectively.

The north-western property was refurbished in c.1863, and subsequently leased to Bryan Roney. It is recorded as ‘down’ (i.e. demolished) in 1882 and its plot subsumed by that to the immediate west (current no.27.) In or shortly prior to 1897 the whole concern (including no.27) was acquired by Catherine Crawford and the present block constructed, with the house section - which included ‘rooms over [she] shop’ – initially rated at a respectable £19 and the ‘shop and room’ at £12. Catherine, whose family had held the next-door public house (today’s no.31-35) for some years prior to this, ran the new shop – a hardware store - herself, whilst the new dwelling was leased to Ellen Taylor from c.1900, and who in the 1901 census appears to have been running it as a boarding house.

Catherine Crawford retired c.1907 and both the new house and shop passed to her youngest son, Edward Crawford. Brigid Crawford is recorded as the occupier in 1950, and Acquin (or Aquin?) Crawford in 1966. The family retained no.29 up until at least the early 1980s.

The property is believed to have changed ownership since then, with the shop converted to become part of the neighbouring ‘Rostrevor Inn’ in more recent years.

BRIDGE STREET In origin, Bridge Street was part of the road from Kilkeel, connecting the latter with the original roads to Rathfriland (present Greenpark Road) and to Newry (a route which appears to have followed present Warrenpoint Road before heading inland along today’s Rath, Donaghguy and Greenan Roads). Oliver Sloane’s County Down map of 1739 shows the settlement of Rostrevor comprising solely of buildings along the northeastern side of the road, suggesting that this side of of Bridge Street may well mark the earliest part of the village. Development on both sides of the street is shown on an estate map of 1767 and Williamson’s 1810 county map, and this had reached its present extent by the time the 1834 first edition OS map. Known in the 1830s as ‘Post Office Street’, owing to the presence of that establishment, this title had been modified to ‘Old Post Office Street’ by 1861, and finally in c.1894, to ‘Bridge Street.’ The 1836 OS Memoirs describe the street as ‘leading from the centre of the main street in a south easterly direction to the bridge of Rostrevor…155 yards long, 95 feet broad at its broadest or north and western end and 25 feet at its narrowest part next [to] the bridge. The houses are of 2-storeys, in good order, all used for shops and having furnished lodgings for the accommodation of strangers.’

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, Down sheet 54, 1834, 1902, 1919, 1950
6 PRONI VAL1B/361 First valuation, Kilbroney parish - 1835-36
7 Day, Angelique and McWilliams, Patrick ed. ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…vol.3’ (QUB, 1990), p.35 - 1835-36
8 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C Second valuation, Kilbroney parish - 1861
9 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F Annual valuation revision books, Rostrevor ED - 1865-1929
10 Census of Ireland - 1901, 1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie, accessed 2023.04.27]
11 ‘Newry Reporter’- 11 September 1913, p.10
12 PRONI VAL3C/4/23 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Rostrevor ED - 1936-57
13 PRONI VAL4B/3/81 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Rostrevor ED - 1956-72

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Plain, formal two-storey end of terrace house and shop built in 1897. Rendered front and gable with rear return in line with gable with pitched natural slated roof over main building and rear return. Replacement brick stack to ridge of main block. Two no 2/2 double hung painted timber sliding sash windows at first floor with plywood insert to ground floor window. The front is finished in painted lined render with plain plinth, raised ‘in-out’ quoins (right / NW end only), and a moulded eaves above a plain frieze. Rainwater goods replaced. Large development undertaken affecting the fine grain of nos 31-35 Bridge Street with the development surrounding the building to the rear. The building does not meet the legislative threshold for consideration for listing.The building is located within the boundaries of Rostrevor Conservation Area.