Church Street, Main Street & The Square

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Greyabbey is a small village of medieval origin, now composed of mainly 19th and 20th century buildings, but with the extensive ruins of the 13th century abbey close by.

Church Street is situated at the NE edge of the village of Greyabbey. Its eastern limit is less than a mile NE of the village and is, at this point, almost entirely rural in character. Heading westwards towards the village, it runs parallel to the boundary of the Rosemount estate, past St. Saviour’s Parish Church and the Grey Abbey into the more ‘urban’ surroundings of the village proper. On the NE side of the street within Greyabbey there is a mixture of one and two storey dwelling houses of probable early nineteenth century origin, with the SW side consisting of a row of neat rubble built single storey dwellings, dating probably from c.1830s. The end house of this terrace (at the intersection with Main Street) is currently being rebuilt and extended at the rear.

Main Street and The Square are (as their names suggest) the hub of Greyabbey village. Main Street is long and runs NE to SW, from the intersection of North Street and Church Street in the NE to The Square at the SW, near the coastline of Strangford Lough. The houses at the SW end are late eighteenth/early nineteenth century, mainly two storey dwellings, whilst many of those to the NE are modern. The oldest buildings within the village proper, however, may be Nos.1 & 2(A-B) The Square, a large section of which dates from c.1730. Generally the buildings within the SW end of Main Street and The Square are well preserved whilst what original buildings remain towards the opposite end have been either abandoned, neglected, or altered.

Historical information

Church Street is indicated on Taylor’s and Skinner’s map of 1777, with buildings also indicated on either side. It is also shown on the OS Map of 1834, but as the road enters the village it appears that some of the single storey dwellings on the SW side have not been built yet. The OS Memoirs (compiled c.1835) do not comment directly on Church Street, but mention that ‘the road from Donaghadee [the present North Street to the NW of Church Street] has been improved lately by building a neat row of ground floor houses on either side [of] the street...built of stone’.

Main Street and The Square The Square and the SW end of Main Street are built on land reclaimed from Strangford Lough in the early eighteenth century and once lay directly on the side of an older, straighter, road from Newtownards, to the NW of the Rosemount estate. In c.1730 a large inn was built alongside the road, much of which still survives as the present Nos.1, 2A and 2B The Square. In c.1744 Walter Harris described this part of the village as ‘intirely regular’ with ‘handsome brick houses covered in slates, for the habitation of manufacturers’. Harris also refers to ‘the two other streets of this village now carried strait, and decent houses built for the inhabitants’ which may be a reference to the NE half of Main Street and/or North Street and Church Street. Taylor’s and Skinner’s 1777 map indicates buildings on the NW and SE sides of The Square/Main Street. The OS Map of 1834 shows that by this time NE side of Main Street was almost completely developed, with the road to Newtownards re-orientated slightly further to the N (where it remains today), however, the SE side of the street had much fewer buildings. The OS Memoirs record that at this time the village was neither lighted nor paved and had ‘138 1-storey houses, all slated, 27 2-storey houses, slated’. Later photographic evidence suggests that most of the single storey dwellings were situated within North Street, Church Street and the SE end of Main Street, with many of the larger houses further to the western side of the village.

References- Primary sources
1 Walter Harris, 'The Ancient and Present State of the County of Down', (Dublin, 1744) p.49
2 'Taylor’s and Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland' (Dublin 1777), map 10
3 W. Wilson, 'The Post Chaise Companion or Traveller’s Directory through Ireland', (Dublin, 1786)
4 PRONI OS/6/3/11/1 OS maps, Down 11, 1834 [The route of the original road to the south of Greyabbey is marked on the 1834 map.]
5 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), pp.67-72
6 PRONI VAL/1B/33 1st valuation, Greyabbey, c.1834-38
7 PRONI VAL/1D/3/17 Valuation plan, Greyabbey, c.1838
8 PRONI VAL/2B/3/4 Second valuation, Greyabbey, c.1859
9 PRONI VAL/2D/3/10 Second valuation plan, Greyabbey, 1859
10 PRONI OS/6/3/11/2 OS maps, Down 11, 1860
11 PRONI VAL/12B/23/16a-f Annual valuation revision books, Greyabbey, 1866-1930
12 PRONI VAL/12E/99/1 Valuation plan, Greyabbey, 1906-35
13 UFTM W.A. Green Collection WAG 3038 Photograph of Main Street Greyabbey looking south west

Secondary sources
1 Bob Trayte, "The Greyabbey and village" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.16' (1992), pp.2-4.
[This article contains a photograph of North Street dating from c.1910, showing rows of single storey dwellings which have since been demolished.]
2 J.A.K. Dean, 'The Gate lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer' (Belfast, 1994), p.78. The entry concerning the early and later town gate lodges (off Main Street) at Rosemount implies that the re-orientation of the road to Newtownards may have taken place between c.1820 and c.1834.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Greyabbey is a small village of medieval origin, now composed of mainly 19th and 20th century buildings, but with the extensive ruins of a large 13th century abbey close by.

General comments

This record is an overview of Church Street, Main Street & The Square, Greyabbey. Most of the buildings mentioned are recorded separately elsewhere in the records for this ward.