Former Market House, Church Square, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5PT

Former Market House, Church Square, Rathfriland

An important focal point in Rathfriland, this 18th-century market house is the centrepiece of Church Square and has great presence in the townscape. It has been sympathetically altered in the 1950s to extend its useful life, and is of great local historical importance.

The building is a two-storey 18th-century market house with post-World War II extensions to each gable, constructed sympathetically to complement the original building. It is aligned north-south in the centre of Church Square with the front elevation facing east. The main block has a pitched natural slate roof with granite ridge pieces and rendered skews. Cement dashed chimneys with projecting caps and no pots sit on each gable. Metal half-rounded gutters run along a granite ogee moulded eaves course with metal downpipes to the left of the façade. The walls have an irregular rendered base course and are cement wet dashed with exposed granite V-channelled stepped granite quoins.

The ground floor of the front elevation features three equally spaced semicircular headed archways, all dressed with stepped granite quoins and voussoirs. The left archway contains a modern painted plywood door with matching side panels and a security glazed three-paned transom above. The central archway is completely filled by a tongue-and-groove sheeted timber vehicle door. The right archway is infilled and dashed as the walls. The first floor has three equally spaced window openings aligned with the ground floor archways, all timber 8/8 margin paned sliding sashes with granite cills.

The south gable is abutted by a 1951 addition, which is slightly narrower and lower than the main block. This addition has a pitched natural slate roof with boxed eaves and soffit, and a rendered skew. The gutters match the main block. Details to openings, corners and reveals are executed in cement render rather than granite. The right cheek of this addition has an archway infilled and dashed, with a tongue-and-groove sheeted timber door to the centre. Centred above at first floor is a single window opening containing a pair of 1/1 margin paned sashes. The south gable has two infilled archways, each containing post-World War II metal windows of 3 by 4 panes, with two windows at first floor level. Set in the wall between them is a polished granite plaque depicting the Meade family crest, a two-headed eagle, flanked by the numerals 19 and 51, with initials J W M below. A metal weighbridge by Avery of Birmingham, England stands to the front of this gable.

The west elevation of the main block is identical in composition to the east elevation except that the left archway is infilled and dashed and contains an 8/8 margin paned sliding sash, the central coachway is filled by a painted tongue-and-groove sheeted vehicle door, and the right archway is infilled and dashed with a 2 by 3 paned post-war metal casement window. Three windows above match the east elevation.

The north gable is abutted by a 1951 addition. Its left cheek has an infilled arch to the ground floor and a window above. Its north gable has a single coachway to the ground floor centre, infilled with modern plywood doors with a security glazed transom over. There are three equally spaced window openings to the first floor, each containing a pair of 1/1 margin paned windows with concrete cills. A cast-iron downpipe and soil pipe abut to the left of the archway. Its right cheek has a blank infilled archway to the ground floor and an 8/8 window above. The left cheek of the southern addition forms part of the overall west elevation and has an infilled archway inset with a small post-World War II metal casement window of 2 by 3 panes with a concrete cill and a single window above to the first floor.

The pavement around the building is laid with small square concrete setts and large paving slabs with occasional modern black metal bollards and matching litter bins. Modern timber benches stand to the right and left archways on the west elevation of the main block.

The building was erected between 1764 and 1770, originally as accommodation for the buyers and sellers of linen, cloth and yarn, with the top floor used as an estate granary. In 1775 the roof was repaired by Mr Samuel Murphy for £5 19 shillings and 5½ pence. It is shown as a simple rectangle on the 1776 town plan. A meeting held here in 1798 called for troops "in view of the disturbed state of the district". The first floor was used as a Petty Sessions Court from the 19th century; the ground floor served as the market but incorporated a cell. An 1834 Ordnance Survey Memoir describes it as "a plain old market house in which once a month is held the manor court". From here the Meade family, local landowners, provided for the feeding of the starving during the potato famine in the 1840s. The building was extended to each end between 1949 and 1951 by Major Reside of Newry. The painted coat of arms was taken down from the court house in 1951, and the cell was removed. The building has been used from the late 1960s or early 1970s as a youth club.