28 Bridge St., Rostrevor, Co.Down

28 Bridge Street, Rostrevor

This Grade B listed building is a two-storey house with shop, located within Rostrevor Conservation Area in County Down. The site first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834.

Historical Development

According to the valuation book of 1835-36, the property then comprised a 'not new' house measuring 24 feet by 21 feet by 15 feet high, occupied by Richard Reynolds, with a thatched outbuilding to the rear of 16 feet by 13½ feet by 6 feet. By 1838, Andrew Knight had become the occupier. The 1861 valuation records John Emerson, a shoemaker, as tenant, leasing from the representatives of Thomas Savage, with the building then measuring 8 yards by 7 yards by 2 storeys, and an outbuilding of 5½ by 3 by 1 storey.

Subsequent occupants included Daniel McNulty (from 1868), Anne Cole (1897), and John Cole (1900). The 1901 census describes the building as a '2nd class' dwelling and shop with six rooms in use, occupied by the 50-year-old pensioner John Cole, his wife Bridget, their six children, and a boarder. The shop operated as a grocery store. Daniel Cole is recorded as tenant in 1929 and remained in occupation until at least 1972.

Street Context

Bridge Street originated as part of the road from Kilkeel, connecting with routes to Rathfriland and Newry. Oliver Sloane's 1739 map of County Down shows Rostrevor's earliest settlement concentrated along the northeastern side of this road, suggesting this side of Bridge Street marks the village's original core. Building development on both sides is evident by 1767, and had reached its present extent by 1834. Known as 'Post Office Street' in the 1830s due to the presence of the post office, it became 'Old Post Office Street' by 1861, and was finally renamed 'Bridge Street' around 1894. The 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe the street as running 155 yards in a south-easterly direction from the main street to Rostrevor Bridge, varying in width from 95 feet at its broadest (northern and western end) to 25 feet at its narrowest section near the bridge, with two-storey houses in good order, all used for shops with furnished lodgings for visitors.