33 Main Street, Camlough, Newry, BT35 7JG

Numbers 31 and 33 Main Street, Camlough form a pair of low-set, two-storey terraced dwellings that bookend the left-hand side of a terrace lining the northwest side of Main Street, in the village of Camlough. The Camlough River flows in a southerly direction directly beyond the terrace, passing under Newtown Road. The buildings most likely pre-date the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834–5 and were built by local man John McParland around 1830. They appear in the Townland Valuation of 1836, at which time Number 33 was described as not yet finished and Number 31 was occupied by McParland himself.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The pair face southeast and abut a taller two-storey block to the right. The roof is natural slate with clay ridge tiles and cement coping, carried on two centrally ridge-mounted chimney stacks towards the right and a smooth rendered chimney on the left-hand gable. Cast-iron rainwater goods and concrete cills are present throughout. The left-hand gable is painted with long-and-short quoins, and a centrally positioned elliptically curved archway physically divides the two addresses at ground floor level; this archway has a painted quoin surround and is inset with full-height, vertically sheeted solid timber gates, providing vehicular access to the shared rear yard.

On the front elevation of Number 33, to the left of the central archway, there is a painted wooden six-panelled slim double door with a narrow fanlight above, and to the right of it a large mahogany-framed window with two top-hung opening lights. A smooth rendered painted plinth runs beneath. At first floor, a two-over-two timber painted sliding sash window is centred above the ground floor openings, and to the right of centre, immediately above the arch, is a one-over-two top-hung painted timber window.

Number 31, to the right, has two one-over-one painted sliding sash windows equally spaced on the elevation at first floor, replicated at ground floor, with the right-hand ground floor window reduced in size. To the right of that reduced window is a painted timber panelled door with a glazed light in its upper half.

The rear elevation is of rough rubble walling with the same roof form as the front. Both dwellings have single-storey rear extensions at the outer extremities of the properties. Number 31's rear return has two small top-hung uPVC windows in a painted masonry wall and a profiled metal roof. Number 33's rear wall is partly obscured by ivy growth, but a first-floor two-over-two painted sliding sash window is visible, along with a smaller one-over-one sliding sash at mid-level immediately to the right of the archway; the rear return has profiled roof sheeting, possibly asbestos. The southwest gable elevation is completely overgrown with ivy.

Walling materials are random rubblestone with rendered plasterwork. Windows are a mix of timber-framed and uPVC units. A historic photograph dating from around 1920–40 shows that there was formerly an additional entrance door to the right of the carriage archway, which has since been blocked up.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The village of Camlough began to develop in the late 18th century in conjunction with the linen industry, a patent being granted to the Earl of Charlemont in 1830 for a market to be held on the third Monday of each month. In the late 1830s the Ordnance Survey memoirs describe the hamlet of Camlough as having sixteen two-storey slated houses.

The Townland Valuation of 1836 records both dwellings with dimensions. Number 31 measured 23½ feet in width, including a room over the carriage entrance of 7 feet, plus a single-storey rear extension. It was given the quality mark 1A–, indicating a slated building of ordinary finish. The dwelling was let to a tenant named E. Nugent and valued at £6 4s. Number 33 was a smaller dwelling of 21 feet in width, below the £3 valuation threshold. Its occupier was recorded as Peter Haughey, with a note that the house and yard were not yet finished, though Haughey had been living there for two years. Its quality mark of 1B+ was slightly lower than its neighbour's, reflecting the unfinished state, but still signified a building in sound order and good repair. The buildings were originally divided into three houses, two of the parlour type.

In 1853 the McParland family sold the property to Hugh Cosgrove, a local publican occupying a neighbouring house, who purchased it by means of a mortgage. His neighbour Michael Murphy also ran a pub, leased his house from Cosgrove, and appears to have been a colleague in the licensed trade.

Griffith's Valuation of 1862 records Number 31 as occupied by William Dougherty, with the house, outbuildings, yard and small garden valued at £7; Dougherty paid a rent of £10 yearly. Number 33 was occupied by John Hunter, valued at £2 15s, with an annual rent of £3 17s. Both were tenants at will, leasing from Hugh Cosgrove. Dimensions given are broadly consistent with those in the 1836 Townland Valuation.

Hugh Cosgrove died in 1870, leaving both dwellings and other property to his brother Henry Cosgrove. Henry died intestate in 1878 and his property passed to his widow, Sarah Anne Cosgrove, from whom he had been separated for approximately twenty years. Sarah Anne had supported herself through employment at Bessbrook Mills but had entered the Newry workhouse shortly before her husband died; Henry had been compelled by the Guardians to maintain her so that she could leave. Henry's title to the property appears to have been uncertain, perhaps owing to the mortgage held by his brother. A subsequent dispute between Sarah Anne Cosgrove and Michael Murphy over possession of part of Henry's former property ended up in the courts and was reported in the newspapers.

A forge was added to the valuation of Number 31 at some point between 1866 and 1879, and a large outbuilding is shown to the rear of the dwellings on both the first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps, which may have been the forge's location. The forge was short-lived and was struck out of the valuation records in 1883. The outbuilding had gone by the time of the third edition map of 1906.

Michael Murphy, formerly Hugh and Henry Cosgrove's neighbour, began leasing the smaller house, Number 33, from Sarah Anne Cosgrove in 1879, perhaps as a result of settling the property dispute between them. The larger house, Number 31, was leased by Mark Toal and others from 1871 and was split into two separate dwellings valued at £2 and £2 15s in 1883, with a succession of tenants through the 1880s and 1890s.

In 1890 the three dwellings passed from the Cosgrove family to Thomas Rafferty, who had become the publican occupying the two neighbouring houses in 1880. Rafferty purchased the properties for £700 in 1889, but legal disputes followed when Sarah Anne Cosgrove and her son refused to recognise his title, forcing him to seek a court decree for possession. In 1899 the houses were bought by James McKnight, finally severing the connection between the dwellings and the neighbouring public house, which thereafter passed into separate ownership.

The 1901 census records Number 33 as occupied by Mary Ann Murphy, aged 49, an Irish speaker, living with her sons Charles (24) and Michael (14), both described as victuallers, and her daughter Rose, who was at school. This suggests Number 33 was operating as a grocery shop at that time, which is confirmed by a historic photograph showing it as a shop in the early to mid-20th century, though the change of use was not recorded in valuation records until considerably later. Number 31, divided into two dwellings, was occupied by Catherine Turley, a 60-year-old widow, living with her son (a flax dresser) and two daughters (a winder in a linen mill and a linen weaver); the Turleys were most likely employed at the nearby flax mill run by the Doyle family and leased from the Richardsons of Bessbrook, and/or at the much larger mill at Bessbrook, one and a half miles away. The other household in Number 31 comprised James Henry, an agricultural labourer from County Armagh, his wife, and three young sons, two of whom had been born in Scotland. A newspaper report from 1904 relates how Catherine Turley and Mrs Henry kept hens in the rear yard, which was held in common between the three houses; a bailiff attempting to seize the hens in settlement of a debt assaulted Catherine, and she successfully claimed compensation against him in the magistrates' court.

The 1906 Ordnance Survey map shows a long extension to the rear of Number 31, aligned with the northeast plot boundary, which is still present on the site and may have been added around 1880, at the time the forge was removed and Number 31 was divided into two separate dwellings.

In the 1911 census the Turleys and Henrys continued in residence at Number 31, the building return recording that their houses each comprised three rooms. The Turleys had by then lost their employment as linen workers; Michael Turley was employed as a farm labourer and his sister was unemployed. Number 33 was occupied by Minnie (also known as Mary) Smyth and her niece Rose McKeown, who ran the shop within the five-room house. Sanitary improvements to the dwellings of Mrs Turley and Minnie Smith were recommended by Newry No. 2 Rural District Council in 1912.

THE CAMLOUGH BURNINGS, 1920

In December 1920 the dwellings became central to an incident known as the Camlough Burnings, or Black December (Nollaig Dhubh), during the Irish War of Independence. On the night of 12th–13th December 1920, the Newry Brigade of the IRA attempted to set fire to the RIC barracks at Camlough, which lay directly beside the current dwellings. The garrison set off flares to summon assistance, and a rescue party of military and police sent from Newry was ambushed at the Egyptian Arch with loss of life. On arriving in Camlough, the military and police set fire to several buildings, including the Sinn Féin Hall and various shops and licensed premises. In January 1921, claims totalling £40,656 were lodged at the Ballybot Quarter Sessions, including a claim of £2,000 by landlord James McKnight for the destruction by fire of Number 33 (occupied by Mary Smyth) and the partial destruction of Number 31 (occupied by Michael Turley). Michael Turley also claimed £164 2s for destroyed furniture, two goats, and one dozen hens. Michael Smyth (Mary Smyth's brother) claimed £1,000 for destroyed groceries, stock-in-trade, household furniture, effects, and fittings.

At the subsequent hearing, Mary Smyth testified that she carried on a restaurant and grocery business assisted by her niece, and that a few hours after the barracks had been attacked, the military visited and smashed all in the shop and kitchen, followed by a visit from the Special Constabulary who presented revolvers and rifles at them. The house was doused in petrol and set on fire. The military and Special Constabulary accused Smyth of having the side wall of the house loopholed to enable firing on the barracks, and a sergeant stated that bombs were thrown at the barracks from the rear of Smyth's and Turley's houses. A statement by Jack McElhaw, an IRA man involved in the attack, reproduced in a pamphlet commemorating Black December 1920, confirms that a small number of IRA men were positioned along the side of the barracks, behind the cover of a low wall, possibly in the garden of Number 33. McElhaw notes that Smyth's house was burned by the military as a military necessity, while other buildings in Camlough were destroyed as reprisals.

McKnight and Smyth pursued their compensation claims against Armagh County Council for over a year, ultimately reaching the highest court in Ireland. The County Court had initially decreed in their favour. That judgment was reversed at the spring assizes in Armagh, but the original County Court judgment was reaffirmed at the Southern Court of Appeal. The case then proceeded to the High Court of Appeal at the Four Courts in Dublin. The Lord Chancellor gave his opinion that peace officers were bound to suppress breaches of the peace and were justified in causing any damage necessary for that purpose; as the injury to the applicants was deemed not criminal in nature they were not entitled to compensation, and their appeal failed with costs awarded against them.

LATER HISTORY AND ALTERATIONS

Number 33 was designated a ruin in 1922. In 1929 the shop and house at Number 33 was taken over by Bernard McConnon and the valuation was raised to £8, suggesting the house was rebuilt at that time. In the 1933 revaluation the dwelling was recorded as comprising a shop selling sweets and the like, a kitchen, scullery, and three bedrooms. There was no separate access to the shop, making it necessary to pass through it to reach the living accommodation. A plan and dimensions show the shop and house extending over the carriage entrance, with a small rear extension roofed in corrugated iron. One of the slated rubble masonry outbuildings to the rear of the neighbouring Number 31 actually belonged to Number 33. There was also an earth closet of corrugated iron at the end of the rear yard.

In 1935 the landlord Mary McKnight unsuccessfully appealed the valuation of the three houses, stating that Number 33 had been rebuilt and was the same size as before the burning, when the valuation had been lower. The house was described at that time as a terraced parlour house in good order, with cement and tiled floors, boarded ceilings, and a stove in the kitchen. The comfortable sitting room had been converted to a small shop and was in fairly new condition and finish, having been rebuilt in 1926. Number 31 was described in the same revaluation as still divided into two dwellings: the left-hand dwelling comprising a reception, kitchen, scullery, and two bedrooms, of fairly good repair and finish, built of rubble masonry, concrete, and slate, described as a good terraced kitchen house with a tiled kitchen with stove, boarded ceilings, and a small reception with boarded floor and no grate. The right-hand house comprised a kitchen, scullery, and two bedrooms, assessed as similar to its neighbour but smaller, though of a rather better finish.

The Turley family, resident in Number 31 for approximately three decades, had their tenancy end under difficult circumstances when the landlord Mary McKnight issued a summons for possession after they fell into arrears in 1931; Michael Turley had built up arrears of £8 5s 6d at 3s a week rent, a decree for possession was issued, and they appear to have been evicted. Number 31 was subsequently let to Thomas Rooney and then Margaret Brannigan. The landlord of all three properties was Margaret Sebranek from around 1950.

Large-scale maps show that between 1956 and 1971 a large extension was added to the rear of Number 33, and that further extensions have been added to both dwellings since the 1970s. The police barracks formerly located to the west of the dwellings became a youth hostel between 1956 and 1971 and has since been demolished.

SETTING

The dwellings are located on the northwest side of Main Street and form the end of the meandering terrace of buildings that defines Main Street, Camlough.