34 Bridge St., Rostrevor, Co.Down

34 Bridge Street, Rostrevor, County Down is a Grade B listed building situated within a conservation area. The site appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834. According to the valuation book of 1835, the plot was occupied by a house measuring 27 feet by 21 feet by 14½ feet, at that time described as 'not new', which it shared with the present number 32. The house was then occupied by John Dunn, a tailor.

By 1861, the plot had been subdivided. The dwelling on this site measured 4½ yards by 7 yards and stood two storeys high, occupied by Owen Ward with Bernard Feran as the immediate lessor, who held the property from the Ross estate. A Miss Feran is recorded as the occupant in 1867.

In 1874, the rateable value of this house and three similar dwellings immediately to the northwest and southeast (numbers 30-32 and 36) rose from £3-10-0 and £3-0-0 to £5-15-0, indicating that all four properties were either substantially refurbished or rebuilt at this time. The overall uniformity of the properties and details such as the bevelled window reveals suggest they were rebuilt, although there is no annotation on the contemporary valuation town plan of Rostrevor to indicate wholesale rebuilding. The new or largely rebuilt house was first leased to Mary Fearn, followed in 1883 by Samuel Owens, with Mary Fearn returning as tenant the following year. In the 1901 census, Miss Fearon, aged 73, is recorded as a housekeeper, with the building described as a 'second class' dwelling with four rooms in use.

Subsequent occupants included Edward and Elizabeth Fearon in 1915, Bessie Fearon in 1916, William Blackmore in 1920, and Patrick Connolly in 1921. Joseph Parr is recorded as resident in 1941, P. Campbell in 1956, and Robert Scott from 1963 until at least 1972.

Bridge Street itself originated as part of the road from Kilkeel, connecting with the original roads to Rathfriland (present Greenpark Road) and 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 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, reaching its present extent by the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834.

Known in the 1830s as Post Office Street owing to the presence of that establishment, the title had been modified to Old Post Office Street by 1861 and finally around 1894 to Bridge Street. The 1836 Ordnance Survey 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.'