6 Bridge St., Rostrevor, Co.Down

6 Bridge Street, Rostrevor, County Down

This building is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 as an established structure. According to the 1835–36 valuation, it was then a dwelling measuring 15 feet by 20 feet by 17 feet, occupied by Eleanor Nolan. The valuers classified it as 'not new', indicating they believed it to be over 25 years old at that point. By 1861, the building was recorded as a private house with 'bad inside finish', measuring 5 feet by 6 feet by 2 feet, and occupied by Margaret Burns. Subsequent occupants included Miss Brennan (1866), John McAnulty (1875), Ellen McQuade (1877), Mary McCreash (1888), and William Kaye (1889).

The property's use changed by 1901, when it was recorded as a shop. The 1901 census indicates that William Kaye, a 59-year-old grocer, lived at no. 8 with his wife Jane and two teenage children. By 1909, William Kaye had relocated to no. 6 from no. 8, now working as a gardener and sharing the property with two adult children, a son-in-law, and five grandchildren. William Kaye appears to have died around 1917, and his son-in-law John White is recorded as householder in 1923. The White family were succeeded by Catherine Farrell in 1956, who remained in occupation until at least 1972. Numbers 6 and 8 Bridge Street were surveyed as separate properties during the First Survey of Historic Buildings in December 1969 and were both listed individually in September 1981. They were subsequently amalgamated sometime between 1981 and 1994.

Bridge Street itself originated as part of the road from Kilkeel, connecting to the original routes towards Rathfriland (now Greenpark Road) and Newry, a route that appears to have followed present Warrenpoint Road before heading inland. Oliver Sloane's County Down map of 1739 shows Rostrevor comprising solely of buildings along the northeastern side of the road, suggesting this may mark the village's earliest developed area. By an estate map of 1767 and Williamson's 1810 county map, development extended to both sides of the street, reaching its present extent by the 1834 Ordnance Survey map. Known in the 1830s as 'Post Office Street', the name was modified to 'Old Post Office Street' by 1861 and finally to 'Bridge Street' around 1894. The 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe the street as running from the centre of the main street in a southeasterly direction towards the bridge of Rostrevor, 155 yards long, 95 feet broad at its broadest northwestern end and 25 feet at its narrowest part near the bridge, lined with two-storey houses in good order used for shops with furnished lodgings for visitors.

The building is situated within a conservation area.