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Jean Crozier's Bar has seen the Crozier family serve thirsty locals for several generations in their Water Street hostelry in Newry but this is all about to change with the sale of the pub.
The bar is being taken over by Martin Ward who will take control of the taps in the coming days, but apart from the change of owner it will be very much business as usual, with the venue remaining open and retaining the same atmosphere and look. Historically though it will be the last family home 'above the shop' in the street.
Daphne Lockhart took over as licensee of the bar in 2015 following the death of her mother Jean Crozier and has ran the bar ever since, with help from her sisters Pauline Moore and Sandra Crozier. The pub was originally bought by their grandparents Jim and Lily Wilson in March 1942 and has remained in the family this past 83 years.
The Wilson's both died in their 40's and daughter Jean ended up at 21 years of age without the two of them with the bar to be run by her because her brother wasn't old enough to take over the licence at that stage. She took over the license in 1952 and ran it for 62 years.
Pauline Moore explains "It was called Wilson's and then she had her name up on it eventually. We had a bomb in the street around 1974 and there was a lot of damage done. Next door was demolished and the name never went back up. She said 'Well everybody knows where I am if they want me'. The name was put back up after she died in 2015."
Jean ran the bar with the help of her husband Eddie Crozier "My mum really did it herself and then he helped her when he came home from work, but then he took ill and he had to retired due to ill health. He was able to help her more then up untill his death." Eddie died in 1976 and Daphne left her job to help her mother with the pub.
The Crozier family were all brought up above the pub. It was a different time before North Street and Water Street were buldozed through for the new road with most people living 'above the shop'
Water Street and North Street
Pauline said "We all were reared here. It was a great street. Almost every business had someone living above it, maybe two or three hadn't. It was very friendly, great neighbours and great fun. There wasn't so many cars about and we could play on the street without any problems. I got word from a girl yesterday who lived next door who said she remembers coming in here when my granny was still alive and she got lemonade."
Recalling the street in the late 50's early 60's Pauline said "I would know every house in North Street. There was Eamon Fitzpatrick's shop, Taxi McArdle built the caravans. There was an eating house and two cobblers, an electrical shop. On this side here was O'Hagan's big grocery shop and next door was Kelly and Calvert's pub and then beside that was Vincie Toner's shop where he started. Halliday's bicycle shop, Heather's bar, McArdle's bar, and then Harold Holt's two shops.
"Next door to us was called The Food Hall when I was a wee girl. That was where you got your baby food with your tokens before there was any clinic in Hill Street and then there was Mr Smith a plumber and an old style grocery store and meal store, I think it was called O'Hare's, that would be Dr. Shorthall's granny. Next to that was Adamson's grocery store. McMurray's paint shop, Brackenbury's Electrical shops and the Temperance Hotel and the sadlers and the barbers and then a clothes shop and that was the whole street. Most of them had people living above them. We had great neighbours and everybody was friendly. Religion didn't matter in those days.
"It was a lovely community and everybody got on with each other well. Business started to change when the troubles started. There wasn't as many living above their premises. My mother was to move and was to come out and build beside me near Rathfriland but she said 'Pauline I don't want to leave Newry, I'm too long there'"
Pubs included Ma Burns where The Bridge is, Kelly and Calverts, Heathers. To balance all the hostelries of course there had to be a Temperance Hotel. Pauline recalls "I don't remember anyone staying in it, it was really drab although somebody was in here about two years ago and they said they had their wedding reception there and it was either milk or lemonade!"
Hard Times
Hard times too. Pauline recalls "There was a couple called Curran and they were from North Street. I thought they were two old old people and they were missing for a few days. It was Dinny Curran and his wife. He was a wee thin man and she was a big stout woman but they had big long old clothes and shawls and blanket and he had a wee cap and a scarf. They were missing a few days and my mum sent me up North Street to see were they okay and they hadn't been well and I could not believe where I found them, living up an entry and it just scared me. No electric or nothing, one gas ring in the corner and the two of them sitting round it. I thought they were really old people and then whenever they finally died I realised they weren't old, they were in their 50's. It was just the style and the lifestyle."
A snug for women
Things were different for women in the 50's. Crozier's had a snug for any women that came in as they weren't to be seen in a bar at that stage. There was a door right round the snug with a hatch to serve the drink through. if a woman came in she had to be ushered into the corner and the door closed. The snug remains in place but the door is gone. Over the years though the bar hasn't changed too much with original fittings remaining behind the bar.
Pauline said "There's people who have come from America and Canada to here and they have been told by other people - make sure you call in Jean's when you are in Newry and they all want their photograph taken at the bar." Sandra adds "If it's working don't change it".
To get away from their families
As children the young Croziers weren't allowed in the bar and they had to knock the window downstairs if they wanted in. Pauline recalls "I can remember when I was younger, we had to walk through the bar of course to go out, but we weren't allowed to linger in it. My mother used to say men come out for a drink to get away from their families, they don't need you children annoying them."
Characters
Over the years some real characters have came through the door. People came to Newry for the Market on a Thursday and that was your day out and on Saturday's if the farmers got redd up early they would call in. Men would call in on their way home from work. "There wasn't much money about but there was always a particular crowd of men every night. I can remember them carrying their lunchbox under their arm and they stood and had their three or four bottles of Guinness before they went home for their dinner maybe at eight o clock. It was busy and yet there was no money."
"Gussy Begley used to work on boats and he'd land back with a suitcase and he'd be in for a pint to two or three pubs where he'd get somewhere to stay for the night.
"A man called Dick from Rostrevor came on his bicycle. There were great characters and some great storytellers. Mick Sands was a brilliant storyteller. There'd be an auld sing-song started, poems, some recitations and some of them you would wonder how they remember the half of them, they were that long. It always was that sort of a bar, it was always friendly and everybody treated right and hardly ever any bother." explains Pauline
No TV
The bar trade may have changed everywhere but Croziers have a clientele that still called in for the crack, something the three sisters will miss.
"Believe it or not in all that time, there's never been a television in the bar. My mother did have a TV in the room below and if you wanted to watch a match, no problem or racing and if there was two matches on she would have people come up here to the living room and watch the other match up here. But nobody got tv in the bar because people wanted the crack, and it's still that way. People come in because there's no TV's blaring at them."
Jean Crozier
Jean Crozier was certainly a busy woman, rearing three children and running the bar too. Her daughters recall fondly that she was a great cook and regardless of how busy she must have been you'd still get every meal on the table on time.
Pauline remembers "When we were young I remember it closing at 10 o'clock and many a night I would come down from my bed and knock the door here and come in knowing my mum and dad were having a cup of tea at 10 o'clock and I sat down. It was great that they had time, there was no Sunday opening then either."
Sandra added "But she had to come up and do housework at ten o clock at night. I don't know how she done it all to be honest."
As children they remember their mother sending dinners up every day to three people in North Street and two in Water Street.
Pauline explains "Many a time I had said to her. I don't know why you do that, they never said thank you. She says as long as they're there I'll send it up. She was a great cook and would make a pot of soup, but her pot of soup would have been bigger than the hotel's pot, and everybody in the bar got soup if they wanted it or if you lived on your own you got a bowl home with you."
Jean worked up to 79 when she decided "I'm too slow to work in the bar". Her daughter recalls years previously "When she got to fifty she said to me, I've got a quare innings now. Her mother was dead at 46, her father was 46 and her brother was 49."
When she retired she still loved everybody coming upstairs to say hello to her. Pauline recalls "She liked the crack and it kept her going. The twelve pubs of Christmas and they'd be squeezed in like sardines. We used to let some young ones use the toilet up here. They'd be ages up and come down saying 'that woman knows my granny'' "She'd tell them their whole pedigree or they'd sit and watch Strictly Come Dancing." Sandra adds.
Customers used to bring souvenirs of their trips, everything from Lourdes Water to Rome and Međugorje mementos but she appreciated and respected every one of them. Pauline laughs "One time we came across an accident and she said 'You know if that was me they wouldn't know who to send for'. I says why, and she said 'My purse is full of medals and all sorts of things - they wouldn't know whether to get me a priest or a minister!"
Jean passed away aged 84 in 2015.
Visitors
Well known visitors through the door included the Tenor Joseph Locke. Paddy Reilly even called in and sang in the bar and as children the Sands family would have performed a wee song too. Healing nun, Sister Briege McKenna also put in an appearance at the venue holding some of her meetings upstairs in the front room.
Reminisce
Tomorrow night Saturday 14 October Jean Crozier's is welcoming customers back for what will no doubt be a night of nostalgia and crack, the end of one era and the start of another as they pass the iconic pub on to new owner Martin Ward.
