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Castle Street in Newry can be traced back to the 1500's but development of the 'new' road at Abbey Way in 1969 led to many of its old buildings being demolished.
Before the building of Newry Canal and the development of Hill Street (then known as the ‘Low Ground’) in the 18th century, the town of Newry was centred on Castle Street, High Street and North Street. Both High Street and North Street are probably medieval in origin and are shown on the earliest known map of Newry drawn by the surveyor Robert Lythe around the 1560s. The beginnings of what was to become Castle Street can also be traced on this map which shows the town in the early stages of its expansion by Sir Nicholas Bagenal.
The street was evidently called ‘Castle Street’ because of the proximity of the castle built by Sir Nicholas Bagenal although the name is not recorded until the 1730s when Robert Nedham leased property there to a number of tenants. Confusingly it is marked as Boat Street on the maps of the town drawn by John Rocque in 1760 and by his pupil, Matthew Wren, a year later.
There are a number of important landmarks highlighted on the maps by Rocque and Wren such as the Shambles (more or less opposite the site of the Museum at Bagenal’s Castle) where animals were slaughtered. The original Butter Crane was also located in Castle Street and remained there until 1808 when it was relocated to along the Canal. Another notable building in existence was the Meal Market House (later rebuilt) located at the head of Hyde Market (now St. Colman’s Park). From around the mid-18th century the Corry family leased property at the east end of Castle Street in the area known as Abbey Yard.
Although large-scale commercial activity was located on the quays on either side of the Canal, the 1820 business directory for Newry reveals details about the type of businesses in operation in the Castle Street at that time. These included butchers, public houses, grocers and spirit dealers, as well as homes for some of the merchants of the town. A Kilmorey estate rental from the same year, now in the Museum’s Reside Collection, includes the names of those renting buildings and land along the Street. The rental includes the names of Glenny, White, Atkinson, Beathe, Murtagh, Anderson, Hutchison and Corry.
Source material in the Museum Collection suggests that Castle Street continued to be a blend of small family-run businesses and residential housing from the later decades of the 19th century until most of the street was demolished in the late 1960s. Businesses included The Victoria (McCann’s) Bakery (which expanded over the decades until its closure in the 1990s), Collins’ butchers, McRobert’s furniture dealers, McAteer’s Dairy, Patterson’s general smith’s and hardware business, and a number of grocers run by families such as the Butterfields, Farrells, Keenans and McCarrolls. There were also a number of public houses owned by the Clarkes, Murtaghs and O’Hares. One business with a long history, Patrick Murphy & Son in Abbey Yard, still continues today.
Many former residents of Castle Street have memories of the sense of community which characterised life on the Street. This was swept away when most of the buildings along its route, some of which may have dated back to the 18th century, were demolished c.1969 to make way for the construction of Abbey Way. Some have survived such as numbers 18, 20 and 22, the Georgian town houses in Abbey Yard, the warehouse built by Joseph Doyle, a florist, in the 1830s and the adjoining Bagenal’s Castle. The two latter buildings became home to Newry and Mourne Museum in 2007.
The Museum is currently offering free tours of the exhibition galleries on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 am. These must be booked in advance by calling our Education Officer at 0330 137 4422.
Newry and Mourne Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00 am – 4.30 pm. Please call 0330 137 4422 or email museum@nmandd.org for further information.
