Local Trade and Industry in the late 19th century

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Lithograph, which is on display on Newry and Mourne Museum, showing Bessbrook Mill in the 19th century. The Mill was one of the largest employers in the Newry area. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

During the second half of the 19^th century industry and commerce in Newry saw many changes. The Albert Basin had been completed in 1850 and Newry’s quays were legalised for the loading and unloading of vessels in 1853. However, any optimism for the near future would be short lived with the effects of the Great Famine and an economic slump, referred to as the ‘faltering fifties’, affected Newry’s trade. Fortunately, recent investments and the development of a new mill in Bessbrook during the late 1840’s and early 1850’s under the auspices of John Grubb Richardson gave Newry the infrastructure needed to improve its economic fortunes.

Metal cross produced by James McAteer, a monumental sculptor, originally based on The Mall in Newry. The cross was cast in the Soho Foundry. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

The closure of American ports during the American Civil War, resulting in reduced competition, and the increasing mechanisation of the spinning process gave rise to a new era of economic improvement in Newry. Richardson looked to Newry for the needs of the mill including a workforce, facilities for importing coal and flax and for the export of his finished linens. Various new mills were built in Newry during the linen boom including Dempster’s Mill (now Ballybot House) in 1865, Drumalane Mill c.1866 and the Buttercrane Weaving Factory. The linen mills, with their allied industries and trade, resulted in small densely packed terraces of housing that became home to the Ballybot communities.

The Canal Bank that separates Newry Canal and River, previously a series of mudflats, was being developed by at least 1831 when the stone Needham Bridge was erected connecting Margaret Street to the Canal Bank and when the Godfrey metal drawbridge was erected connecting the Canal Bank to Monaghan Street. Carvill’s shipbuilding yard, established in 1845, appears to be one of the earliest businesses operating on the Canal Bank, just opposite Merchants’ Quay, next to Ballybot Bridge. Ballybot Bridge was in a dilapidated state at this time and was replaced in 1846 with a new construction of chiselled granite which still stands today.

This photograph of The Mall and Merchant’s Quay taken from the roof of the Town Hall in the 1930s shows the 19th century industrial buildings on the Canal Bank. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

By 1850 this area was being referred to as the ‘New Quay’ and, in 1853, the Soho Foundry, which had been located in Sugar Island, moved to the New Quay. By the late 1860’s various new premises had been established on Canal Bank including Robert Dempster’s Tow Spinning Factory & Yard and the Newry Navigation Company’s office, sheds & yards. By 1877, Dempster’s Spinning Factory had been incorporated into the Soho Foundry, and other new businesses were on site including Peter Fitzpatrick, a coal merchant, and Patrick Grant who set up as a seed merchant and nurseryman. In 1886 the Income Tax office is recorded as located on the Canal Bank.

By the 1880’s the commercial profile of Newry had changed from what it had been in the earlier part of the century. New areas of the town had been developed and many new businesses were established. The next hundred years were to see yet more change, particularly with regard to the Canal and the Port. We will look at these developments in next week’s article.

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Newry and Mourne Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00 am – 4.30 pm. Please call 0330 137 4422 or email museums@nmandd.org for further information.

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