THE CROSS LANE DOWN THE YEARS
by Rosemary McMillan

Gravity is a powerful force, hence my scepticism regarding the efficacy of the facelift whether applied to humans or houses.

Watching recent road improvements at the Gallows Street end of Cross Lane I experienced a sense of deja-vu which caused me to look again at old maps and records of the locality.

According to Thomas Bell's map of Dromore for the year 1790, Lower Back Lane crossed from Gallows Street to the Pann Close, between land owned by a Miss Vaughan, a Mr. Waddell and one Sir Costlet Stothard. No buildings are shown on the map but the Cross Inn is recorded on Miss Vaughan's land south of the junction with Gallows Street and Lower Back Lane.

Forty-four years later in 1834 on another map some buildings are shown on the both sides of the Lane, but the outlines are indistinct and not all of them are numbered. An interesting feature on this map is the dotted line representing the boundary between the townlands of Ballymaganlis and Ballymacormick. This curious route through the row of houses is maintained right down to the present day. Princes Street also evolved at this time.

Valuation records of that time mention that some of the houses are rated in one townland and some in the other.
Twenty-five years later, in 1859, the historical picture has evolved some more house plans are clearly marked and the tenancies recorded in the Griffiths Valuation. 1859-1863.

See Table 1 below

The areas are recorded in square yards, square poles and roods, while the money is strictly Pounds, Shillings and Pence!

The name Vaughan continues to appear in the list of Lessors and curiously some tenants are also Lessors, but not of the same property e.g. William Miller and David Gibson.

During the next twenty years, in the 1870's some of the buildings, notably numbers 1, 2 and 3 are listed as being in ruins or dilapidated and by the 1890's are designated building ground.
See Table 2 and 3 following

The maps of the period are well worn and indistinct. Map C. shows an almost continuous line of dwellings on the South side of Back Lane. They cover most of what later became the entrance to Inn Gardens and if we look at Map D. we can see the space left when numbers 1, 2 and 3 were demolished. This map also indicates a re-numbering of the houses on the South side.

Subdivision or subletting of number 9, the building shown on the North side, is revealed by valuations for 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d and 9e11 all of which eventually become numbers 12 and 13. Lodgers are listed as living at 9a and 9b. In 1878 number 6 is listed as stores and yard by 1890 it has become 6a, 6b, 6c and 6d each being a house and yard. The corner site to the West between Gallows Street and Back Lane, the approximate area of the Cross Inn, is occupied first by the Court House and then by a Protestant Hall.

In Basset's County Down 1886, we are told that "within the last fifteen years there has been a great change for the better in Dromore. A desire to give it prominence among the principal county towns has been manifest in various ways. The appearance of the business houses has been very much improved, and the new houses added during the time mentioned constitute fully a third of the number inside the boundary."

It is also said that "among the houses re-built in the square that of Mr. Robert S. Edgar is the finest." In the evaluation lists for 1890 for Back Lane his name appears prominently among the Lessors along with that of George M. Vaughan and Francis Murphy. See Table 4 below. These three family names continue in the valuation lists right down to the 1930's. Whether his interest in building went as far as to improve numbers 4-6 is speculative, but the valuations on 4, 5a and 5b increase to �4.

At the turn of the century number 9 became building ground but otherwise the Lane appears to have entered a period of stability the rating value of number 4-7, now renumbered, 1-8, has fallen by between ten shillings, and one pound ten shillings.

This permanence is also reflected in the names of the occupiers where the tenancy appears to pass down the family, for example Donaldson in number 1, Lilley in number 6, Quinn in number 4, Agnew in number 5 (although he seems to have moved next door!) are other long stay names. See Tables 4, 5 and 6 following.

An interesting point is the number of houses which were unoccupied during the First World War - no less than five out of the sixteen available. It is not until 1946 that the name change to Cross Lane is shown on an Ordnance Survey map. It seems to have heralded in the penultimate phase in the life of the lane.
 

In the 1950's the houses were condemned and the tenants offered a resettlement grant. As they moved out the houses were demolished.
 

TABLE 6
 

HOUSE NUMBER	OCCUPIER	LESSOR	DESCRIPTION OF TENEMENT	RATES	YEAR
1	Katherine Donaldson	Mary Edgar	House and Yard	�3. 0.0	1923
2	Robert Poots	Mary Edgar	House and Yard	�3. 0.0	1921 - 23
3	Margaret Thompson	Mary Edgar	House and Yard	�3. 0.0	1922
4	Catherine Quinn	Mary Edgar	House and Yard	�3.10.0
5	Samuel Agnew	Mary Edgar	House and Yard	�3.10.0
6	Anthony Lilley	Mary Edgar	House and Yard	�3.10.0
7	John Hamilton	Mary Edgar	House and Yard	�3.10.0	1920 - 25
8	John Houston	Francis Murphy	Office	10.0
9	Building Ground
10	Vacant	Representative	House and Garden	�2. 5.0
11	John Hyland	of Rev. G. H.	House and Garden	�2. 5.0
12	Isaac Martin	Vaughan	House and Small Garden	�2. 0.0	1922 - 30
13	Michael McCreesh	"	House and small Garden	�2.10.0	1922 - 30
14	Thomas Doonan	"	House and Yard	�2.10.0	1924
15	Samuel J. Davis	"	House and Yard	�2.10.0	1930
16	Mary Poats	"	House and Yard	�2.10.0	1920 - 30

For over two hundred years the Lane had evidenced both development and decay, now only seven houses remain as testimony to its populous Victorian hey-day. Open spaces, albeit in the form of car parks, have returned. It is perhaps significant, that they accommodate re-cycling bins, for re-cycling is the name of the game in Cross Lane at present. Surface features may have been re-modeled but the basic shape and function, that of a short cut, remains unchanged.

BOOK REVIEW
"A HISTORY OF ULSTER" by Jonathan Bardon, Blackstaff Press,
Hardback �30.00. Paperback �14.95. 914 pages.

This book is perhaps the most valuable one to have appeared in recent years and one which any local historian ought to read. Grey Gowrie in his review of the book states, "The story is an old one and I doubt it will ever be better told. Jonathan Bardon has two great strengths, he is a good writer and a natural storyteller." He tells how Brian O'Neill invaded Down in 1260 and of the Anglo Normans who built Mottes (such as the one in Dromore) on the Earl of Ulster's frontiers to guard and help defend the King at home and abroad.

In 1315 Scots landed at Larne led by Robert Bruce and Edward Bruce to capture Ireland but due to famine in 1317, a cattle and sheep plague, they retreated in 1363.

In 1563 Shane O'Neill fought the MacDonnells and in 1565 he advanced to Dromore and waited for his kinsmen to join him. During the Rebellion of 1641, Dromore was burned and Portadown fell.

In 1689 Monaghan, Down and Antrim resisted Tyrconnell. Richard Hamilton, a Jacobite, overwhelmed the Protestants, led by Arthur Rawdon of Moira, at Dromore on 14th March, 1689. The rest of Eastern Ulster fell and Hillsborough, Lisburn, Antrim and Belfast were plundered. King James arrived in Dublin on 12th April and reached the walls of Derry on 18th April 1689. The rest is well known history. We are told that in 1800, Dromore was a neglected town consisting of only a few mud-cabins. -May Wilson.
 

"Ready for bottle or draught l" GROUP OUTSIDE THE CROWN HOTEL IN MEETING STREET IN THE EARLY 1920's From left to right-James Bell, Rampart Street (Postman); John Walker, Magherabeg; Henry Patterson, Crown Hotel; Albert Flanagan, Church Street; Wm. Patterson, Rampart Street (Farmer)