Local government mortgages and leases in Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

Robert Whan

At the end of 2011, the Museum received a bundle of leases from the Council offices at Monaghan Row, Newry. These have now been catalogued and are available for researchers and members of the public to view at the Museum. The 340 leases, and in some cases related correspondence, cover the period between the 1870s and early 1970s. They were granted by Newry Town Commissioners and, after 1898, their successors, Newry Urban District Council.

As a collection they offer an insight into the remit of local government, addressing water supply, the markets, sewerage, trams and the railway, the telephone network, electricity, street lighting and housing. They will also be of interest to those tracing their ancestors with potential insights into the activities of local professional and business people.

There are agreements relating to the purchase of the Newry Water Works Company by the Town Commissioners, to building work carried out at the Gas Works and in connection with Newry markets, as well as the Commissioners’ contracts with David Mahood for the construction of Newry Town Hall (1892) and the bridge on which it is sited (1890).

Pinchin, before the First World War. There are also later agreements with local football clubs, including Rockview Rangers, Shamrock Rovers, Windmill Stars, and the Carnbane & District Football League, for provision of playing fields or other facilities.

Although the bulk of the material relates to Newry, there are seven agreements connected with Annalong Harbour, 1888–1946, and two registers of mortgages for Kilkeel Rural District Council, 1904–1973. The collection also includes documentation for the building of the first Urban Council houses in Ireland, which were built in Erskine Street, Newry, in 1900.

Robert Hogg Doherty served as Town Clerk in Newry from 1868 to 1908 under the Town Commissioners and Newry Urban District Council. The Town Clerk was the principal official in local government, and was the precursor to the modern Chief Executive of Council. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection

Recreational amenities also feature, with a series of documents relating to the first cinema in Newry, opened in Canal Street by an Englishman, R. B.