5 Riverside, Drumaness, County Down

Date: 1890 to 1932
Location: Drumaness, County Down, Ireland
Surname/tag: county down

BAIN family home at 5 Riverside, Drumaness
Robert Erwin Bain, Margaret Ann (McKeown) Bain and their children lived at 5 Riverside in Drumaness, a row house for workers of the Drumaness Mills flax linen mill (Hurst’s Linen Mill) from 1890 to at least 1932. The typical mill house had two rooms on the main floor and two bedrooms upstairs. 5 Riverside had an extra floor, so likely had at least two more bedrooms. There were communal "privies" outside at the back of the houses, still these were considered modern comfortable homes for the era. The DODDS family (Joseph Dodds, Mary (McKeown) Dodds and their children) lived next door at 6 Riverside - the house with the yellow door - from 1890 to at least 1950. Margaret Ann and Mary were sisters. The two families remained close for much of the 20th century.

5 Riverside - the house with the blue door

Drumaness village lies about 5 kilometres south of Ballynahinch in County Down, beside the main Belfast to Newcastle road. It is situated in the civil parish of Magheradrool. Drumaness developed as a mill village in 1850, with the opening of the linen spinning mill on the banks of the River Cumber. Most of the area's inhabitants worked in the flax/linen industry until its demise in the 1980s.

Drumaness Mills

Drumaness in the early 1900s showing the Dan Rice Hall

Sources

• Wikipedia contributors: "Drumaness," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Drumaness&oldid=1224759159 (accessed 25 May 2024).
• Civil Parish of Magheradrool: "Irish Townlands" (https://www.townlands.ie/); Civil Parish of Magheradrool, Co. Down, https://www.townlands.ie/down/magheradrool/, (accessed 25 May 2024).