Page last updated on: Wednesday, 21 March, 2018.
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Before the building of Gatehouse, the River Fleet was crossed at a ford which was just up river from the present-day Mill on the Fleet. It was probably accessed on the town side by a continuation of Ford Lane. After crossing the Fleet the road would have continued to the Clachan of Anwoth, over the Corse of Slakes Road and on to Creetown via Skyreburn
Harbour facilities developed at Boatgreen and Port Macadam, and the coast road was constructed between Gatehouse, Cardoness Castle, Skyreburn and then on to Creetown. Such developments led to the building of houses in Fleet Street where most feus were obtained in 1794 and 1795. High Street was feued between the late 1760s and the late 1780s.The earliest bridge over the Fleet in its current location was probably wooden and built about 1661. At some stage this was washed away and it was replaced by a stone bridge in 1730. It has been strengthened and widened at least 3 times since then, in 1779, 1811 and 1965. After crossing the Fleet at the bridge the road turned at right angles along the current route of Dromore Road. There was no Fleet Street.
We have tried to collate information from property deeds, censuses, valuation rolls and personal recollection to provide a chronology of who lived in which Fleet Street property throughout its lifetime,
The initial feus for the north side of Fleet Street were granted in 1794, with the south side following in 1795.
This file lists the original feuars.
Censuses were carried out every 10 years starting in 1841 and they are available for public examination until 1911. Enumerators for different censuses seem to have changed which side and which end of Fleet Street to start from, but having said that they seem to have followed a continuous route on each occasion. Some enumerators entered a different number for each family group, whilst others list a number of families within each numbered building (not current house numbers). We have produced a table which reflects our interpretation of which head of a household lived in which building as we know it today, for each census between 1841 & 1911.
This file lists which household head lived where at each census.
Some properties have been owned and occupied in pairs for most of the time since they were built. whilst some single houses have been occupied by multiple families, particularly in early censuses.
Many of the properties in Fleet Street were occupied by a group of tenants who paid rent to the owner. When houses were rented in this way the annual rental income was insufficient to require owners to provide the occupants names in the valuation rolls. This makes it difficult to be sure about who lived where. We have done our best, but some families may only be in the right place to within about 2 houses. If anyone can help make our information more conclusive we would love to hear from you.
Link to Google Maps Street View at Fleet Street & Fleet Bridge
| 1, 3 & 5 - Ship Inn | 7 - 9 | 11 | 13-15 |
| 17 | 19 | 21 | 23-25 |
| 27 | 29 - Moravia | 31 - Fleetview | 33 - Hamewith |
| 35 | 37 | 39 | 41 |
| 2 | 4 | 6 - Rowan Cottage | 8 - Fairholm |
| 10 - Oak Cottage | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| 18 | 20 | 22 - Custom House | 24 |
| 26 | 28 | 30 | Portville |
