Fascinating family photographs and old snap of The Cottage, Rosemount unearthed

Robert decided to share the artefacts with the ‘Journal’ after uncovering them as he researched his family’s strong Derry connections.

His grandparents once lived in the property at the top of Creggan Road before it was purchased as a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) barracks.

"My grandfather was Jacob Hutchinson and his wife Sara, whose maiden name was Watson, lived in what was called The Cottage, Rosemount.

"He had four sons, Richard, Samuel, William, and my father Robert,” he explains.

Jacob was the manager of Stevenson's bakery, which once stood opposite Abbey Street where the William Street car park is located today.

"He was married in 1901 and before he was married he lived on Cottage Row and my granny who was a Watson lived on Foyle Road,” adds Robert.

After they wed the couple moved into The Cottage. The official address was at 18.2 Creggan Road.

“I looked in the census and there was a pub next door to it. That's all gone. I remember going up to see it when it was no longer a police station, before they knocked it down.

“When he gave up Stevenson's bakery he went on to be a representative of Carr's of Carlisle, the biscuit makers. Then, when partition came, I think the job was split and he was shifted to Belfast.”

Robert was given the photograph of the building by an aunt before she died. He also shared photographs of his granda Jacob and his granny Sara. Sadly Sara died of cancer in 1921 aged just 51.

Another cherished photograph is one of his father and namesake Robert senior alongside his friends in the Christ Church Wolf Cub pack that he believes dates from around the end of World War One.

"He looks about ten. My father was born in 1908 so I think this photograph is from around 1918,” says Robert.

Mr. Hutchinson was born in Belfast but moved to the Coleraine and Ballymoney areas in the 1970s.