258 Newry Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey/ four bay house of L plan in the south west corner of Mourne Park Demesne. May originally have been three houses, but all bays are now internally linked.

Hipped natural slate roof with clay ridges. Four chimneys: one to each party wall, and the fourth on the end gable of the return at right. Half- round metal rainwater gutters. Walls are harled and whitewashed with projecting eaves course.

Principal façade faces south. Sheeted timber door on left side of third bay from left. Set within a shallow projecting porch with natural slate monopitch roof rising to just below eaves of main roof. The first bay has a single window and the second bay two. The third bay has a single window to right of door and the fourth bay also has a single window. All windows are paired two-pane casements with painted granite cills.

The left gable is abutted at left by a small lean-to porch with natural slate roof and walls as main block. The exposed section of the main gable has a 1/1 fixed window. The lean-to has a similar window on its west facing wall, a sheeted timber door on its right cheek and blank left cheek

The right gable comprises the east-facing fact of an integral return. It is devoid of openings.

The rear elevation has, to its left bay, the advanced gable of the hipped return. This gable has, at left, a window as front façade and, to right, a four-panel painted timber door. A lean-to abuts the rear of the second bay from left (as viewed from rear). This has a monopitched corrugated asbestos roof (with skylight), a pair of fixed-pane windows and door at right. The third bay from left has an infilled window opening. The fourth bay, at right, has a small modern window in an original opening.

There is an enclosed yard to the rear and long gardens at the front.

Historical information

Building shown at this location along what was then the Tullyframe Road on the 1834 OS 6” map. Cited as ‘school house’ on 1859 map. Sometime between 1859 and 1901, the estate boundary was re-aligned to the west, and this building (which is uncaptioned on the 1901 map) was incorporated into the grounds of the demesne. It is possibly a later 19th century rebuild on the foundations of the earlier school.

Primary sources:
1. PRONI - OS 6/3/55/1 (1834 map) (Down sheet 55).
2. PRONI - OS 6/3/55/2 (1859 map) (Down sheet 55).
3. PRONI - OS 6/3/55/3 (1901 map) (Down sheet 55).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A small attractive group of interest in so far as associated with Mourne Park demesne. Rear addition and internal room plan reconfiguration detracts from its character.