Bellfield

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

One and a half storey gabled farmhouse of c.1850 with decorative barge boards and two storey rear additions. The house is set in a hollow to the E of the Spa Road roughly 1.5 miles S of Ballynahinch.

The SW front is symmetrical with a central single storey flat roofed porch with plain cornice and blocking course. To the NW face of the porch is a modern glazed entrance door while the SE face has a matching glazed panel. The SW face has a modern-glazed window.

Directly above the porch is a semicircular arch headed Georgian paned sash window (8/3) with a small gable feature over. The gable has a decorative fretwork bargeboard. To the left are two 6/6 sash windows. To the right are two similar sash windows.

The NW gable has one 6/6 sash window to the left of the ground floor and two similar windows evenly spaced to the first floor. To the verge is a decorative overhanging bargeboard as before.

To NE façade has two returns. That to the centre is gabled with a modern window to the right of the ground floor of the NE face and a similar window directly above at first floor. The left side merges with the NE face of a hipped roof return which has one small ground floor window to the left side. To the right of the gabled return on the rear of the original building is a wide modern window.

The SE façade comprises of the gable of the original portion which merges with the side of the hipped roof return. The left gabled section is a decorative bargeboard, as before. To the centre of this section is a chimney breast and to either side of the first floor is a 6/6 sash window. To the first floor of the hipped section are two evenly spaced 6/6 sash windows. To the left of the ground floor is a panelled / half glazed door while to the right of this are two top hung multi pane windows.

The walls are largely finished with lined render and the roof is covered with natural slate. To each of the gables is a chimney stack with mouldings and two octagonal period pots. Rw goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

Historical information

A house is shown on the1834 OS map, but its size and orientation differ slightly from the building we see today. The present dwelling is shown (without the returns) on the revised map of 1858, where it is marked ‘Bellfield’. The current owner believes it to have been built by one of his ancestors. He further believes that another ancestor was a doctor and that the property once served as the local dispensary.

The gabled return may have been added in the later part of the 19th Century while the hipped roof return may have been built in the 1920’s.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/29/1 OS map, Down sh 29, 1834
2 PRONI OS/6/3/29/2 OS map, Down sh 29, 1858
3 PRONI and Linen Hall Library Second (Griffith’s) valuation, Magherdrool, c.1863 [in print]
4 PRONI OS/6/3/29/3 OS map, Down sh 29, c.1901

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

One and a half storey gabled farmhouse of c.1850 with decorative barge boards and two storey rear additions.