40 Bryansford village

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively simple single storey dwelling of pre 1834 origin, part of which once served as a dispensary. The property is set on the SE side of the road which passes through Bryansford village, located behind a fairly old looking whitewashed rubble wall now topped with a hedge.

The front façade faces NW. To the left of centre is a small gabled porch with modern glazed door to SW face, and small window to NE (gable) face, with multi-pane frame. To the left of the porch (on main façade) is a small, squat, window with modern eight pane frame. To the immediate right of the porch is a more regularly shaped small window with similar style of frame. To the left of this is another relatively small window with similar frame. Where the latter window is located there was once a doorway (to the dispensary); this door was blocked up in c.1953 but the doorstep remains.

Both main gables are blank. To the rear there is a relatively recent (post c.1953) lean-to extension with a modern windows and door. To the left of this (on main rear façade) there is a small window (much as front) and to the right is a pair of modern patio doors.

The façade is finished in rough cast and painted. The roof is covered in natural slate with a Velux window to the rear. The roof has a slight overhang with exposed rafter ends and barges with simple piercings. Two brick chimney stacks with simple corbelling. PVC and cast iron rw goods.

Low white washed rubble wall to front with wrought iron gate (possibly 19th century).

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834, and all maps thereafter. Unfortunately this property was not noted in the contemporary valuation survey (presumably because it was below value), of the so we have little detail relating to it for this early period. On the revised OS map of 1859, however, it is marked ‘Dispensary’ and is listed as such in the valuation returns of 1863. According to local residents (and the present owner) the building remained in use as a dispensary until the 1940s, but became vacant in c.1948 and was largely derelict until acquired by the present owner’s family (from the Roden estate), in 1953. Shortly after this the property was renovated with the doorway to the former dispensary section blocked, and the extension added to the rear. The owner stated that the building remained thatched well into the 20th century, but that it may have been slated prior to c.1953.

The property is currently used as holiday accommodation.

A Dr S. Clarendon is recorded as resident in the dispensary in 1877 and for a long period during the early 1900s, the property was staffed by a Dr Robert Magill.

The following sources refer mainly to Bryansford village as a whole.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI MIC.147 Roden Papers
2 PRONI D.465 Roden Papers
3 PRONI D.2647 Roden Papers
4 PRONI T.2647 Roden Papers
5 PRONI T.3438 Roden Papers
6 ‘Taylor’s and Skinner’s Maps of the roads of Ireland’ (Dublin 1777), map 8 (Taylor and Skinner’s map shows a group of houses either side of the road running through Bryansford)
7 Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast News-Letter’ 26th April 1785 (Advertisement concerning lodgings in Bryansford)
8 R. Lewis, ‘The post chaise companion or traveller’s directory through Ireland’ (Dublin 1786)
9 PRONI OS/1/3/43 OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co Down sheet 43
10 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland vol.3: Parishes of County Down I’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1990)
11 PRONI VAL/1A/3/43 Valuation maps, Kilcoo (c.1836)
12 PRONI VAL/1B/362 First valuation records, Kilcoo (1836)
13 Samuel Lewis, ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ (Dublin 1837)
14 ‘Parliamentary gazetteer of Ireland’ (Dublin 1843-44)
15 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), pp.429-31
16 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
17 Maps of Lord Roden’s Co. Down estate (c.1855) [Originals in possession of Lord Roden]
18 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), pp.491-93
19 W McComb, ‘Guide to Belfast and adjoining districts…’ (Belfast 1861), pp.160-162.
20 PRONI OS/6/3/43/3 OS maps 1st rev.1859, Co Down sheet 43
21 PRONI Second (Griffith’s) valuation records, Kilcoo (1863) [in print]
22 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), pp.491-93
23 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870)
24 Alexander Knox, ‘History of Co. Down’ (Dublin 1875).
25 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.137-139.
26 UFTM W.A. Green collection WAG 1, 564, 565 Photographs of Tollymore Park etc. c.1900

Secondary sources
1 EHS Records of the first survey of buildings of historical and architectural interest in Tollymore ward (1972-)
2 P.J. Rankin, ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Mourne area of South Down’, (Belfast UAHS 1975), p.7.
3 F. Hamond and T. Porter, ‘A tour of the Mournes’ (Belfast ?1991)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Relatively simple single storey dwelling of probable pre 1834 origin, part of which once served as a dispensary. The property was renovated in c.1953 when the former doorway to the dispensary was made into a window and the lean-to added to the rear.