Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small single storey hall with attic, one of a row of four picturesque rubble-built cottages, with roof overhangs, tall chimneys and gabled dormers. The three middle cottages were built c.1826, with much of what is now the cottage to the SW end added slightly later (?c.1830s), and this property, to the NE end, added after c.1859. The group is set on the SE side of the main road running through Bryansford.

The front façade of the hall faces NW and is now assymetrical. To the right of centre is a modern looking flat roofed porch, finished in cement render and with and blind window to the NW face and a flat panel door to the NE face. To the left of this porch is a blind (boarded up) ‘window’ with moulded label and brick lintel. To the right of the porch is a similar ‘window’, now partially obscured by plant growth. Both windows have painted on frames to their boarding. The front side of the gabled roof has two small gabled dormers with 12 pane casement windows, slated sides and decorative barges supported on shaped brackets.

The NW gable is blank. The rear is now completely covered by a modern lean-to extension with metal window frames and a corrugated asbestos roof. The extension is rough cast rendered and appears to have PVC rw goods.

The front façade (excluding porch) and gable are in rubble. The roof is covered in natural slate and has a large overhang to front. Brick chimney to gable apex with single pot, tall paired chimney to SW (shared with No.46), set forward of roof ridge.

Low stone wall enclosing garden to front.

Historical information

This picturesque row was built in stages. The three central cottages (now in fact two properties- No.46 and No.48) appear to the have been built as a group and are the oldest. As one of these cottages (one of the two formerly separate houses which have been amalgamated to form the present No.48), originally contained a school house, which according to the OS memoirs of c.1836, was ‘erected in the year 1826’, we may assume that the whole group is of the same date and are indeed three of the ‘6 cottages which are built in a gothic style and given to persons rent free’ mentioned in the same Memoir.

The OS map of 1834 supports this theory, as the group is shown along with what appears to be the present No.50, to the south-west end. From the coursing of its stonework, we know that what now makes up the SW end of No.50 was built after its neighbours, but, as it seems to be shown on the 1834 map, perhaps not long after.

No.42, at the NW end, was added some time after 1859, as it is not indicated on the OS map of that year. It may have been built before 1863, for four properties are noted in the row in the valuation records of that year. This evidence is inconclusive, however, because we know that part of what is now No.50 was originally a small separate property, thus making four houses in all, without having to count what is now the hall.

Little is known of the early occupants of the row, as none of the properties were noted in the first valuation of c.1835. As stated above, we do know that one of the two formerly separate properties which now make up No.48, was a school house, which, the aforementioned OS Memoirs (c.1836) refer to as a ‘boys and girls school’. By 1856 this served solely as a boys school (the village’s girls having moved to the ‘girls and infants school’ at the western end of Bryansford. By the early 1860s it had become an ‘Embroidery’ or ‘Sewing’ school, the boys having rejoined the girls in the other school house. The ‘Sewing School’ is recorded in the 1863 valuation returns, with a Mary Camlin serving as mistress, the rest of the residents in the row listed as Henry Kennedy, Henry Bryan and James Creighton.

The Sewing school was still in operation in 1886 (when a Miss Bella Bailie was mistress), but is not listed in any directories after 1900. For most of the 20th century the properties making up the row appear to have served as private dwellings, with the exception of No.42, which has been an Orange Hall since the early 1900s. At some point, the former No.46 and part of No.48 were amalgamated (to form the present ‘No.48’), with the remainder of the original No.48 (to the SW) amalgamated with No.50- doubling the size of the latter property in the process. The present owner of No.50 states that she believes the amalgamation/partitioning of the various houses took place c.1900. If this is correct then the internal changes to the row may be connected to the closing of the Sewing school.

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.8.
3 F. Hamond and T. Porter, ‘A tour of the Mournes’ (Belfast ?1991)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Small single storey hall with attic, one of a row of four picturesque rubble-built cottages, with roof overhangs, tall chimneys and gabled dormers. The three middle cottages were built c.1826, with much of what is now the cottage to the SW end added slightly later (?c.1830), and this particular property, to the NE end, added after c.1863. The hall, which was undoubtedly originally a dwelling, was much altered in the second half of the 20th century, when the modern porch to the front was built along with the equally modern lean-to extension to the rear. The front windows are now boarded over.