F.H.Ebbitt Field Study Centre, Boiler room and store

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Picturesque and slightly Tudoresque, long, one and a half storey former Dower house built c.1825 but extensively remodelled c.1860, with projecting one and a half storey bays and dormers, all with a profusion of overhanging gables. The property was converted to an education centre in c.1974 and a large modern building has been constructed to the immediate rear.

The front façade is symmetrical and faces roughly N. The main entrance is contained within a large, central, full height gabled bay. The panelled, double, timber front doors are positioned within a Tudor arch headed opening with plain fan light. The door is flanked by two tall openings with timber apron panels. Above the door and windows is a stepped drip moulding with label stops.

Directly above the door is a prominent projecting string course. To the centre of the pediment is a four pane fixed light window. The window has a decorative, painted stone dressing. The roof overhangs the gable and is supported on decorative projecting purlin ends.

To the left and right of the door are two gabled half dormer windows each with a two pane casement window with dressings as before. Directly beneath each window is a four pane casement window with drip moulding and label stops. To the far right is a larger one and a half storey projecting bay with a further casement window with dressings, as before, set over two windows each with two panes and with a stepped drip moulding. There is a deep ditch either side of the front door. This is lined in concrete.

The E face has two, four paned windows with dressings, as before, to first floor while the ground floor is slightly recessed. The ground floor has one high level, wide, modern, three pane window to the left of centre and d door to the right. The roof overhangs the gable as before but the apex is slightly hipped. The overhang is supported on decorative brackets as before.

The W façade has the gable of the main block to the right which merges with the side of the front bay to the left. The overhanging verge and eaves is supported with decorative supports, as before. To the left side of the ground floor is a two pane (top hung) window with a metal security grill. To the right of this is a two pane casement window also with security grill. To the first floor is a single round headed window whose lower sash is tilting.

To the left side of the rear (S) façade is a single ground floor, two pane, top hung window. To the right is a small single storey projection with a single modern window to its S face and a glazed door to its W face. Directly above is a single pane window set within a gabled half dormer as before.

To the right again is a modern concrete canopy beneath which are modern entrance doors. To the right are two half dormers the right of which is as before while the left has had a modern projecting ‘bay’ added. Beneath that to the left is a modern entrance door.

To the right again is a further one and a half storey bay with a single first floor window. The lower portion of this area is obscured by a small single storey flat roofed extension. The roof to the bay overhangs as before. Immediately to the left of the bay is a further half dormer with a casement window with stone surround as before. Below this a window has been largely blocked, but the drip moulding remains. To the right of this is a small single storey flat roofed extension with a central modern door with fanlight over and flanked by two tall thin multi paned windows. Directly above bay is a half dormer with window and stone surround as before (note that the lower sash appears to be blocked). To the left and right of the extension are small semicircular headed window openings. To the right again is a large modern window with drip moulding as before.

To the far right of the rear facade is a further half dormer with window, stone surround and the lower sash blocked, as before. Below the dormer is a modern door which is flanked by two small windows. The windows and the upper portion of the door have painted surrounds. To the far right the E façade recess cuts in (see above) and there is a plain. Square pier supporting the overhanging upper floor.

The façade is rendered and painted. The roof is covered with Bangor Blue slate and the overhanging eaves are supported on decorative brackets / rafter ends. There are five tall, decorative chimney stacks the lower portions of which are rendered while the upper portion are finished in dark red facing brick.

To the immediate rear of the building (though only physically attached to it by the concrete canopy roof which covers a walkway) is a large modern two storey building, which houses science labs, a lecture hall, store rooms etc.

No. 56 (to the immediate W) Bryansford houses the boiler room and a store for the field study centre. Formerly it acted as an outbuilding/stables for the dower house and as such has always ‘belonged’ to the main building.

It is a simple gabled, single storey (to the N) and two storey (to the S) building. To the N are two double sash windows (with a broad mullion) and decorative drip moulding and label stops. To the far left the elevation merges with the blank wall of a flat roofed garage.

The E face is blank to the first floor and has the blank side of the flat roofed garage to ground floor. The S face has a large door opening to ground floor and a narrow door opening to first floor. A modern concrete stair rises to this door and to either side is a narrow slit window. The roof is finished in Bangor Blue slate. To the S side the roof has two stainless steel flues emerging close to the ridge.

Historical information

This building, formerly known as ‘The Nest’, was built c.1825 by the 3rd Earl of Roden as a dower house for his mother, Julianna Anne Orde. It is shown on the OS map of 1834, though, unfortunately the contemporary valuation record of the property has been lost. With the death of Julianna [?in c.1840] the fate of the building appears uncertain and no resident is recorded in the valuation of 1863, however the valuation does tell us that the building was being extensively renovated and extended at this point (which included the raising of at least part of the roof). The 4th Earl, who succeeded to the title in 1870, allowed the property to be used as the rectory for Kilcoo parish ,a role it continued to serve until the 1920s, when it became a private dwelling.

The last private resident, Mr Frank Ebbitt, was chairman of Down County Education Committee. In the early 1970s he persuaded the Committee to buy the house from the Roden Estate and convert it to a residential centre. Mr Ebbitt died shortly afterwards, and in 1973-74 the building was converted to a field study centre for local schools.

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Picturesque and slightly Tudoresque, long, one and a half storey former Dower house of c.1825, with projecting one and a half storey bays and dormers, all with a profusion of overhanging gables. The property was converted to an education centre in c.1974 and a large modern building has been constructed to the immediate rear.