'Labourers' Cottages'

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Picturesque, single storey over basement, gabled terrace of labourers’ cottages, of c.1820, with large projecting gabled porches and mild Elizabethan overtones. The terrace looks as if it consists of four dwellings, but the ‘house’ to the E end appears to have been built as an outbuilding which served the large former dower house to the immediate E . The three actual dwellings are now amalgamated as one property.

The front façade faces N, is single storey and (of course) asymmetrical. To the right of is a large, gabled double porch. To the W face of the porch is the front door (now not used). The E face is now blank, the door to No. 60 having been blocked. Rising to each door is a short flight of steps. The top portion of the decorative Newel post has been removed. The N face of the porch has a pair of tall narrow sash windows with moulded drip with label stops, as before. Directly above the windows is a tall narrow arrow slit opening.

To the right of the porch is a sash window with no astragals which is surmounted by a small dormer-like, gable feature. The window has a decorative drip moulding with label stops over. To the left of the porch are two mullioned, tripartite, sash windows with drip mouldings and ‘dormer gable’ feature all as before. To the left of this is a further single porch with one central sash window with drip moulding as before. The W & E sides are both blank. The door to the W face has been blocked although the steps up to the door still remain. To the far left are two double sash windows, each with a central mullion and moulded drip as before. Both of these windows are blind.

The W gable is blank while the E gable has a flat roofed garage obscuring the lower level and the upper level is blank.

The ground slopes away to the S and to this side the whole block is two storey. The S facade now serves as the de facto entrance to the house. To the far left of the ground /basement level is a sash window with vertical mullion. To the right of this is a hipped roof modern timber porch. To the right of this are five windows. Nos. 1-4 have sash frames with vertical astragal while No.5 has a casement frame. Nos. 2 & 5 are wider and would appear to have been the former rear door openings. To the first floor left is a high level modern window. To the right of this are five, somewhat randomly spaced sash windows, as before.

To the extreme right of the façade is a wall which divides the gardens of No.56 (the outbuilding) & No.58-62. To the first floor of the S façade of No. 56 is a central timber sheeted door with plain glazed fanlight. Either side of the door is a tall arrow slit window opening. A concrete stair with steel hand rail rises to the door. To ground floor is a double door of sheeted timber with a garage door opening to the far right.

The façade of the whole block is rendered and painted. ‘Labourers Cottages’ spelt out in raised letters on the front façade (in a typeface of c.1915). The roof is covered in natural slate and has a slight overhang with plain barges. Three rendered chimney stacks. All of these stacks are quite low proportioned and are in no way distinguished- one imagines they were originally much taller. Mainly cast iron rw goods.

The garden wall to the rear retains a, now blocked, arched gate opening. It appears that this was to allow access from the labourers’ cottages to the outbuilding during the time that No.54 was a dower House.

Historical information

According to the present owner of No.62, this block was built around 1820, and, as the name suggests the dwellings served as cottages for labourers employed within the Roden Estate. As such it probably represents three of the ‘6 cottages which are built in a gothic style and given to persons rent free’ mentioned in the OS Memoirs of 1836. The outbuilding to the east end of the block undoubtedly served the neighbouring dower house, which was built around the same time.

Unfortunately the 1830s valuation records concerning the cottages are missing, but the 1863 valuation tells us that they were inhabited by Henry O’Brien, John Halliday and James Smith at this date and had the (below) rateable value of £3. The typeface to the front façade, suggests (if not put there as an conscious anachronism) that the block still contained three individual dwellings in the early 1900s. All three had been amalgamated by at least 1972.

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 Walter Harris, ‘The ancient and present state of the county of Down’ (Dublin 1744)
7 Dr. Pococke, ‘Tour in Ireland’ (Dublin 1752)
8 Map of Tollymore Park by Bernard Scalé (1777) [?Original in possession of Lord Roden]
9 ‘Taylor’s and Skinner’s Maps of the roads of Ireland’ (Dublin 1777), map 8
10 Thomas Milton, ‘Seats and demesnes of the nobility in Ireland’ (Dublin 1782-93)
11 Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast News-Letter’ 26th April 1785
12 R. Lewis, ‘The post chaise companion or traveller’s directory through Ireland’ (Dublin 1786)
13 Rev John Dubordieu, ‘Statistical survey of the county of Down’ (Dublin 1802)
14 A. Atkinson, ‘Ireland exhibited to England…’ (London 1823)
15 PRONI OS/1/3/43, 49 OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co Down sheets 43 and 49
16 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland vol.3: Parishes of County Down I’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1990)
17 PRONI VAL/1A/3/43, 49 Valuation maps, Kilcoo (c.1836)
18 PRONI VAL/1B/362 First valuation records, Kilcoo (1836)
19 Samuel Lewis, ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ (Dublin 1837)
20 ‘Parliamentary gazetteer of Ireland’ (Dublin 1843-44)
21 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
22 Maps of Lord Roden’s Co. Down estate (c.1855) [Originals in possession of Lord Roden]
23 W McComb, ‘Guide to Belfast and adjoining districts…’ (Belfast 1861), pp.160-162.
24 PRONI OS/6/3/43/3, 49/3 OS maps 1st rev.1859, Co Down sheets 43 and 49
25 PRONI Second (Griffith’s) valuation records, Kilcoo (1863) [in print]
26 Alexander Knox, ‘History of Co. Down’ (Dublin 1875).
27 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.137-139.
28 UFTM W.A. Green collection WAG 1, 564, 565 Photographs of Tollymore Park etc. c.1900
29 Robert M. Young, ‘Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the 20th century’ (Brighton 1909), p.201

Secondary sources
1 ‘Archaeological survey of Co. Down’ (Belfast HMSO 1966), pp.86, 177-178.
2 EHS Records of the first survey of buildings of historical and architectural interest in Tollymore ward (1972-)
3 P.J. Rankin, 'Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Mourne area of South Down', (Belfast UAHS 1975), pp.11-19.
4 ‘Tollymore Forest Park’ (HMSO c.1980)
5 Mark Bence-Jones, ‘A guide to Irish country houses’ (rev. ed. London 1988), p.274.
6 F. Hamond and T. Porter, ‘A tour of the Mournes’ (Belfast ?1991)
7 Mícheál B, Ó Mainnín, ‘Place-names of Northern Ireland vol.III- The Mournes’ (QUB 1993), pp.97-101, 114.
8 J.A.K. Dean, ‘The gate lodges of Ulster- a gazetteer’ (Belfast UAHS 1994), p.97-98

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Picturesque, single storey (over basement), gabled terrace of labourers’ cottages, of c.1820, with large projecting gabled porches and mild Elizabethan overtones. The terrace looks as if it consists of four dwellings, but the ‘house’ to the east end appears to have been built as an outbuilding which served the large former dower house to the immediate E (and still does). The three actual dwellings are now amalgamated as one property.

General comments

This building was previously recorded as 3 separate houses (HB18/13/014A, /014B & /014C). As the original houses have now been amalgamated as one house, it has all been recorded under this number