Bryansford Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Substantial, one and a half storey picturesque house with gabled dormers, porch, veranda and tall chimney stacks, ostensibly mid 19th century looking but possibly a remodelling of a pre 1834 dwelling. The property is set on the W side of the Burrenreagh Road, just N of Bryansford village, 2 miles S of Castlewellan. The E side of the building is set right onto the roadside.

The front (S) elevation is made up of two sections. To the centre and right is the main house, whilst set back to the left is a lower one and a half storey return section. The main section is generally symmetrical. To the centre is a relatively large, single storey porch. To the E face of the porch is the panelled timber entrance doorway. To the (S) gable of the porch is a relatively large sash window with Georgian panes (8 over 8). To left and right of the porch a lean-to veranda roof extends, supported on slim tree-trunks, much in the cottage orné style. To either side of the porch (underneath the veranda, as it were) is a large, four light French door / window.

To the first floor are three half-dormers with steeply pitched gabled roofs with overhangs. Each half-dormer has modern window frame with Georgian-like panes. To the right of the main front façade (attached to the E gable as it were), is a single storey section with a hipped roof. This has a sash window, as porch. The E wall of this section is right on the roadside, and to the left (S) end it merges with a garden wall which has a arched pedestrian gate.

The far left hand side of the front elevation is complex looking. To the W gable there is a single storey hipped roof section, similar to the E gable. It has a sash window, as porch, to S face and a paneled timber door to the W face. To the N this section links to a two storey gabled wing which has a ground floor sash window, as before. Directly above this is a gabled half dormer with window frame as half dormers to main front. To the right of the this is very small window with a two pane casement frame. To the immediate right of this window, the façade is set back slightly, and also raises above the main roof line (all of which has been caused by the pitch of the roof of the single storey hipped roof section cutting across the façade). This portion of the façade has a narrow six pane window.

The W façade is double pile. There are two sash windows (as front), to the ground floor and another to the left on the first floor.

The rear (N) façade has a complex appearance and looks as though it has been added to over the years. To the far left the single storey hipped roof portion which is attached to the E gable (see above) stretches around to the rear façade. It has two windows with modern frames. This links to a larger single storey lean-to portion which projects further and whose roof links straight into the roof of the main house (though its pitch is slightly shallower). This section has a modern casement window, then a modern glazed door, then a large modern square bay window. To the immediate right this lean-to links to a large two storey gabled return. This has a large modern window to the left on the ground floor, then a modern doorway (under a hood porch). To the first floor are two modern windows.

This gable has been extended to both E and W with the addition of timber constructed portions which rise above the original eaves level into flat roofed dormers. The extension to the E turns at a right angle to form a timber dormer over the neighbouring single storey lean-to. This extension/dormer has three modern windows. The extension/dormer to the W links straight into the double pile wing which makes up the W elevation. The very right hand edge of the gabled return is abutted by a single storey portion which leans-to the E face of the right hand side of the of the W face of the above mentioned double gabled wing.

The façade is finished in rough cast render and painted. The roof is covered in natural slate and has a slight overhang with pierced barges. Four evenly spaced brick chimney stacks to main roof with coping and matching octagonal pots. Similar stack to gable of return with short single pot. To the N end of the double pile wing there is a tall rendered stack with tall, mismatched, pots. Small cast iron skylight to rear. Cast iron and PVC rw goods.

To the rear of the property is a yard with two storey gabled outbuilding to the N. This is rubble-built with a slated roof and various window and door opening to the front (S) some of which are modern looking. To the right hand side the façade projects and has a gabled half dormer with a timber sheeted loft door. The outbuilding roof has an uneven pitch and from the N the building is single storey. To this side there are three doors and three windows, the window to the left a large modern projecting oriel window.

To the E the yard is enclosed by a high rubble wall with square gate pillars and timber gates. There is a futher (largely open) yard to the N.

Large garden to front.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834 which matches the size of the main portion of the present house. Unfortunately the details of the contemporary valuation survey are missing, so we have no idea of the dimensions of the building at this point, the occupant, nor how old the valuers believed (or were informed) the building was. On the revised map of 1859 the building is shown much as today and is marked ‘Bryansford Cottage’. ‘Bryansford Cottage’ is listed in ‘Slater’s Directory’ of 1846, as the home of one Captain Hill, so it is possible (if adopted names of houses are an indication of a revamping of a property) that the house had adopted its present shape by that date at least. Against this it has to be said that the first survey notes of 1972 mention that one of the gables had a date panel (apparently no longer visibly) marked ‘1858’, however, the fact that the building had its current name in 1846 must at least mean that today’s house existed in some form at this date.

Captain Hill was still resident in 1856, but when the house was revalued in 1863 it was occupied by the Hon. John Jocelyn, who appears to have been the half-brother of the 3rd Earl of Roden. By 1870 the property was occupied by a C.V. Darcy J.P., who remained there until at least 1877. He was followed by a J.B. Kingscote, and then (in c.1885) by another J.P., a C.E.S. Stronge. By 1890 a C. Brownlow, was in residence, then (in c.1901) Mr. Stronge again, and during the 1920s and 30s (and possibly before this) another Justice of the Peace, Alexander Dobbin. The fact that many of the occupants of the house were J.Ps, supports the locally held idea that the property once acted as the residence for Lord Roden’s chief land agent.

With the break up of much of the Roden Estate in the mid 20th century, Bryansford Cottage was sold and became a private residence. In the 1970s the then resident, a Mr Railton, extended the building at the rear and added much of the present detailing.

The current owner stated that she was told that the house was once thatched; this would tie in with the veranda’s orné feel.

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) [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).
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

Substantial, one and a half storey picturesque house with gabled dormers, porch, veranda and tall chimney stacks ostensibly c.1850 but probably a remodelling of a pre 1834 dwelling. The veranda to the front is supported on rough tree-trunks, which lend the property a slight cottage orné air. To both gables are single storey hipped roof sections, with that to the west linking to a relatively large double pile wing. To the rear there are single storey lean-to sections and a large, two storey, gabled return to which timber dormers were added in the 1970s.