Woodside

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey house of c.1840-50, with projecting gabled bays to all sides and overhanging eaves. This property is believed to have been built as the residence for Lord Annesley’s Newcastle land steward, and is set on the NE edge of Donard Wood, close to the entrance to the former Donard Lodge estate. The house was originally roughly cruciform in plan and was extended in the late 1970s with the addition of rear lean-tos. In the early 1990s, the building was converted to two apartments.

The main entrance is set in the N side face of the central projecting two storey porch. The door opening is framed with a smooth cement band and has a margined fanlight over a panelled timber door. The S side of the bay is blank. The ‘front’ (E) face of the bay has a modern multi-pane window with moulded surround and drip moulding over to both ground and first floors. That to ground floor is slightly taller. The projecting bay is gabled and the eaves overhang has decorative barge boards. To either side of the bay the façade is single storey and sports a single window, much as before, to both sides.

The N and S façades have two storey gables also, each having one first floor window, similar to previous, but smaller and without the drip moulding. To the right of the N façade is the side of a single storey lean-to extension and a modern door giving access to apartment B. The S gabled bay has been extended in lean-to fashion to the W side.

To the left side of the W elevation is a lean-to extension with a modern multi-pane window each to the S and W faces. A central gabled two storey gabled section rises above the extension and has two multi-pane windows, that to the right being much smaller. To the right of the extension on the ground floor are two multi-pane windows (one of which is situated on the lean-to extension to the S gabled bay).

External walls are finished in roughcast. Each external corner has a vertical smooth cement band. The roof is finished in artificial slates and has an overhang with shaped barges to some gables. There are two tall rendered chimney stacks. PVC rw goods.

To the rear of the house are outhouses likely to have been built in the 20th century.

Historical information

‘Woodside’ is shown on the OS map of 1859 and is believed to have been built (perhaps c.1840-50) as the residence for Lord Annesley’s land steward for the Newcastle area. One Henry Douglas is noted as the occupier in the 1863 valuation.

The house was renovated in the 1970s with the loss of all sash windows and the addition of the rear lean-to extension. In the 1990s, the present owner divided the house into two apartments.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.1503 Annesley Papers.
2 PRONI OS/6/3/49/2 OS map, first rev., Co. Down 49.
3 PRONI Second (‘Griffith’s) valuation, Kilcoo, 1863.
4 PRONI VAL/12E/111/1 Valuation town plan of Newcastle, 1864-1906.
5 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ]).
6 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.161-165.
7 PRONI OS/8/136/1-4 OS plans of Newcastle, 1901.

Secondary sources
1 P.J. Rankin, 'Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in the Mourne Area of South Down', (Belfast UAHS 1975), p.76.
2 Grenfell Morton ‘Victorian and Edwardian Newcastle’ (Belfast 1988).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Picturesque, two storey house of c.1840-50, with projecting bays to all sides and overhanging eaves, believed to have been built as the residence for Lord Annesley's land steward. The property was originally cruciform in plan, but was altered in the 1970s with the addition of single storey lean-tos to the rear. Windows are modern.