(Site of) cottage,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Site, on the W side of Main Street, Newcastle, of former single storey house of possible pre 1834 origin. This house was demolished c.1990 and a larger modern building now occupies its place.

The house formerly on the site was first surveyed c.1978. It was a long single (or perhaps one and a half) storey building with a gabled roof. Its front facade was symmetrical with three sash windows (with label moulding above) on either side of a small gabled porch. The roof had four evenly spaced rendered chimney stacks with octagonal pots. The roof had natural slates and decorative (late Victorian looking) ridge tiles. There were two windows to the S gable with it and the front facade rendered and painted.

The recently constructed brick building now on this site is two storey with a hipped roof. It contains shops (at ground floor level) and apartments, it also appears to have a large return.

Historical information

A building matching the plan and siting of that still standing until fairly recently is shown on the OS maps of 1834 and 1858. The 1834 valuation records note that the property was at that stage the home of one Eliza Douglas and was was graded 'B' by the valuers, suggesting they believed (or were informed) that it was fairly old, perhaps thirty to fifty years. It was undoubtedly among the 110 single storey properties 'some of them very good' noted by the compilers of the OS memoirs in 1836. By the time of the second valuation the house was in the hands of the Rev. James Steen.

The regular facade of the house when surveyed c.1978, along with its gabled porch, label moulding and decorative ridge tiles suggests that if the property was indeed pre 1834 it was probably renovated in late Victorian times. The building was demolished c.1990.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/1/3/49 OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Down 49.
2 PRONI VAL 1B/362 1st valuation, Kilcoo parish, 1834.
3 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.3: Parishes of County Down I’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1990), p.43.
4 PRONI OS/6/3/49/2 OS maps 1st rev. 1858, Down 49.
5 PRONI 2nd valuation, Kilcoo parish, 1863.

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.72.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Site of former single storey house of possible pre 1834 origin, demolished c.1990 with larger modern building now in place.