Carnbane House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical three-bay two-storey with attic rendered house, built c.1820, on an elevated site on the west side of Hillsborough Road. T-shape on plan facing east with lower two-storey return and farmyard to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and pair of rebuilt redbrick chimneystacks with concrete coping and terracotta pots. Plastic rainwater goods to front elevation and return, cast-iron to rear to overhanging eaves. Painted rough-cast rendered walling to front and north side elevations, smooth cement render to rear and south side elevations. Stepped square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and timber sash windows.

Front east elevation three windows wide with central shallow breakfront beneath single eaves. Tripartite window openings with lower sidelights having 2/2 horizontally-glazed timber sash windows having fixed-pane sidelights and exposed sash boxes. Elliptical-headed door opening to the central breakfront containing timber doorcase and comprising; timber door with six flat panels flanked by pair of plain sidelights and slender panelled pilasters supporting stepped lintel cornice and plain glazed fanlight above. Door opens onto concrete platform.

Gabled south side elevation has a pair of diminutive square-headed window openings to the attic level with replacement timber casement windows.

Rear elevation abutted by lower two-storey return to the north end. Replacement uPVC windows to the rear and to return with a single tripartite window opening to ground floor, as per front elevation. M-profile natural slate roof to return with uPVC glazed French doors and a lean-to accretion to the re-entrant angle.

North gable has a single window opening to the first floor and a pair of diminutive windows at attic level, as per above. Replacement concrete block quadrant wall abutting the rear corner of north gable partly enclosing rear yard.

Setting:
Set on an elevated site on the west side of Hillsborough Road accessed via a long bitmac avenue enclosed by wrought-iron estate railings, splitting into two avenues, one to the front lawn also enclosed by railings and matching wrought-iron gates on cast-iron posts with the avenue continuing along the north side of the house giving access to a functioning farmyard.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Plastic / cast-iron
Walling Rough-cast / cement render
Windows Tripartite timber sash / uPVC

Historical information

Carnbane House appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1833) located north of Hillsborough in the Townland of Carnbane. The house is depicted on the Ordnance Survey map as an L-shaped building which was attached to an oblong shaped out office.

The 1843 Ulster Towns Directory records that Carnbane house was occupied by James Cowan Moreland of H. Bradshaw & Co. Moreland lived at Carnbane House until his death in 1858 when he left the house and effects of £12,000 to his widow Anne Moorhead (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 26/02/1858). In 1861 Griffith’s Valuation valued the house and its’ out offices at £20. There was no discernible change to the house or its offices by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1858. Anne Harrison Moreland lived at Carnbane House until her death in 1873 when she left Carnbane House and effects of £450 to her son Alexander Moreland.

The 1901 Census tells us that Alexander Moreland, a 70 year old farmer, lived at Carnbane with his wife Charlotte (59). In 1901 the farm houses were used as a stable, coach house, harness room, two cow houses, a calf house, piggery, fowl house, boiling house and a barn. In 1910 Carnbane House came into the possession of a Mr. D. Pedlow a 73 year old farmer who lived at Carnbane with his wife Elizabeth (58).

A local History pamphlet ‘As it was’ wrote that the earliest lease to a ‘Carnbane House’ was granted to Mr. John Leathern in 1756, however, research in the field supports a much later build date of c. 1820. In 1982 the First Survey records that the chimneys had been recently reconstructed; the current owner has owned the house since the 1980s.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
6. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1858)
7. Ulster Towns Directory (1843; 1910)

Secondary Sources

1. ‘As it was: A changing scene from Culcavy to Long Kesh Co. Down’ Pamphlet: 2004.
2. First Survey record – HB19/04/021.

This record was compiled without reference to valuation records except Griffith’s Valuation.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Symmetrical three-bay two-storey with attic rendered house, built c.1820, on an elevated site on the west side of Hillsborough Road. Despite an interesting front elevation this late Georgian house has been substantially altered from its original design and is not of special interest.