Glen Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An evolved asymmetrical one-and-a-half storey four-bay house, built c.1830, extended c. 1850 and remodelled c.1880, located on the west side of Bangor Road Groomsport at the south end of Glenganagh estate (HB23/01/001A-B). The house is rectangular on plan with return to east.

Roof is pitched natural slate with angled clay ridge tiles and plainly detailed cement rendered chimneystacks (five to main ridge, one to return). Rainwater goods are cast-iron over exposed rafter tails and corbel course; gables have plain timber bargeboards. Walling is roughcast rendered throughout. Windows are timber sashes with contrasting frames, plain reveals and projecting painted masonry cills. Generally 6/1 configuration, 2/2 (horizontally divided) configuration to larger ground floor windows; variations stated with elevations below. Doors are painted sheeted timber with cast-iron door furniture.

Principal elevation faces west, overlooking the beach, and has attic windows set into gables to all bays with the exception of that to extreme right. Bays are detailed as follows (from left): two windows to ground floor and one above; a large margin-paned window to ground floor and one above; a full-height canted bay with traditional three of 2/2 sashes with single window above; the right bay is vernacular in character (likely to be the earliest part of the house) with a single window to ground floor.

Left gable is blank with the exception of a modern timber door leading to a makeshift shed.

Rear elevation is abutted by a return with catslide extension to north, containing main entrance. The exposed right bay has a door with three-light transom; exposed left bay has a single window. The return has a catslide porch to south, containing main entrance, with window to right. The east elevation has a door with transom light and remains of a cast-iron bootscraper, surmounted by a round-headed 1/1 sash window, and further window to right side. The north elevation has a small high-level window beneath eaves.

Right gable has an attic window.

Setting
The house is set in wooded surroundings close to, but well screened from, the Bangor Road to east. There is a lawned garden to front, bounded by a rubble stone wall and circumnavigated by a grass and earth driveway to parking spaces at north west of house. A natural wooded bank leads to Ballyholme beach, at west. The main house at Glenganagh is set to north.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Roughcast
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

A smaller building appears on the footprint of Glen Cottage on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1833), with small detached outbuilding to north east. By the second edition (1858) the building has been extended northwards to occupy the current footprint, with an additional L-shaped outbuilding now appearing to north east.

The house is currently part of the Glenganagh estate group. Griffith’s Valuation (1856) details the occupier as Alexander Perry, leased from Lord Dufferin and Clandeboye. The current appearance and fabric of the house dates from the late nineteenth century, a period of large scale improvements to the Glenganagh estate upon its transfer from the Dufferin estate to the Kingan family.

‘Glenganagh’ (HB23/01/001A) appears, captioned, on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 but Brett feels that the house is ‘probably at least fifteen years earlier, perhaps more’. (p.103) It is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as the residence of Lady Dufferin, a house and offices valued at £25.6s. Lady Dufferin was Anna Dorothea, Daughter of John Foster, Lord Oriel and the widow of Sir James Blackwood, who inherited the estates of Dufferin and Cladeboye in 1808. She is thought to have moved into Glenganagh shortly after his death in 1836 and lived there until her death in 1865 at the age of 93. She was a noted gardener and Lord Dufferin’s rent books shows an expense of £31.7s.9d on her garden in 1865-6. (Brett, p.103)

In 1880 the estate passed to Samuel Kingan. Lyttle comments that Kingan, “has expended vast sums in ornamenting and beautifying the place, since he became the proprietor of the townlands of Ballyholme and Ballycormick. The vineries, fernery &c are constructed and heated on the most improved principles”. (Brett, p.102; Lyttle, p.89)

Samuel Kingan was a successful businessman who, along with his brothers Thomas and John, had opened a meat-packing plant in Belfast in 1845. The firm prospered selling pork products to the British Navy and in 1851 and 1853 they opened plants in Brooklyn, New York and Cincinnati, Ohio respectively. After both plants burned down, they opened a third in Indianapolis in 1862. In 1875 the firm merged with another Belfast firm, J & T Sinclair. Many of their workers were Irish and some were recruited in Ireland. The ‘Encyclopedia of Indianapolis’ carries an 1893 advertisement for ‘Kingan & Co, Pork Packers’ showing their factory in that town. (Tenuth, p.58; Bodenhamer and Barrows, p.870)

On his death in 1911 the estate passed to his sons William and Thomas. Annual Revisions record a large rise in the valuation following this in 1916 to £110.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/1/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2.PRONI OS/6/3/1/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3.PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
4.PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
5.PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
6.PRONI VAL/1/A/3/1 – Townland Valuation Map (1828-40)
7.PRONI VAL/1/B/31 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
8.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
9.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
10.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
11.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/8A-C – Annual Revisions (1894-1923)
12.PRONI VAL/12/D/3/1 – Annual Revisions Maps (1866–1923)

Secondary Sources

1.Barrows, R.G. and Bodenhamer, D.J. “Encyclopedia of Indianapolis” Indiana University Press, 1994
2.Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
3.“Joint Stock Companies Directory” London: Charles Barker & Sons, 1867
4.Knox, Alexander, M.D. “A History of the County of Down” Dublin: Hodges, Foster & Co, 1875
5.Paul, W.J. “Modern Irish Poets”, 2008
6.Lyttle, W.G. “The Bangor Season, What’s to be Seen and How to See It” Belfast: Appletree Press, Facsimile edition of original published in 1885
7.Tenuth, J “Indianapolis: a Circle City History” Charleston, Chicago, Portsmouth, San Francisco: Arcadia, 2004

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Glen Cottage is an evolved one-and-a-half storey four-bay house, located at the southern part of Glenganagh estate (HB23/01/001A & B). The house as it stands is of late nineteenth century appearance but appears to have evolved from a pre-1833 dwelling, the remains of which are evident in the southern part of the house and in the reconfiguration of the entrance. The survival and development of its original plan is of interest and it retains a large proportion of original fabric. Its immediate setting survives in its rubble stone garden walling and piers, and it has group value as part of the wider Glenganagh estate, where it has been developed as a picturesque estate lodge.