8 Clandeboye Cottages

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 1 ½ storey single bay mid-terrace Victorian workers cottage built c.1855. Located on the north side of the main Belfast to Bangor Road opposite the entrance to the Clandeboye Estate.

Pitched natural slate roof with intermediate bands of fish scale courses with clay ridge tile. Replacement red brick chimney. Cast iron rainwater goods; half circle gutters; circular downpipes; uPVC SVP to rear. Smooth rendered walling; projecting plinth and corbel course. Replacement timber side-hung single-glazed casement windows; chamfered flush cills with moulded sandstone surrounds and mullions to ground floor; plain chamfered surrounds and cills to first floor. Timber front door in Tudor-arched opening with moulded surrounds; fixed light over.

Principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged. Front door located on right. Tripartite ground floor window to left; painted mullions and surrounds; horizontal timber glazing bars. Wall-head dormer over ground floor window; bipartite window with horizontal glazing bars.

The left elevation is abutted by 9 Clandeboye Cottages (HB23/10/001I).

The rear elevation is principally symmetrically arranged; red brick English garden bond; rear timber sheeted door centrally located; flanked by camber-headed arched sash windows to ground floor and first floor. First floor right window original 2/2 sliding sash.

The right elevation is abutted by 7 Clandeboye Cottages (HB23/10/001F).

Setting
Garden to front. Yard to rear with terraced red-bricked, slated pitched roof outbuildings comprising external toilet and storage. Rear access via timber ledge-and-braced solid gate. To the west of the site is rural landscape; south is a busy dual carriageway; modern housing development to the north and east.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Smooth render
Windows: Timber casement
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

This terraced row of cottages belonging to the Clandeboye estate and bearing the date 1867 has offered something of a puzzle to researchers because of its appearance on the second edition OS map of 1858, nine years prior to the date on the building. However, the datestone currently visible on the south facade of the terrace is not in its original position and it is unclear whether it originated with this building or elsewhere on the estate. The first survey photograph of the terrace clearly shows a window where the datestone is now positioned and first survey information indicates that in 1973 the datestone was detached and lying in a back yard of one of the houses. Given that the terrace appears on the 1858 OS map, there appears to be a strong possibility that the datestone derives from another structure on the estate. (First survey information) The possibility cannot be discounted that the building was added to the map at a later date, but although this practice was commonplace with regard to railway lines and their ancillary buildings, houses beyond the immediate curtilage of the railway were not usually treated in this way.

The terrace is not listed in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64), however this is not conclusive evidence that it was not in existence at this time, as estate buildings were often included in the valuation of an estate without being separately identified. When the buildings first appear in Annual Revisions in 1866, they are listed as vacant, perhaps indicating that they were newly completed internally. A date of mid-1850s seems to best reconcile the conflicting evidence and is consistent with field inspection of the terrace. (Griffith’s Valuation, Annual Revisions)

The terrace, consisting of thirteen dwellings with outbuildings to the rear and a reading room, is situated on the northern edge of what was then the Clandeboye Estate. To the north is a shelter belt of trees, the ‘Walmer Screen’ and to the east a wooded area, ‘Walmer Grove’, Walmer being the name of a Cinque port of which Lord Dufferin was warden. (Patton, p.22) Correspondence between Lord Dufferin and Mortimer Thomson dating from 1869 concerning the allocation of estate cottages may relate to the current buildings. (Estate papers)

The terrace is listed in Annual Revisions from 1866, the dwellings all initially being vacant with numerous changes of occupier and occasional periods of vacancy, consistent with the buildings being used as estate workers’ cottages. All the dwellings are leased from Lord Dufferin and Clandeboye and are valued at £3.10s. In 1874, this valuation is raised to £4, indicating some improvements to the properties at this time.

The architect responsible is unknown, but Benjamin Ferrey and William Henry Lynn were both working with Lord Dufferin during the 1850s and 1860s and are therefore possible candidates.

The houses are captioned ‘Red Cottages’ on the ordnance survey map of 1901, a reference to an original brick frontage. According to the estate office, however, the terrace was always known as ‘Red Row’ and the now-rendered dwellings currently go by the name of ‘Clandeboye Cottages’. (Patton, p.22, information from estate office)

Patton notes that each house originally had a front garden and a small plot at the rear for growing vegetables. (p.22) The cottages were originally designed with an open porch area which has now been enclosed by bringing the front doors forward. This change was made prior to listing in 1973. (First survey photograph, tenant information) A row of sheds running behind the cottages is shown on the second edition map of 1858 and these are therefore contemporary with the cottages themselves.

In 1985 extensive repairs and improvements were carried out to the dwellings which included replacing internal doors and frames, replacing floorboards, removal of kitchen units and walls, taking down and rebuilding chimneys, connecting the houses with sewers and electricity and replacement of front and back doors. Since this time gas heating has been introduced and copper pipework can be seen to the rear elevations. (NIEA file)

The cottages are still owned by the Clandeboye estate and are still, in many cases, the homes of estate workers or their descendants, giving a remarkable continuity of use from the time they were first built.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
3.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
4.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
5.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
6.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/8A-C – Annual Revisions (1894-1923)
7.PRONI D1071/A/K/1/B/19/1 – Correspondence between Lord Dufferin and Mortimer Thomson Jan to Dec 1869
8.NIEA File – HB23/10/001A-M

Secondary Sources

1.Tenant information
2.Information from estate office
3.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A 1 ½ storey single bay mid terrace Victorian workers cottage built c.1855, one of a terrace of thirteen erected for the Clandeboye Estate. Although modernised, its detailing survives and is integral to the group value and interest of the terrace. The terrace is a good example of this type of estate workers housing and one of only a few such terraces in the Province. It is also of significance as part of the Clandeboye Estate and its links to the Dufferin family.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered and split, it was Originally recorded under the one reference HB23/10/001