12 Ferry Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The right hand house in a two storey terrace block containing two small, informal, houses of probable pre 1834 construction. The block is set on the E side of the sloping Ferry Street. This house is now undergoing major renovation.

To the right of the front façade is a timber sheeted door with fanlight with simple tracery. To the left of this is a large window opening to left, now boarded up. To the first floor there are two windows, a double sliding sash window to the left and a single sliding sash window (with one vertical astragal) to the right. The façade is finished in lined render and painted. Exposed section of S gable rendered.

To the rear there stretches two single storey returns with mono-pitched roofs. These join to a two storey outbuilding further to the E, and the whole ensemble encloses a small yard. The rear façade of the main house appears to have two first floor windows, with a six pane fixed light frame in that to the right. The façade is covered in white-washed rough cast, but some of this has come away to reveal a rubble construction. The returns and the outbuilding appear to have mainly sash windows.

Both this house and No 10 next door have gabled roofs covered with fibre cement slates. Blue brick chimney with simple corbelling and matching pots in center and rendered chimney stack between. Eaves course. Cast iron gutters and down spouts.

To the rear are two lean-to returns. These returns are separated by a narrow yard and run into a two storey gabled outhouse. To the center of the main façade is a door opening. To first floor center is a window opening with no frame and to the right of this is a small fixed light window with 6 Georgian panes.

Historical information

On Patrick O'Hare's map of 1799, a building (or buildings) is shown on this site (combined site of Nos 10 & 12), in possession of a Hugh Donning. Two, two storey houses are recorded on the site in the valuation of c.1835, which were then in the possession of a John McMullan and a John Edwards. These 1835 buildings may be substantially those we see today.

Both houses (with outbuildings and the coachway to the north end) are also indicated on the c.1861 valuation map, by which stage they were occupied by an Anne Hogan and a Margaret McCombe.

References- Primary sources
1 Walter Harris, 'The Ancient and Present State of the County of Down' (Dublin 1744), p. 44. [ Harris describes Portaferry as ‘a market town, but irregularly built, and few other than thatched houses in it’.]
2 'Taylor's and Skinner's Maps of the roads of Ireland' (Dublin 1777)
3 PRONI D.552/B/3/3/1 Savage/Nugent Papers: ‘A Plan or Map of the Town of Portaferry’ by Patrick O’Hare, 1799 [The
Savage/Nugent Papers contain many documents relating to Portaferry and the surrounding area]
4 Linen Hall Library ‘Pigot & Co.’s Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory’ (Manchester 1824)
5 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991)
6 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
7 PRONI VAL/1B/37 1st valuation, Ballyphilip, c.1835-38
8 PRONI VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation town plan of Portaferry, c.1838
9 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.520-23
10 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
11 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.592-95
12 PRONI OS/8/23/1- OS town plan of Portaferry, 1859
13 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1863 [In print.]
14 PRONI VAL/12E/112/1- Valuation maps of Portaferry, c.1863, with revisions of 1902
15 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870), pp.341-43
16 PRONI OS/8/23/2 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1874
17 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886)
18 PRONI OS/8/23/3 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1900
19 PRONI VAL/12E/112/2- Valuation maps of Portaferry, 1902, with revisions of 1935

Secondary sources
1 G. Philip Bell, C.E.B. Brett, Sir Robert Matthew, 'Ulster Architectural Heritage Survey: Portaferry & Strangford'
(Belfast UAHS 1969)
2 PRONI Portaferry: Sources for Local History (PRONI ?1970s)
3 R. Oram, "The Buildings of Portaferry" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society' No.16 (1992)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

One of a pair in a two-storey terrace block containing informal, houses of probable pre 1834 construction.