The Rectory

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two storey rectory house of 1818 with attic, large three storey rear extension of c.1830 and later 19th century flat roofed porch to front. The building is situated at the end of a short drive to the NW side of the Cloughy Road, on the NE outskirts of Portaferry.

The house is basically L shaped in plan form. Front (south west) facade is symmetrical. To the ground floor centre is a large flat roofed porch with timber and glazed double door in segmental arch recess to SE face, large ‘door like’ multi pane window within similar broader recess to front, and similar window within narrower recess (as door) to left. The porch hides original doorway, which has timber panel and glazed double doors, sidelights and an elliptical fanlight with radial tracery.

Tripartite sash window, with Georgian panes, to left of porch with similar window to right. Three similar windows, but slightly shorter, to first floor.

SE elevation consists of the gable of the main house which merges into the side of the large three storey return. Ground floor has narrow single sash window to left (on gable) and a slightly shorter double sash window to right. First floor (of return) has three sash windows with, Georgian panes, with three similar to second floor, and two at a slightly higher (attic) level to gable of main house.

The NW gable of main house has a small six pane window to left on first floor with two larger sash windows (as rear etc.) to attic level.

To the rear (NE) façade of the return there is a double sash window to ground floor. To the first floor of there is a four pane window to right. To the ground floor left on the NW façade of the return is a doorway with partly glazed door. To the right of this (and abutting the rear façade of the main section of the house) there is a single storey lean-to. This has a four pane window to its NE face and to small windows to the NW face. To the first floor left of the NW façade of the return there is a small four pane window.

On the rear façade of the main house is another a double sash window to the ground floor. To the first floor right there is small eight pane casement window. To the left of this (directly above the lean-to) are two stairwell sash windows with Georgian panes. The upper window (which is larger) is set in a large half dormer over stairwell with hipped roof.

The façade is finished in unpainted roughcast with vermiculated quoins to front.

Roofs of main house and return gabled and covered with Bangor blue slates, with two yellow brick chimneys, with dentilled corbelling, to main house with one to return. Roof has noticeably greater overhang at eaves to front elevation, with smooth plaster eaves course and soffit. Cast iron gutters and down spouts. Single storey outbuildings to rear.

Historical information

This house stands on the site of the medieval church of St. Nicholas and its adjoining former graveyard. A rectory appears to have been built here c.1684-1706 by Rev. Archibald McNeale, the Chancellor of Down, however, the present structure dates from 1818, and was built at a cost of £1,090.

Whether any part of McNeale’s original house was incorporated into the new rectory is not certain, however, a former resident, Rev. Sidney McCullough, told the writers that he believed that parts of the present building predate 1818, and valuation records of c.1838 indciate that certain parts of the house may have been late 18th century (the valuers graded them 'B'). The large three storey return is said to have been added by Rev. J.L.M. Scott, in c.1840s, but the valuation returns record its presence in 1838 (when the Rev. St John Smith was in residence). At this stage the property also possessed a water closet, dairy, fowl house, hay loft, cow house and 'shed'. The contemporary OS Memoirs describe the building as 'highly characteristic of a glebe house, almost surrounded by a plantation'.

A plan of the premises, dating from 1870 (in possession of the present incumbent) shows the rectory much as today, with the front porch, but appears to indicate that the present back yard may have been built upon as well, perhaps suggesting the presence of a, now demolished, outbuilding.

Nothing remains of the former church of St. Nicholas, though, occasionally, various human bones (from the former graveyard) have been unearthed in the rectory grounds.

References- Primary sources
1 Walter Harris, The Ancient and Present State of the County of Down (1744), p. 46. [Harris mentions the original rectory built by Rev Archibald McNeale.]
2 Linen Hall Library ‘Pigot & Co.’s Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory’ (Manchester 1824)
3 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams
(QUB 1991), p.14
4 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
5 PRONI VAL/1B/37 1st valuation, Ballyphilip, c.1835-38
6 PRONI VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation town plan of Portaferry, c.1838
7 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.520-23
8 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
9 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.592-95
10 PRONI OS/8/23/1- OS town plan of Portaferry, 1859
11 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1863 [in print]
12 PRONI VAL/12E/112/1- Valuation maps of Portaferry, c.1863, with revisions of 1902
13 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870), pp.341-43
14 PRONI OS/8/23/2 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1874
15 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886)
16 PRONI OS/8/23/3 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1900
17 UFTM WAG 609, 611, 612 W.A. Green Collection, photographs of Portaferry Quay, harbour, Shore Road etc.
18 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 Dick Oram, "The Buildings of Portaferry" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.16' (1992), p. 24
3 Rev. J.P.O. Barry, ‘Church of Sti. Nicholai de Phelpeston in le Ardes’ in Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.6 (1982), pp. 11-14.
4 Jack Orr, ‘The Church of Ireland Parish of Ballyphilip’ in Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.1 (1977), p. 31.
5 Plan of the Rectory c.1870 (In possession of the current resident)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Very fine, large two storey rectory house of 1818 with attic, large three storey return of c.1830 to rear, and later 19th century flat roofed porch to front. This building replaced an earlier rectory of c.1700 which stood beside the original Ballyphilip Parish church. No discernible trace of the original church has survived but it has been suggested that the portions of the present rectory was built around the fabric of the early 18th century house.