1 Ballyfounder Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Substantial single storey hipped roof house, said locally to have been built in 1876, with prominent chimney stacks and large returns to rear. The property is set on the S side of the Ballyfounder Road, roughly half a mile SE of Portaferry. The building is roughly U shaped in plan form and has witnessed recent renovation with modern timber windows to the front and a conservatory and PVC windows to the rear.

The front elevation faces roughly N and is symmetrical. This elevation consists of the main section of the house, (which makes up the base of the ‘U’ shape), which has a central projecting porch with hipped roof. The entrance is located to the W face of the porch and consists of a panelled door set with a chamfered reveal. To the N and E faces of the porch is a window with modern timber frame. To each side of porch (on main facade) are two similar windows. All windows have stone cills.

To the far left of the E elevation is the side of a recently added conservatory, whilst the main building has two widows similar to front elevation.

S (rear) elevation is made up of the gables of the two returns (which make up the uprights the of the ‘U’ shape), and the rear of the main building between. The gable to the return to the west (left) is hipped, with a narrow flush lean to extension to its right, and has four unevenly spaced openings, with two timber windows, similar to the front elevation, and two doors, one glazed the other panelled. The side of this return (i.e. the side of the narrow lean to extension) has one single pane PVC casement window. The return to the east (right), which finishes on a gable, has a roughly semi-circular PVC conservatory attached. The side of this return has a single two pane PVC casement window. Between both returns, the rear of the main part of the house has two, two pane, PVC windows with top hung upper panes.

The W facade of the main building has two windows similar to those to front.

The main roof is hipped and covered in asbestos slates and clay ridge tiles. There are three chimney stacks in the centre of the main building and one each on of the returns. The stacks are relatively tall and are finished in plain render with decorative corbelling, with one decorative pot on all stacks, and two to that on the E return. PVC gutters and down spouts.

Wrought iron garden gates. Adjacent out houses originally used as offices for local clergy.

Historical information

This house, originally the Parochial House for St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, is believed to have built by Rev. James Killen in 1876. However, a building of similar size is indicated on the OS maps of 1834 and 1860, suggesting that the present dwelling may represent a remodelling of an earlier structure.

A new parochial house (nearer the church itself) was built in 1958.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.552 Savage/Nugent Papers [This collection contains many documents relating to Portaferry and the surrounding area]
2 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
3 PRONI VAL/1B/37 1st valuation, Ballyphilip, c.1835-38
4 PRONI OS/6/3/32/2 OS maps, 1st rev., 1860, Down sheet 32
5 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1861 [in print]

Secondary sources
1 St. Patrick’s Church Ballyphilip 1762-1962 [Souvenir booklet] (Portaferry, 1962), pp.32-33, 39
2 G. Philip Bell, C.E.B. Brett, Sir Robert Matthew, 'Ulster Architectural Heritage Survey: Portaferry & Strangford'
(Belfast UAHS 1969)
3 'Guide to places of interest in Portaferry and the Upper Ards' (Upper Ards Historical Society, ?1995)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Substantial, single storey hipped roof house, said locally to have been built in 1876, but possibly a remodelling of a pre 1834 dwelling.