10 Kearney Village

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, formal two storey house of perhaps c.1840s. The property is set to the western side of Kearney Village (itself c.3 miles SE of Portaferry).

Front (W) façade is symmetrical. To the centre of the ground floor there is a timber panel door encased with simple pilasters and a plain entablature and cornice. Single sash window, with Georgian panes, to left of door, with similar window to right, with three similar (evenly spaced) windows to first floor. Low rendered wall, with openings to left and right, to front door.

N gable has window as before to right on ground floor, with one directly above to first floor, with a window-like recess to left on first floor.

S gable has two similar, but smaller, windows to first floor.

Rear has almost central plain timber sheeted back door, with a window, as front, to left, and a similar, but smaller window to right. Three windows to first floor similar to front but slightly smaller, with middle window set slightly lower than that to left and right. Small lean to store extension to left (flush with gable) on rear ground floor.

Entire façade finished in lined render and painted. The gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates. Stone parapets and two yellow brick chimney stacks with dentilled corbelling. Cast iron gutters and down spouts.

Historical information

A building is shown on this general site on the OS map of 1834 but its shape and positioning do not match that of the present dwelling exactly. The revised map of 1860 shows a building which appears to match that of today in terms of size and positioning. Judging from the style of the present house it is probable that it is indeed that shown in 1860 (and therefore may date from c.1840s).

KEARNEY VILLAGE
In early medieval times, the townland of Kearney was a possession of the McKearneys, a family possibly distantly related to the O’Neills of Tyrone. During the later medieval period this land came into the possession of the Gaelicised Norman family of the Savages, who appear to have leased much of it to the Smiths, a dependent family of similar origin. A lease from Patrick Savage to Patrick Smith from 1643 mentions what was then one of the most lucrative aspects of Kearney, ‘the mill, mill ponds and watercourses’, from which the landlord received at not inconsiderable income.

By the later 17th century the Savages had leased much of Kearney to the Ross family (of Rosstrevor) who continued in possession of the lands throughout the 18th century. It is from a lease of March 1729 that we have the first indication of a substantial settlement on the site of the present village. This settlement was to grow throughout the remainder of the century, with locals employed on the local farms and the two near by flax and corn mills, whilst supplementing their incomes by salvaging the not infrequent shipwrecks, and perhaps smuggling. Wrecking may have taken place also.

The village probably reached its greatest extent in terms of population and activity in the 1830s, when there were 33 families, two schools (one C of I and Catholic, the other Presbyterian), and a ‘ceilidh house’. Most of the buildings we see today appear to have been present at this time, but as most were exempt from rating, very little is recorded of the village in the 1836 valuation in terms of house dimensions and occupiers*. The only dwellings which are mentioned are three single storey houses, occupied by Hugh and John McNabb and Widow Hasty (who owned the close by windmill).

The slow decline in Kearney’s fortunes began in the latter half of the nineteenth century and by 1900 the population had halved, many seeking more prosperous lives in the towns, or emigrating. By 1938 most of the Kearney farms and cottages had passed into the possession of Hugh Orr, who had established a model farm close by. The decline continued unabated, however, so that by 1945 only three houses were occupied by a total of seven residents. When the National Trust acquired the village twenty years later (with money collected during the Enterprise Neptune campaign), it was practically a ghost town.

Since 1965, the Trust have attempted to restore and reconstruct Kearney based on the plan of the village as shown on the 1834 OS Map, when the settlement had probably reached its zenith. Most of the houses are now occupied as full time homes once more, with a few as holiday residences, with all properties leased from the Trust.

Currently only one of the original dwellings lies vacant awaiting imminent restoration.

*The second valuation poses similar problems for the buildings in the village are not individually numbered on the valuation map, thus making it very difficult (if not impossible) to put the name of an occupant to a dwelling.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.552 Savage/Nugent Papers
2 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
3 PRONI VAL/1B/38 First valuation, Parish of Ballytrustan, 1836
4 PRONI OS/6/3/32/2 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st rev., 1860, Down sheet 32
5 PRONI Second valuation, Parish of Ballytrustan, 1861 (in print)
6 PRONI OS/6/3/32/3 Ordnance Survey maps, 2nd ed., 1899-1900, Down sheet 32
7 Admiralty Chart of Strangford Lough, surveyed by Richard Hoskyn Master R.N. 1859-60, with small corrections 1918-38 (HMSO)

Secondary sources
1 The above history was mainly compiled from various articles kindly supplied to the authors by the National Trust, in particular one by Mrs. M.A.K. Garner, charting the early history of Kearney
2 Jim Blaney, "Mary Ann Donnan of Kearney" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.3' (1979), pp.24-5
3 Reta Lyttle, "Kearney" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.4' (1980), p.15

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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large and well proportioned, formal two storey house of perhaps c.1840s which appears to be largely intact externally. It has group value with the other listed buildings in Kearney.