Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
Entrance Gates for Portaferry House
Ballyphilip, Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Listed building, Grade B2
- Grade
- B2
- Type
- Gates/ Screens/ Lodges
- Date of listing
- 7 September 1976
- Date of construction
- 1840 - 1859
- Address
- Entrance Gates for Portaferry House, Church Street, Portaferry, Co Down
- Townland
- Ballyphilip
- Council
- Ards and North Down
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.38331, -5.54694
- Date of survey
- 17 June 1997
- HB reference
- HB24/01/101 A
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 3 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1794 "Sheet 55. (Cary's England, Wales, and Scotland)." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
The Department's description
Exterior description and setting
Decorative yet restrained gate screen of c.1850, fronting the former Church Street entrance to the Portaferry House demesne.
The screen consists of tall square piers constructed in a buff coloured sandstone. The piers have a projecting base with chamfered blocks and entablature with fluted frieze and ball finial. Cast iron central carriage gates with cast iron spear head railings. Similar styled pedestrian gates to either side of piers. Matching railings to either side of pedestrian gates on rendered low stone wall.
Interestingly, the spearhead gate/fence pattern adorns other buildings in Portaferry, for example the Presbyterian and C of I churches.
Historical information
Though the Church Street entrance to the Portaferry House demesne is shown on Patrick O’Hare’s 1799 map, no gates are indicated on either this map or the valuation town paln of 1838. A screen which appears to match the plan of that we see today is shown on the valuation town plan of c.1861. The gates may have been erected in c.1850, at the same time as the accompanying gate lodge appears to have been built.
References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
2 PRONI VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation town plan of Portaferry, c.1838
3 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.520-23
4 PRONI VAL/12E/112/1- Valuation maps of Portaferry, c.1861, with revisions of 1902
5 PRONI OS/8/23/2 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1874
6 PRONI OS/8/23/3 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1900
7 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 J.A.K. Dean, ‘The Gatelodges of Ulster- A Gazetteer’ (Belfast UAHS, 1994), p.89
Criteria for listing: architectural interest
A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value
Criteria for listing: historic interest
X. Local Interest
Evaluation
Decorative yet restrained gate screen of c.1850, fronting the former Church Street entrance to the Portaferry House demesne, with sandstone pillars and cast iron spear head railings. Group value with the other listed demesne buildings/
General comments
This record was previously numbered HB24/01/101.
Nearby in the register
- Gate LodgeNo type recordedunder 1 mi
- 35 Church StreetHouseunder 1 mi
- 42-48 Church StreetHouseunder 1 mi
- 31-33 Church StreetHouseunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.