14 Deerpark Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Derelict remains of a small single storey random rubble cottage of probable mid 19th century construction now mostly obscured by greenery with only part of walls and remains of roof still visible. The building is set at the end of a long lane to the W of Deerpark Road, c.1.5 miles N of Portaferry.

Little can be seen of this building. The front façade appears to be symmetrical with a central doorway and flanking windows, all now covered with corrugated iron. The rear is completely obscured. Some roof timbers and laths still remain.

The cottage set amid now abandoned large complex with large ruined water mill with store rooms with the ruined remains of a large two storey mid Victorian house close by.

Historical information

This house is not shown on the OS map of 1834 but is indicated on that of 1860. The general site to which the house undoubtedly related was once a place of some local industrial importance. A large corn mill, mill pond, store houses and windmill are all shown on the site on the 1834 map. The 1837 OS Memoirs inform us that the mill was worked by an overshot wheel 25 feet in diameter and 4 feet in breadth and 'also by a steam engine of about 30 horsepower, in connection with which there is a chimney of brick between 90 and 100 feet in height'.

By 1860 the corn mill had been enlarged, a large 'steam threshing mill' had been built to the south and to the south west a large house ('Ballyherly House') had been erected; the second valuation of c.1861 tells us that the site also contained a starch works and a 'petroleum works', in the hands a William Maxwell and Benjamin Maxwell respectively.

The complex remained in use up until at least 1926.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/25/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 25
2 PRONI VAL/1B/36 1st valuation, Parish of Ballyherly, 1838
3 PRONI OS/6/3/25/2 OS maps, 1st rev, 1860, Down sheet 25
4 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1861 [In print.]
5 PRONI OS/6/3/25/3 OS maps, 2nd ed., 1899-1900, Down sheet 25

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Now derelict ruins of small cottage of c.1840s, set amongst a large abandoned pre 1834 corn mill complex with remains of a substantial mid Victorian residence close by.