25-29 Church Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Group of three small single storey terrace houses of probable pre 1834 construction. The buildings are set on the E side of Church Street, to the N of Portaferry town centre.

Front (W) façade of No.25 has a modern timber panel and glazed door (with plain fanlight) in centre and two pane PVC windows to either side, with small upper pane top hung. To the rear are two mono pitch single storey returns. The mono pitches face each other with a box gutter between. The façade is finished in line render and painted, with paint used to simulate plinth. Eaves course, stone cills, cast iron gutter and down spout. The gabled roof is covered in Bangor Blue slates.

The front façade of No.27 has a c.1960s timber and glazed door in centre and a sash and window to either side. The front façade is finished in line render and painted, with paint used to simulate plinth. Eaves course, stone cills, cast iron gutter and down spout. To the rear there is a modern glazed and panelled, timber door to the centre with a modern timber window either side. Bangor Blue slates to the gabled roof.

No. 29 is a single fronted house with a modern panelled and glazed door to the left and window to the right, with modern frame. This façade is finished in line render and painted, with paint used to simulate plinth. Eaves course, stone cills, cast iron gutter and down spout. The rear façade is obscured with rampant undergrowth. The gabled roof is covered in asbestos free slates.

Historical information

Buildings, in possession of an Edward Smyth, James Wallis and William Agnew are shown on this site on Patrick O’Hare’s 1799 map. The present dwellings may (in part at least) be those indicated in 1799. All were exempt from rating at the time of the first valuation (1838) and are therefore not recorded in the valuation returns.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.552/B/3/3/1 Savage/Nugent Papers ‘A Plan or Map of the Town of Portaferry’ by Patrick O’Hare, 1799
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 VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation town plan of Portaferry, c.1838
5 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.520-23
6 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
7 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.592-95
8 PRONI OS/8/23/1- OS town plan of Portaferry, 1859
9 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1863 [in print]
10 PRONI VAL/12E/112/1- Valuation maps of Portaferry, c.1863, with revisions of 1902
11 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870), pp.341-43
12 PRONI OS/8/23/2 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1874
13 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886)
14 PRONI OS/8/23/3 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1900
15 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), p.11
2 Sr. Mary Mercy (nee Isobel Cummings), "Memories of Portaferry in the early years of this century" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society', No.10 (1986), pp. 21-24

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Group of three small single storey terrace houses of probable pre 1834 construction, with two houses now having modern doors and window frames, and of little architectural interest.