Lough House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, much extended and somewhat sprawling, two storey gabled house of largely pre 1834 construction. The property is set at the western (lough side) of Main Street, Greyabbey.

The shape of this house is complex. The main section is gabled and runs NW to SE and has a large flat roofed porch near the centre of the NE facade. This porch contains a timber door with decorative elliptical fanlight and sidelights. To either side of this porch are two sash windows (largely obscured by hedges) with ‘Georgian’ panes and ‘quoin’-like surrounds, with five similar to the first floor.

The SW gable of the main section is blank. Attached to the NW end of this section is a slightly smaller, hipped roofed wing which runs roughly SW to NE. The SE elevation of this wing has a flat roofed porch to the right with a four pane window to its SE side and a timber panelled door to the NE side. To the first floor are two windows, as previous.

The rear of the large main section has a large roughly ‘L’ shaped two storey return with many, mainly evenly spaced, sash windows, and French doors to the SE elevation. The rear of the smaller wing has a large single storey flat roofed section, with a terrace to the flat roof. The rear elevation of this single storey section has a bowed bay window (with frames much as before). To the NW elevation of this wing is a part single, part two storey, ‘boiler house’ modern extension which is built into a bank within the sloping back garden. To the left (E side) of the NW elevation of the smaller wing are a mixture of sash windows, as before, and modern metal windows.

All elevations are finished in rough cast render with quoins to the front facade of the main section. The front facade of the smaller wing and the main section are largely covered in ivy. The rear is partly covered in ivy stems. The roofs are mainly pitched and covered in Bangor blue slates with a mixture of red and yellow brick chimney stacks. The roof is also partly covered in ivy stems. Cast iron rw goods. There is a low wall enclosing a tiny garden to the front of the house. Modernised single storey outbuildings to rear.

The present owner has restored some of the window frames recently, including the large bowed bay window to the rear, and is currently restoring one belonging to the first floor of the SW side of the large return.

Historical information

The complex layout of this house reflects something of its interesting history. The oldest section of the house may be the smaller wing, running from SW to NE, which, according to the current owner, dates from around 1725-30. This wing, along with the single storey hall still attached to its NE side and the two storey section attached to the NE of the hall (now a dwelling house), may have been built as one property which, according to local tradition, began life as an inn. If one looks at the structure today one can perhaps discern what the original inn may have looked like, a possibly formal structure with a single storey central section flanked by two storey hipped roof wings. Conceivably, the building may have been one of the ‘handsome brick houses covered with slates’ referred to by Walter Harris in c.1744, though the mention of the word ‘brick’ would appear to caution against such a suggestion.

The road beside which the supposed inn stood originally ran past the edge of the former western limit of the Rosemount estate, probably through the site of the present estate entrance and directly passed the NE side of the 'inn' itself. In the years immediately prior to the publication of the first OS map in 1834, however, the road to the south of the village was re-sited further west of the estate (over a specially constructed causeway) and directed north-eastwards up Main Street, rather than across it, thus re-routing it away from the side of the 'inn'. By this stage also [and perhaps in the wake of the road re-orientation], what is now the main section of the house had been constructed. At what stage the 'inn' building became two distinct properties is unclear. The division may have simply occurred when the new main house section was complete, or it may have come about in the later 1800s, when the central section of the (former) 'inn' served firstly as a school and later as a court house, with magistrate/judge’s quarters in the NE wing. The OS Memoirs of c.1834 refer to a ‘room at the west end of the village...used for an infant school’, suggesting (if this is the building to which they are referring) that the 'inn' had ceased to function by this date. As for the ‘new’ house, the large return to the rear of the was constructed post 1834 (possibly around 1860), as were the two square porches on the front facade.

The smaller extension to the NW elevation is twentieth century. Until 1949, the property served as the steward’s house for the Rosemount and Ballywalter estates, with part of the smaller (original) wing housing estate[s] offices.

References- Primary sources
1 Walter Harris, 'The Ancient and Present State of the County of Down', (Dublin, 1744) p.49
2 'Taylor’s and Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland' (Dublin 1777), map 10
3 W. Wilson, 'The Post Chaise Companion or Traveller’s Directory through Ireland', (Dublin, 1786)
4 1. PRONI OS 6/3/11/1 OS 6" map, 1st edition (1834) Co Down sheet 11 [The route of the original road to the south of Greyabbey is marked on the 1834 map.]
5 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), pp.67-72
6 PRONI VAL/1B/33 1st valuation, Greyabbey, c.1834-38
7 PRONI VAL/1D/3/17 Valuation plan, Greyabbey, c.1838
8 PRONI VAL/2B/3/4 Second valuation, Greyabbey, c.1859
9 PRONI VAL/2D/3/10 Second valuation plan, Greyabbey, 1859
10 1. PRONI OS 6/3/11/2 OS 6" map, 2nd edition (1860) Co Down sheet 11
11 PRONI VAL/12B/23/16a-f Annual valuation revision books, Greyabbey, 1866-1930
12 PRONI VAL/12E/99/1 Valuation plan, Greyabbey, 1906-35
13 UFTM W.A. Green Collection WAG 3038 Photograph of Main Street Greyabbey looking south west

Secondary sources
1 Bob Trayte, "The Greyabbey and village" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.16' (1992), pp.2-4.
2 J.A.K. Dean, 'The Gate lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer' (Belfast, 1994), p.78. The entry concerning the early and later town gate lodges (off Main Street) at Rosemount implies that the re-orientation of the road to Newtownards may have taken pace between c.1820 and c.1834.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large, much extended and somewhat sprawling, two storey gabled house of largely pre 1834 construction, but with large two storey later 19th century hipped roof rear return and flat roofed porches.