Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively plain, Georgian looking, single storey gabled hall of possible early to mid 18th century construction, which may originally have been part of a larger building incorporating the two larger two storey hipped roof buildings to the immediate NE and SW.

The symmetrical front facade of the hall faces SE into the square at the S end of the village of Greyabbey. It has a central timber panelled door, with radial semicircular arch fanlight all encased with ‘Ards’ surround with plain pilasters and surround with simple keystone to arch. Tiled steps to door. To each side of the doorway are two semicircular arch headed window openings containing sash frames with Georgian panes. The front facade is finished in lined render with paint used to simulate ‘in and out’ dressings to windows. The rear has been extended in modern times (c.1950s) and has a galvanised corrugated iron roof and a series of modern metal windows, with one to the left set within a very large opening. The rear is finished in rough cast. The roof is pitched with concrete pantiles. Tall red brick chimney to SW.

No.2B is attached to the NE side of No.2A. It is two storey with a hipped roof and originally belonged to this building, but is now a separately owned dwelling house (see HB24/04/002B).

Historical information

Locally, this property is believed to have begun life as part of a larger building which incorporated the two storey section, still visible to its immediate SW side (but now attached to the house to the SE- HB24/04/001) and that to the NE (now also a house HB24/04/002B). This original building may have been symmetrical, with the two storey sections matching.

This single property is said locally to have been built between c.1725 and 1735, and is said to have originally served as a coaching inn. Conceivably, the building may have been one of the ‘handsome brick houses covered with slates’ referred to by Walter Harris in c.1744. At that time the road to Newtownards ran through what is now the western entrance to the Rosemount estate directly past the side of the building itself (where the small steep lane now is). In the 1820s this road was redirected further up Main Street, and by this point also, the house had been built on to the SW two storey section of the ‘inn’. Whether the re-orientation of the road to Newtownards and the building of the house to the SW are connected, and whether (as a result), this whole property ceased to be an inn at this stage is unclear. Local folk memory suggests that the single storey centre section was once used as a school and an infant school is mentioned in the OS Memoirs of c.1835 as being in ‘a room at the west end of the village’, thus, perhaps, implying that the inn had ceased to exist by this date. By the later nineteenth century the central section served as a court house, with judges' rooms in the two sections to the NE. This NE section is now a separate property (No.2B The Square) and the central portion (No.2A) is now a parish hall.

A roof timbers exposed during recent renovations to No.2A were marked with a date of 1725.

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 PRONI OS/6/3/11/1 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Edition, 1834 Co. Down 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 PRONI OS/6/3/11/2 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Revision, c.1860 Co. Down 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
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Relatively plain, Georgian looking, single storey gabled hall of possible early to mid 18th century construction, which may originally have been part of a larger building incorporating the two larger two storey hipped roof buildings to the immediate NE and SW.