186 Whitechurch Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two storey vernacular farmhouse of probable early 19th to mid century construction, off a farm track to the west of Whitechurch Road, roughly two miles north of Ballywalter.

The roof is pitched with Bangor blue slates, stone parapets and four rendered chimney stacks. The return also has Bangor blue slates and one brick chimney stack. The main house is constructed in rubble with a mud core and rendered. There are brick dressings to the openings, with evidence of parts of the walls patched in brick. The return appears to be mainly constructed in brick, with some rubble and rendered. Remnants of cast iron rw goods.

The front NW elevation is asymmetrical and has left of centre front doorway with (possibly mid 19th century) timber panelled door and plain fanlight. There is a sash window to the left of this door, with Georgian panes, and two to the right. The first floor has four similar, but slightly smaller, windows. The render below the window to the immediate left of the doorway has come away to reveal what appears to be an infill of brick (between the rest of the rubble walling) suggesting that this window may once have been a doorway.

The NE gable has a small boarded up window opening to the right on the ground floor and a larger sash window (with vertical astragals) slightly to the right of centre on the first floor.

To the rear there is a large, two level, gabled return. To the left of the return on the main house are two, boarded up, ground floor windows, with that to the left larger. Under the larger window there is also brick infill, suggesting that this too may have been a doorway (in direct line with the suggested doorway at the front). Directly above this window there is a sashed window similar to that on the NE gable. To the right of the return on the main house there is a small sash window to the first floor, with Georgian panes.

The SW gable has a small flat roofed bay-like projection to the left of centre on the ground floor (which, according to the owner, was used to capture more light for a person engaged in needlework). The NE side of the return has a plain timber sheeted back door to the extreme left and a small, unusual, multi pane window to the right. The gable of the return has two very small upper level windows (now partly boarded) and a narrow six pane window to the right on the ground floor. The SE side of the gable has a sash window, with Georgian panes, to the right, with evidence of a now bricked up window to the left of this.

At each corner of the front facade there are high walls which enclose the front lawn, with elliptical arch pedestrian entrances in each wall close to the house. The wall to the N curves away from the house.

There is a large millstone in the centre of the lawn to the front of the house.

Historical information

According to the current owner, this house dates from c.1760. It is shown, minus the rear return, on the OS Map of 1834. No evidence has been found to contradict the notion of an eighteenth century origin and the presence of a mud core to the walls appears to indicate a building of considerable age. The overall window and door arrangement, however, suggests that the property may have started out as single storey, or part single storey, with the roof raised, the return added and the interior renovated perhaps around c.1840-50. The property has been unoccupied since the early twentieth century.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/12/1 OS maps, Down 12, 1834
2 PRONI VAL/1B/39 First valuation, Ballywalter, c.1834-38
3 PRONI VAL/2B/3/9 Second valuation, Ballywalter, c.1859
4 PRONI OS/6/3/12/2 OS maps, Down 12, 1860
5 PRONI VAL/12B/23/6a-f Annual valuation revision books, Ballywalter, 1866-1929
6 PRONI VAL/12E/84/1 Valuation plan, Ballywalter, 1902-35

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Large two storey vernacular farmhouse which may have assumed its present form c.1840s.