Mourne View

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two storey 'Georgian vernacular' gabled farmhouse of pre 1834 construction, with rear single storey lean-to and more recent gabled porch, set on the east side of the Manse Road (right next to a cross-roads) in Ballyboley.

The entire house and store are finished in rough cast render. The house has a Bangor blue slated pitched roof with stone parapets and five rendered chimney stacks. Mixture of cast iron and PVC rw goods. The ‘garden’ to the S front of this house is cluttered, overgrown and unattractive.

The front S facade has left of centre a gabled porch with French doors and modern two pane sidelights, with modern windows to the E and W sides of the porch. To the right of the porch on the ground floor are three sash windows with Georgian panes with very narrow plain surrounds. To the left of the porch are two similar windows with six similar windows to the first floor. The two windows to the far right on the first floor are slightly taller than the rest on this level. Attached to the E gable is a slightly shorter two level store.

The W gable is situated right on the side of the Manse Road and has a sash window, as previous, to the left on the ground and first floors. The left (N) side of the W gable merges with a high castellated rendered wall with a large gateway (with large timber gates) which encloses the yard.

Attached to the ground floor for the entire length of the rear facade is a lean to extension. It has a glazed door to the far right with a small window (as previous) to the immediate left and right. The right half of the lean to has a Bangor blue slated pitched roof. The left (E) half of the lean to is a conservatory with a large long modern windows and a translucent PVC covering to the roof. On the E facade of this section of the lean to is a plain sheeted timber stable door with a small glazed panel. To the first floor of the rear facade of the main house are four small windows with Georgian panes. The rear of the store section to the E (which has a corrugated asbestos roof) has two modern looking windows to the ground level with a loft door and small six pane window to the upper level.

To the E and N of the house is a large collection of outbuildings. The most interesting of these (and possibly the oldest) is a small gabled rubble built [?stable] just to the N. It has a elliptical headed arch to the ground floor of the S elevation and a small six pane timber window, with label moulding over, to the first floor. The stone eaves course carries on to the gable giving the effect of a broken pediment and there is corrugated asbestos to the pitched roof. Attached to the W facade of this small building is a very small single storey gabled section with a Bangor blue slated pitched roof and a diagonally positioned tallish brick chimney stack. This smaller section is also rubble built but is largely obscured by rampant greenery, however, it is still possible to see its W gable which has a small timber door.

To the E of the house is a long two storey gabled, rubble built store. To the E of this is a courtyard bounded on each side with slightly more recent looking outbuildings. The most easterly of these is a single storey building (possibly a piggery) with distinctive roundel windows with brick dressings, with feeding troughs at ground level which can be filled from outside. This section has unusual coursing to the slate roof.

Historical information

This house is shown on the OS map of 1834, with what appears to be the western portion of the rear lean to as well. The appearance and positioning of this house suggest a building of some considerable age, possibly mid to later eighteenth century. The larger size of the first floor windows to the eastern half of the front facade of the house, and the uneven arrangement of the chimneys, may be an indication that this part of the building has been raised in height at some stage. The gabled porch at the front appears to be 20th century.

The layout of the present collection of outbuildings does not appear to match any shown on the 1834 map, an assertion partly supported by the fact that the first survey (1971) of this property reported that one of the outbuildings was inscribed ‘Built by Mortimer Thompson AD 1856’.

Just to the west of this house (on the opposite side of the Manse Road) is a 1930s style schoolhouse which is roughly on the site of a former schoolhouse built by Lord Dufferin in 1834.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/11/1 OS maps, Down 11, 1834
2 PRONI VAL/1B/33 First valuation, c.1834-38
3 PRONI VAL/2B/3/4 Second valuation, Greyabbey, c.1859
4 PRONI OS/6/3/11/2 OS maps, Down 11, 1860
5 PRONI VAL/12B/23/16a-f Annual valuation revision books, Greyabbey, 1866-1930

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large two storey 'Georgian vernacular' gabled farmhouse of pre 1834 construction, with rear single storey lean-to and more recent gabled porch. The property has many 19th and 20th century outbuildings to the E and N, including an unusual piggery, perhaps dating from c.1910-20.