Old gas works at Mount Stewart

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Ruined remains of a c.1850s gas works which formally served the Mount Stewart estate. The gasworks is set on the west side of the Portaferry Road close to the W boundary wall of the Mount Stewart estate.

The remains of this gas works now consist of rubble built walls in a ‘U’ shaped courtyard with the remnants of the gas extraction machinery to the E ‘wall’ (the ‘bottom of the ‘U’ shape). This ‘machinery’ consists of a partly brick faced oven-like structure with small kidney shaped openings, presumably for the coal.

Directly S of this is a squat square section with battered rubble walls, from which rises a squat square battered and rendered chimney. To the S of this is a slightly shorter square section with a door opening to it N face. The now flat roof of this shorter section appears to be used as a platform for bird watchers etc as it has a commanding view over Strangford Lough. This platform is now reached via a modern wooden open staircase positioned against the high plain S wall. The N wall is lower and partly demolished.

Historical information

This gas works is shown on the revised OS map of c.1860 and appears likely to have been built in the later 1850s, principally to serve Mount Stewart House. The 4th Marquess in a letter written to his step-mother, Frances Vane-Tempest in 1854 describes improvements he intends to make to Mount Stewart which were to include “a Gasometer built by Sanderson for about £250 but fittings etc. by Cubitt”. The estate ledger includes to entries in 1859 for “sundry items for gas woks and gas meters” and there are further entries regarding the complex up until 1914. Presumably by this time, or shortly after, the house itself was converted to electricity.

The OS map of c.1860 appears to indicate a small building just to the west of the east wall, nothing of which remains.

References- Primary sources
1 Durham County Record Office D/Lo/C/543/13. Letter dated [?] July 1854 from the 4th Marquess to his step-mother Frances Vane-Tempest, in which he describes the poor state he found Mount Stewart upon his inheritance of the property
2 D.654/H2/8 Londonderry Papers Estate ledger with index 1850-64. [See also D.654/H2/12 for the final entry concerning the gas works in 1914.]
3 PRONI VAL/2B/3/4 Second valuation, Greyabbey, c.1859
4 PRONI OS/6/3/11/2 Ordnance Survey Maps 1st Revision c.1860, Co. Down 11
5 PRONI VAL/12B/23/16a-f Annual valuation revision books, Greyabbey, 1866-1930

Secondary sources
1 Anne Casement, 'Mount Stewart Landscape Study' (National Trust Northern Ireland Region 1995), p.33

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Remains of an 1850s gas works (formerly serving the Mount Stewart estate) with some remnants of the ‘machinery’ still present.