39 Stockbridge Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long single storey, vernacular house, possibly built pre 1834 as two estate workers’ dwellings, now a single property sporting pan tiles and modern window frames. The property is set to the W of Stockbridge Road, roughly 1.5 miles NW of Donaghadee.

The house is entered via a doorway in the centre of the S gable. This doorway has a recent partly glazed door with a simple stone surround with keystone. The gable merges to the right (E) with a lean-to which has a small window with modern frame.

The long E elevation has a relatively small lean-to to either end. Between these are four unevenly spaced windows with modern frames. There is a timber sheeted door between the third and fourth windows. Part of the façade (around the doorway and the fourth window) has been patched in concrete brick.

The N gable is a handed version of that to the S but with a stable door to the main doorway, a timber sheeted door to the N face of the N lean-to. High in the gable there is a small attic window.

The long W façade has three small unevenly spaced windows with modern frames. The N, S and W facades are finished in rough cast, the E façade mainly in rubble. The gabled roof is covered in pan tiles and has two relatively recent brick chimney stacks. The lean-tos have slate roofs. The N lean-to has been raised slightly in concrete brick.

Historical information

A building matching the plan, (lean-tos and all), and positioning of the present is shown on the OS map of 1834. It is likely that this is the same building as today and that, given its slightly planned appearance, it may have been have been built as estate workers’ dwellings for near by Portavo House. The buildings are not noted in the first valuation of c.1836, but they are recorded in that of c.1861-3 when they were occupied by a James McGrath and a Jane Small respectively.

When first surveyed in February 1973 the building still contained two properties.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/2/1 OS map, 1834, Co Down sh 2
2 PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 OS map, 1858-60, Co Down sh 2
3 PRONI Second (‘Griffith’s) valuation, Bangor parish, c.1861-3 [In print in search room.]
4 PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 OS map, c.1901, Co Down sh 2

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Long single storey, vernacular’ house, possibly built pre 1834 as two estate workers’ dwellings, now a single property sporting pan tiles and modern window frames.