Ballyblack Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Well maintained two storey gabled Manse house of the 1850s, extended at the rear in the twentieth century. This property lies at the end of a short lane off the Ballyblack Road, c.2 miles SW of Newtownards.

Front S facade has central timber panelled door with three pane sidelights with panelled aprons. Elliptical arch fanlight above door with tracery. Sash window to right and left of doorway, both with ‘Georgian’ panes. Three evenly spaced similar windows to first floor.

The E gable has a sash window as front, in the centre of the ground and first floors. To the right on the ground floor is a smallish eight pane window. This gable merges with a full height flat roofed extension, which itself is set in the intersection of the rear of the main house and a large rear return. The E facade of this extension has a sash window (as before) to the ground and first floors. The N (rear) facade of the extension has a large modern metal (c.1950s) kitchen window. The E facade of the large gabled rear return includes a sheeted timber door to the far left on the ground floor, a sash window (as before) to the right of this and a partly blocked (i.e. unused) smaller window to the right of this. To the far left on the first floor is a sash window, as before.

The rear (N) gable of the return has three small ground floor openings with timber sheeted doors (added in the 1950s as openings for coal to be loaded into an internal coal house). The W side of the return has four sash windows to the first floor (with the two to the right slightly smaller). In the centre of the ground floor is a plain timber sheeted door, with a sash window to the left and two to the right. That to the immediate right of the door is much narrower than the rest.

The right side of the rear of the main house has a sash window to the ground and first floors, as before, and there is a similar window in the centre of the first floor of the W gable of the main house, and one to the right on the ground floor (inserted c.1950s). The entire facade is finished in rough cast render and painted.

The main and return roofs are pitched and gabled with two yellow brick chimney stacks to the main house.
Cast iron rw goods. Outbuildings to N and W.

Historical information

This house was originally the manse belonging to the near by Ballyblack Presbyterian Church and was built between 1854 and c.1858 by Rev. William Mitchell. The building, with a small rear projection, is shown on the revised OS Map of c.1858-60. Some time prior to c.1929 a two storey return was added, which itself was enlarged by the present owner’s mother in the 1950s.

The current owners kindly provided the writers with notes concerning the evolution of Ballyblack Lodge during the twentieth century which list the changes to the building in some detail.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Revision, 1860, Co. Down 6.
2 PRONI 2nd valuation, Newtownards, c.1863.
2 Notes provided by the current owners of Ballyblack lodge(1998), including a description of the house in c.1929 by Mr. Ian Roulston, a former resident.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Delightfully situated two storey former manse house of c.1855, now much extended at the rear. The layout internal has been altered but still retains some original detailing..