Grainey Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long, single storey house set on the N side of the Donaghadee Road, almost at the end of the Road in the small hamlet of Six Road Ends. This house was greatly extended at the rear c.1967 and as a result has practically doubled in size.

Front E facade has a partly glazed door to the right hand side. Just to the left of the door is an inscribed stone which reads ‘17 J.HM 22 At ye expiration of my lease I diser ye land lord of this place to considre ye builders case’. To the right the doorway is a small window, now with a modern frame and small panes and a false shutter to window. To the left of the window are two similar windows. To the right of these is a much larger window with modern frame with Georgian panes and shutters to sides.

The front facade is finished in an uneven rough cast. The very top of the facade has been patched in a rough looking plain render where previously the thatch covered this section of the facade.

The N gable has a tiny four light window to the right. Higher in the gable is a tiny loft opening.

The S gable has a window (similar to front right) to the right hand side.

Attached to the rear is an extremely large flat roofed extension (added c.1967)which covers the entire rear elevation and which has modern windows and doors. To the South of which is a modern glazed conservatory.

The roof of the original section is gabled and covered in corrugated fibre cement sheeting. Part of the thatch remains under this. Stone parapets, three rendered chimney stacks. Metal rw goods.

The house sits in an extensive site with a large garden to the front and rear. To the North are single storey gabled outbuildings used as garages and a store. They are rendered and roofed partly in natural slate and partly in fibre cement sheeting.

There is a cow-tailed water pump to the NE set within curved waist high walling.

Historical information

The date stone next to the door suggests that this house was built in 1722 and undoubtedly ‘J.HM’ was the builder. The valuation records of 1835 tell us that the house was at that stage in the possession of a James Hamilton, possibly a descendant of J.HM, if indeed the ‘HM’ stands for Hamilton. The house (and the attached land and ‘offices’) at this stage had a rateable value of £5-9-7. In the later nineteenth the house came into possession of the Baxter family who held it until the mid twentieth century.

The thatch was covered with corrugated sheeting during the Second World War as a fire precaution as other buildngs in the vicinity had been damaged by incendiary bombs. The large rear extension was added c1967.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS Maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 6.
2 PRONI VAL 1B/31 p.149, Bangor parish, Gransha Td.
3 PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 6.
4 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s’) valuation, Bangor Parish, Gransha Td.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
F. Structural System
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Single storey former farm house built in 1722 with large rear flat roofed extension added c.1967. The thatch was covered with corrugated sheeting during the Second World War as a fire precaution as other buildngs in the vicinity had been damaged by incendiary bombs. Despite the rear extension and other alterations to the window openings this is an early house, possibly constructed as an estate house. It retains its original important roof construction almost intact, and enjoys a good rural setting. The cow tailed water pump and walling is an important and increasingly rare relect of the past and adds to the house's character.