Former railway watch house

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small former railway crossing keeper’s cottage (or ‘watch house’) of 1848-50 set on the N side of the Newtownards Road, less than half a mile E of Comber town centre.

This small single storey gabled dwelling was one of a series of small cottages built next to level crossings.

The entrance porch is located on the SW gable. To the SE face of the porch is the timber panelled entrance door. To the SW face is a small sash window with Georgian panes and drip moulding. The main section of the porch has a gabled Bangor blue slated roof with large overhang, decorative barges and finial. Attached to the NW face of the gabled section of the porch is a small lean to portion with a small sash window to the NW face, much as before.

The main SE facade has a canted bay to the left with hipped roof and sash window (as before) to each face. To the right of this is a sash window with drip moulding, all similar to the window on the porch but slightly larger.

The NE gable is blank.

The rear has two sash windows as before (but without drip moulding).

The entire facade is finished in lined render and painted.

The roof is gabled with Bangor blue slates and an overhang, decorative barges and finials. Dog’s tooth ridge tiles. Central rendered chimney stack with original looking octagonal pots.

Original coal shed and dry closet next to NE gable.

Historical information

This small house was built in c.1848-50 as a crossing keeper’s cottage or (as it is marked on the 1859 OS map) a ‘Railway watch house’. It was one of a number which stood next to each level crossing on the Belfast and County Down Railway line between Newtownards and Donaghadee [ and elsewhere throughout the country], as a dwelling for the crossing keeper, the mid nineteenth century human equivalent of the modern automatic level crossing safety gates. The B. & C.D.R. line between Newtownards and Comber was closed in 1950.

It would appear that decorative barge boards and finials were added to the cottage possibily at the end of the 19th century but this does not detract from the character or historic interest of the dwelling.

The cottage was lived in until recently (by the present owners’ father- the last crossing keeper to live in the house), but is currently vacant.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1859-60, Co. Down 10.
2 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s’) valuation, Comber parish, Ballyhenry Major Td. 1863.

Secondary sources
1 E.M. Patterson 'The Belfast & County Down Railway' (Lingfield: Oakwood Press 1958).
2 W.A. McCutcheon 'The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland' (HMSO 1980), p.180.
3 E.R.R. Green 'The Industrial Archaeology of Co. Down' (HMSO 1963), p.62.

House demolished between Second Survey Inspection and Final Inspection before Listing. Listing abandoned

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Small railway crossing keeper’s cottage or ‘watch house’ of c.1848-50. This building is an unusual and rare element of local railway heritage which has largely been overlooked, and despite some minor changes to the internal detailing it is largely untouched and possibly one of the very few of its type still extant.