The Square

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The square is at the heart of the town of Comber, the area into which the major arterial routes begin/culminate. To the NW Castle Street (the road to/from Belfast) intersects, Killinchy Street (to/from Killinchy/Killyleagh/Downpatrick) intersects to the SW, Bridge Street (to Newtownards) to the NE and High Street (to Ballygowan/Saintfield etc.) to the W/NW.

In the centre is the (Rollo) Gillespie monument, a tall column memorial erected in 1844 and topped with a statue of its eponymous military hero. Around the column is a large public area with floral borders, areas of lawn and paving. To the NW of this public area there is a war memorial, erected in 1922.

The square is largely built up on all sides, though some sides more so than others. The N side consists of a terrace of two storey buildings (now largely office/commercial) which appear to date from the mid to later 18th century. The house to the far east end of this side (No.14) may predate some of its immediate neighbours but has much classical moulding to its front façade which may have been added c.1840. Nos.6-12 have witnessed some alteration in recent years but have still largely maintained their original appearance, having fieldstone rubble facades, mainly Georgian sash windows and some pedimented doorways. No.4, which is rendered, has modern window frames to the front but most of its window openings (though relatively large), appear to be original. Its corniced stone doorway appears original also. No.2 (now a chemist) witnessed much alteration in the 1960s and is dominated by a series of large, modern window openings.

The E side has a less homogeneous appearance. To the N end is a short two storey terrace, containing a pub and shops, which may date from the late 1700s but has had some large ground floor bow windows installed in recent years. To the immediate S of this (and set back from the line of the terrace) is the large two storey parish hall which appears to have been built c.1950. To the S of this is the entrance to the graveyard, wherein is set the simple gothic parish church of 1840.

The S side of The Square is dominated by a large single property which spans the whole side. It is three storey to the centre with two storey wings. The whole block was originally four separate properties, but are now largely amalgamated with the building greatly altered both inside and out with a car show room to much of the ground floor with attendant large areas of modern glazing.

The W side has witnessed much alteration in 1998 and 1999 when the N half of the terrace was demolished and a new two storey office built on the site of the previous No.7 and a new larger two storey pub (Nos.1-5) constructed. At the S end there is a large two storey house, dating from at least c.1825, still largely intact but with its former carriage arch now filled with the entrance to the upper floor of the building (which now houses flats). There is a distinctive cobbled foot path in front of this house depicting, among other things, a man, dog and a hare. This footpath was re-laid in c.1992.

Historical information

The origins of The Square in many respects begin with the establishment of a Cistercian abbey in 1199 on the site were the present church and graveyard now stand. Around the abbey there may have been a small settlement, but in the wake of the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1540s it was largely abandoned, and the buildings actually put to the torch in 1572. Thus when James Hamilton was granted the possessions of the abbey in the early 1600s, it was in ruins. Hamilton established a new settlement a mile to the south, ‘New Comber’, but his successor as landlord of the area, Hugh Montgomery, repaired the abbey church in c.1620s to act as the parish church. Both New Comber and the church (marked as ‘Owld Cumber’) are shown on Thomas Raven’s map of 1625, however, at some point after this, New Comber was abandoned and settlement on a relatively large scale re-established around the church.

By the beginning of the 18th century much of the town as we know it had been laid out. The Square, High Street, Bridge Street and the road to Killinchy are all shown on a map of 1722, with what appears to be a market cross in the centre of The Square. Most of the present buildings which line The Square appear to have been built either in the mid to later 1700s or early 1800s, though the church itself was rebuilt in 1840 and, four years later, the Gillespie monument was erected, the military hero himself having been born in a house on the south side (on the site of the east part of the large car show room).

In the mid to later 20th century, however, The Square witnessed a significant amount of demolition and alteration. The rectory (a possibly 18th century building to the SW of the church) was demolished along with old Erasmus Smith school house (built in 1813 on the east side), the façade of the large house of the south side much altered with its conversion to a car show room, and in 1998 and 1999 over half of the terrace on the west side (much of which could be accurately dated to 1731), was demolished.

References- Primary sources
1 Maps of the Estate of Lord Clandeboye by Thomas Raven 1625/6 [originals in Bangor Castle Museum- copies in PRONI (T.870)].
2 PRONI D.654/M1B/2 Londonderry Papers- ‘Survey of the town, tenements and parks of Comber…1722’.
3 PRONI D.654/M54/1 Londonderry Papers- ‘A rough plan of the undermentioned tenements in the town of Comber, April 1786’ by David Geddas. [‘Pictorial lease map of the north side of The Square.]
4 PRONI D.654/M54/5 Londonderry Papers- Map relating to The Square Comber, July 1797.
5 PRONI D.654/M1B/18 Londonderry Papers- ‘A survey of the tenements out of lease in the town of Comber survey’d A.D. 1801’ by David Geddas.
6 PRONI D.654/M54/13 Londonderry Papers- Map relating to The Square Comber, April 1810.
7 Linen Hall Library ‘Pigot & Co.’s Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory’ (Manchester 1824).
8 PRONI VAL 1B/316A p.56 1st valuation, Comber, 1834.
9 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
10 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1991), p.28, 32-33, 35-36.
11 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.442.
12 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.505.
13 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
14 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber, 1861. [In print in PRONI search room and in the Linen Hall Library.]
15 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870).
16 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.303-305.
17 UFTM WAG 876 W.A. Green Collection- Photograph of The Square, Comber c.1900.
18 MBR Photographs of The Square, Comber, c.1900-1950. [These photographs appear to be mainly copies of those belonging to the Laurence Collection (with original negatives held at the NLI in Dublin)].
19 PRONI OS/2/3/10 OS map, 2nd ed. 1901, Down 10.

Secondary sources
1 Sydney Andrews (ed. John Burls), ‘Nine Generations- A History of the Andrews Family, Millers of Comber’ (Isaac Andrews & Sons, 1958).
2 ‘Archaeological Survey of Co. Down’ (Belfast HMSO 1966), pp.323-24, 395, plate 211.
3 Norman Nevin ‘The Story of Comber’ (c.1980) [typescript in Comber library].

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Square at the centre of the town of Comber with many, mainly two storey, houses and shops dating from the later 18th and early 19th century. The terrace on the north side still possesses much of its original character, but the other sides have witnessed varying degrees of alteration and demolition in fairly recent years. In the centre of the square is a tall ‘Nelson’s Column’-like monument to local military hero, Rollo Gillespie, erected in 1844, and to the south east corner is a the parish church of 1840. There is a cobbled foot path to the south west corner depicting, among other things, the figures of a man, dog and a hare.

General comments

This record is a general appreciation of The Square as a whole. Individual buildings are separately recorded within the ward, each with its own particulars, detailed description and listing grade.