The Forde,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

‘The Forde’ is a large, two storey, gabled farm house situated right on the E side of the Ballydrain Road, just over a mile SE of Comber town centre. The building is ostensibly late Victorian/Edwardian in appearance with canted bays, moulded surrounds to openings, and yellow brick chimneys, but evidence suggests that this may hide a much older, pre 1830 dwelling.

The front (W) façade is symmetrical. In the centre of the ground floor is a mainly glazed flat roofed porch, added in the 1980s but largely sympathetic to its surroundings. The porch has ‘French doors’ to the front, with sidelights and fanlight, with similar styled windows to the N and S sides. The corner jambs of the porch are finished as panelled ‘pilasters’. These support a relatively plain frieze/blocking course. The porch roof is lead lined.

To the left and right of the porch is a relatively shallow, full height, hipped roof, canted bay. Both floors of both bays have sash windows, with horizontal glazing bars, to each side. The ground floor windows all have moulded surrounds and cills, whilst those to the first floor are encased with moulded pilaster jambs and rest on a cill course. There is a central first floor window between the bays, with detailing similar to the rest on that level. Moulded eaves course to front.

The N (left) end of the front façade merges with the W face of a large, two storey (but shorter than the main house) former outbuilding, those first floor is now linked internally with the first floor of the main house. This first floor has three small-ish sash windows with vertical astragals, with a further similar window to the ground floor along with a smaller fixed light window. To the extreme right on the first floor is a very small square opening near the eaves, now glazed. To the far left on this W ‘outbuilding’ façade is a large segmental arched carriage entrance with timber sheeted double doors.

The S gable of the main front portion of the house has a large, part lean to, part hipped roof, conservatory attached. This conservatory was rebuilt in an enlarged form recently, and, like the porch, it is not totally unsympathetic to the rest of the house.

The rear appears to have been extended at various times and has a complicated appearance. To the left (S) is a two storey gabled return with a sash window (as front) to the left on the first floor of the gable and two more to the ground floor. To the left this gabled return has been extended in lean to like fashion. This lean to (which is two storey and has a glazed rear door to the ground floor on its exposed E face) is wedged between the gabled return and the E end of the conservatory (which itself culminates as a single storey lean to).

To the N side of the gabled return is a sash window (as before) to each floor. At this side the return is abutted by a large gabled portion which runs parallel to the main front section of the house, giving the whole building a double pile appearance when viewed from the N side. To the ground floor of the E façade of this section are three sash windows. That to the left and centre are similar to before, though the left window appears to have once been a doorway (the doorway opening is still visible). That to the right is smaller and has a horizontal glazing bar to the top sash. To the first floor are three further sash windows, with those to the left and centre as front, but with that to the right smaller and without glazing bars. This last window is recent as the far right section of the first floor of this portion of the house is (largely) a recent extension (note the position of the chimney stack).

The N gable of this large rear portion has a plain timber sheeted door (leading to a ‘boiler house’) to the ground floor and a sash window (as front) to the right on the first floor. To the right of this window the gable abuts the rear of the long two storey ‘outbuilding’ section (to the N side of the main house). The rear of this section has two four pane upper level windows, between which is a timber sheeted door reached via a flight of steps. To the ground floor is a stable door to the far left, a similar door cut into the side of the steps, with a larger (garage like) timber sheeted double door to the right of the steps. To the far right a doorway has been blocked in recent times and a upper level store door directly above it has been mainly filled with timber sheeted, with an opening at the top for pigeons.

The entire façade of the house is finished in lined render with rough cast to the rear of the ‘outbuilding’. The roof is covered in natural slate with two yellow brick chimneys to the main house with a further two to the rear portions. Metal RW goods (much of which appears to have been replaced recently).

The yard at the rear of the house is enclosed to the E by a free standing two storey gabled outbuilding whose upper level has largely been converted to a flat but whose lower level is used as a store and still retains stalls for horses with original cast iron fittings with horse head motifs. The yard is enclosed by a high rendered wall on the N side.

To the front of the house (directly on the roadside) is a small garden enclosed by a low rendered wall with wrought iron railings (which may be 19th century).

King Edward VII post box built into large gate post to the N.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834 which matches the plan of the present main front section of the house along with the attached ‘outbuilding’. The contemporary valuation records tell us that the dwelling of this date belonged to a John Taylor and measured 30½ft x 18 x 14, dimensions which appear to match the main portion of the current property (minus the bays etc). The valuers graded this building B-, which indicates that they believed (or were informed) that it was probably at least 30 years old at that point. The revised OS map of 1858 shows a dwelling of largely similar plan but with a return to the south side of the rear (where the present gabled return now stands) along with a substantial plantation to the east, which is also shown the earlier map where it is marked as a nursery.

The 1863 valuation records note that the property was still in the possession of the Taylor family, but by 1886 (at least) it appears to have passed (or was bought by) either a Robert Bell or a John Petticrew. During the early 20th century it was acquired by a Mr. Blakiston-Houston (a relative of the family of Roddens House near Ballyhalbert), who later became the MP for the Dock Ward in Belfast. It was probably during the tenure of ownership of either Bell/Petticrew or Blakiston-Houston that the house assumed its present form, with the canted bays added to the front, along with the large extensions at the rear and the decorative internal detailing.

Around or just after the Second World War the building was bought by the Coulter family, the then owners of near by New Comber House, but was in the hands of a William Lowry in 1980 when it was purchased by the present owner.

The present owner added the porch in the mid 1980s and rebuilt the conservatory. He informed the writers that he believes that the house was once the residence of the agent for the Londonderry estate in this area and may once have been locally known as ‘Londonderry House’, but was later renamed ‘The Forde’ by Mr. Blakiston-Houston, in reference to the one time presence of a ford (crossing the Enler River) directly to the east of the property.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654/LE51/1-25 Londonderry Papers- leases relating to Cattogs townland 1750-1849.
2 PRONI VAL 1B/316A p.52 1st valuation, Comber.
3 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
4 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
5 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber.
6 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.303-305.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large two storey gabled farm house, with canted bays to front and large extensions to the rear, whose present late Victorian/Edwardian appearance may disguise a building of pre 1830s origin. A large ‘outbuilding’ attached to the north side has now been partly incorporated into the first floor layout of the main house.