Site of former 63 Castle Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Site, on the N side of Castle Street (to the NW of Comber town centre), of a former single storey house, demolished some time after 1975.

When first surveyed December 1975 the building was described as, ‘Single storey house with attic. Roof slated, left hand (W) gable end. Brick chimneys. Wall rendered, lined and painted white. Five recent top hung windows [with] square panes. Recent sheeted door between 4th and 5th windows. Condition fair. Frontage about 30ft’.

Nothing remains of the house and its site is now taken up with a recently widened road (Castle Lane) and footpath

Historical information

This site is shown occupied on the 1722 map of Comber and all other available maps thereafter. The valuation records of 1834 note that the building on the site at that point was below rateable value, so no details of the property are provided. It is probable, however, that the house described above was of pre 1834 origin.

The building was demolished some time after 1975, possibly to make way for the widening of Castle Lane.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654/M1B/2 Londonderry Papers- ‘Survey of the town, tenements and parks of Comber…1722’.
2 PRONI D.654/M54/4, 6, 7, 12, 15, 24, 28-32, 34 Londonderry Papers- Maps of Mill Street 1793-1828. [Castle Street was also known as Mill Street in the 18th and early 19th centuries.]
3 PRONI VAL 1B/316A p.73 1st valuation, Comber, 1834. [The valuation records of Castle/Mill Street and High Street, Comber, are very difficult to decipher. The original details of the buildings, in terms of dimensions, age/condition grading etc., dates from 1834. In 1838 (after the rateable threshold had been raised from £3 to £5), a revaluation was carried out in Comber. This entailed the making of various annotations to the original record book, the (apparent) discarding of the original valuation map and the drawing up of new one to tie in the 1838 findings. Unfortunately, the 1838 annotations do not provide dimensions or age/condition grading of the buildings and the new map has a different numbering system to that used in 1834. As a result it is extremely difficult to tell what properties the more detailed 1834 records actually refer to, making, in many cases, the correlation of buildings as they stand today with those of 1834, at best difficult and at worst impossible. The writers have tried to make as much sense of the records they can.]
4 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
5 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
6 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber, 1861. [In print in PRONI search room and in the Linen Hall Library- the town plan to accompany this valuation is missing making identification of owners of properties largely impossible.]
7 PRONI OS/2/3/10 OS map, 2nd ed. 1901, Down 10.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Site of former single storey house of possible pre 1834 origin. The property was demolished some time after 1975, probably to make way for a road widening scheme.