13-13a High Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Much altered, long two storey terrace shop, with carriage entrance, formerly two houses of probable pre 1834 origin. The property is set on the slope on the NW side of High Street.

The entrance is to the centre left on the ground floor and consists of a recent looking ten panel door with plain fanlight. The doorway is encased with panelled pilasters, with fluted capitals, which support an entablature with dentilled cornice. To the left of this is a recently enlarged shop window, with a slightly smaller enlarged window to the right. To the far right is a tall carriage entrance with flat arch, curved ‘corners’, in/out dressings and double timber sheeted doors. Between this arch and the window to its left there used to be another doorway, with a surround identical to the main entrance. To the first floor are four unevenly spaced windows with simple moulded surrounds and modern frames. Spotlights between windows. The front façade is finished in lined render and painted.

To the centre and right at the rear there extends a large, two storey gabled return/outbuilding, set on the squint. This is largely in fieldstone rubble, but many former openings to the long N face are now filled in with breeze block and red brick. To the ground floor of the main rear façade to the left of this, is the rear of the carriage entrance. This now has a modern flat roof extending between it an another two storey rubble-built outbuilding further to the NW. To the right of the carriage entrance is a doorway with modern partly glazed door. To the first floor far left is a small window with sash frame. This frame has Georgian panes (once 6 over three), but the upper sash has had a modern extractor fan placed within it. To the right of this (above the rear door) is a larger window with plain sash frame. The exposed section of the main rear façade is mainly finished in plain render, but the very right hand edge is unrendered, revealing fieldstone rubble construction.

The gabled roof is covered in natural slate. No chimneys stacks. PVC and cast iron rw goods. Large two storey outbuilding to NE at rear, also in fieldstone rubble.

Historical information

This site is shown occupied on the 1722 map and all other available maps thereafter. The 1834 valuation returns record two houses (then in the hands of a John Duncan) on this site both of whose combined dimensions appear to match the present property. Thus it is possible that this building is of pre 1834 origin, a suggestion supported by its fieldstone rubble construction. The buildings may date from c.1800 but subsequent changes make this difficult to confirm.

By 1861 the whole building (which still contained two houses) had been acquired by a surgeon named James Trame (confusingly referred to in other sources as James Frame). Trame/Frame was still resident in 1870.

When first surveyed in December 1975 No.13a was still a dwelling houses, but No.13 had been converted to a shop (with its original house doorway still extant).

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/M54/2, 8, 9, 14 Londonderry Papers- Maps of Cow Lane 1793-1810. [High Street was known as Cow Lane in the 18th and early 19th centuries.]
3 PRONI VAL 1B/316A p.68 1st valuation, Comber, 1834.
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 most 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

Long two storey terrace shop, formerly two houses of probable pre 1834 origin. One of the original house entrance doorways has been removed and the ground floor front windows enlarged. Large original rubble built return/outbuilding to rear.