58-60 Mill Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Matching pair of slightly picturesque houses of 1879 with central carriage arch, set within the terrace on the S side of Mill Street, to the W of Comber town centre.

No.58 is to the E. To the right on the ground floor of the front (N) façade is a panelled door with plain fanlight, all encases with a cumbersome looking doorcase consisting of plain pilasters with decorative brackets supporting a cornice hood. To the left of the doorway is a sash window with vertical glazing bars (2 over 2). To the right of the doorway is a segmental carriage arch with simple wrought iron gates (which could well be original). To the first floor are three evenly spaced gabled half dormers with decorative barge boards. Each of these has a semicircular headed window with frame as ground floor. Below these windows is a ‘gutter course’.

The rear façade has two half dormers as front a stairwell window between these (at slightly lower level) and a ground floor window to the right of the carriage arch. All have frames as front, To the right of the ground floor window there extends a single storey extension with mono-pitched roof. This has two small modern windows and a glazed door to its W face.

The front façade of No.60 is similar to No.58 only handed and with two half dormers (No.58 has the room above the carriage arch). The W gable has a window to the ground floor with a modern frame (this window is actually at ground level as the ground height rises to this side). To the first floor are to semicircular headed windows as half dormers. Above these is a date stone roundel ‘1879’.

To the rear there is a long single storey extension with a mono-pitched roof and three modern windows and a partly glazed door to its W face. This extension is a modern rebuilt as there used to be stables on its site. To the first floor there is a half dormer to the left and a stairwell window to the right. Both the window to the half dormer and that to its right have sash frames with ‘pitched cills,’ giving both an awkward shape. This shape has resulted from the fact that when built the original stable block was taller than the present extension and its mono-pitched roof rested just below the cill level.

The whole façade is finished in lined render and painted. Eaves course to front.

The gabled roof of the main house is covered in what appears to be Bangor blue slate. Two tall yellow brick chimney stacks. The roof has an overhang to the W gable with decorative barges supported on matching brackets. Metal rw goods.
Gateway to Non-subscribing Presbyterian church to immediate W with decorative gates etc. (see HB24/15/034D).

Historical information

These houses were built in 1879 by the congregation of Comber Non-subscribing Presbyterian church. The house to the east (which is larger) served as the residence of the church caretaker. The smaller house originally had stables to the rear and may have acted as the residence of an ostler/housekeeper in the service of the minister.

The gates to the west of No.60 (which lead to the church itself) may be contemporary with the houses themselves.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI MIC/1B/1 Records of Comber Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church 1838-1971.
2 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 Norman Nevin ‘The Story of Comber’ (c.1980s) [typescript in Comber library].

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Typically Victorian pair of slightly picturesque houses of 1879 with central carriage arch, and many gabled half-dormers. Both houses are set in the terrace next to the entrance gates to the grounds of Comber Non-subscribing Presbyterian church and were built as the residence of the church caretaker, and, perhaps, for an ostler/ housekeeper for the minister. The stables to the rear of No.60 have been demolished and a new modern extension stands in their place.