Ardmore,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Ardmore is a large two storey gabled gentleman’s residence set on a rise, to the N of the Brae, overlooking the village of Ballygowan. The house is approached via a laneway whose entrance has tall plain gate post and tall, decorative wrought iron gates.

The house appears to have been built in two sections. The long two storey rear return is probably the original pre 1834 dwelling, with the main section to the front added between 1834 and 1858.

The front façade is almost symmetrical and faces west. Roughly in the centre of the ground floor is a gabled porch. To the S face of the porch is a sturdy timber panelled door reached via three steps. The doorway is encased with thick ‘pilasters’ with simple moulded ‘capitals’ and chamfered bases. Above the door is a frieze/ cornice ‘eaves course’ which continues around the whole porch. To the W (gabled) face of the porch is a sash window with margin panes. Below the window is a moulded panel and to either side of the window (at the edges of the face) are double ‘pilasters’ similar to those to S face. In the tympanum of the gable is a small moulded ‘roundel’ panel. The N face has a similar arrangement but with single ‘pilasters’.

To the left and to the right of the porch is a single sash window with three similar (but slightly smaller), windows to the first floor.

The S façade consists of the S gable of the main front section of the house and the S side of the long rear return. The gable has a sash window to the right to ground and first floors. The S façade of the return has a house-like symmetry, reinforcing the idea that this section was indeed an earlier dwelling. In the centre is a panelled and glazed door with plain fanlight and moulded surround with keystone. To the left and two the right of the doorway is a single sash window with three more similar, but smaller, windows to the first floor. To the E gable of the return (which has a small single pane attic window) there is a single storey section (possibly originally a barn).

The N façade of this property has a more complex arrangement. To the right is the N gable of the main front section. This gable has a sash window to the right on the ground and first floors. To the left side of this gable (i.e. the right of the rear of the main front section) is a small, flat-roofed, single storey extension with a modern window to the N. Behind this extension (i.e. nearer to the centre of the rear of the main front section and attached to the rear of the long return) is a two storey lean to projection, with a modern window to the N on the first floor. To the left of this lean to (at the rear of the long return) is a first floor sash window with margin panes. To the centre left of the rear of the long return there projects a large, full height gabled section with a sash window to the first floor on its E face. To the (N facing) gable of this section is a single storey lean to store extension (also attached to the flat-roofed single storey extension to its right). To the first floor of the gable is a centrally placed sash window with margin panes with a smaller modern window to the right.

The writers were unable to observe the rear elevation.

The façade is finished in lined render with chamfered quoins to the front section and an eaves course to it and the long return. The roof (apart from the small flat roofed portion) is covered in Bangor blue slates with parapets to the main front section and the return. Four rendered chimney stacks (two to the return two to front section). Cast iron skylight to rear of return roof. The rainwater goods are mainly cast iron.

Much of the front and S facades are covered in creeper growth. Outbuildings to rear.

Historical information

A building matching the size and positing of the present long return is shown on the 1834 OS map and marked ‘Moss View’. The revised map of 1858 shows the house much as today and marked ‘Orrmount’. The valuation records of c.1835 tell us that the original Moss View’ was at this date in the possession of a James Reid and had a substantial rateable value of £12-1-0. Such a value suggests that this property was probably two storey and probably was the return we see today. At the time of the 2nd valuation (c.1863), when the building had largely assumed its present from, the rateable value had risen to £32. At this stage the house was in the hands of Alexander Orr Reid (presumably a relative of the above James) and it remained in the Reid family until at least 1886. Between this date and c.1900 Orrmount was acquired by the Dickson family and renamed ‘Ardmore’. The Dicksons added a gate lodge next to the south entrance and appear to have completely refurbished the house itself, no doubt adding the timber fire places and the general Edwardian decoration.

Taylor’s and Skinner’s 1777 road map of the Ballygowan area indicates a building in the general area of the present Ardmore.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI ‘Taylor’s and Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland’ (Dublin 1777), map 283.
2 PRONI D.354 Mussenden Papers. [These papers include documents relating Mussenden family property to 1831, however they have not been catalogued in detail. This property was built on land belonging to the Mussendens.]
3 PRONI OS map 1st ed. 1834, Down 16.
4 PRONI VAL1B/316C, p.56 1st valuation Comber parish 1834.
5 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p.40.
6 PRONI OS map 1st rev. 1858-60, Down 16.
7 PRONI 2nd valuation Comber parish c.1863.
8 George Henry Basset ‘Co. Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), p.282.

Secondary sources
1 J.A.K. Dean ‘The Gate lodges of Ulster’ (UAHS 1994), p.61.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large two storey gentleman’s residence probably built in two sections, the long return a pre 1834 dwelling with the front portion added c.1850.