Former Railway freight store,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single storey, rubble-built railway freight store of c.1898, situated on the NW side of the Saintfield Road, Ballygowan.
The shed is rectangular in plan with a coursed rubble facade, granite quoins and dressings and a Bangor blue slated gabled roof. Each gable once had a large semicircular arched doorway (for the engines), but both are now filled with modern doors/windows. Two other arched openings to the SE facade are now completely blocked up. PVC rw goods.

The railway track was lifted in 1950 and the ground around the shed is now covered in tarmac.

Historical information

This freight store was once part of the Ballygowan station complex of the Belfast and Co. Down Railway. The railway opened in 1859 and this store is said to have been added to the existing Ballygowan station in 1898. The railway closed in 1950 and the store now appears to be mainly used for housing gardening equipment.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS map 1st rev. 1858-60 Down 16.
2 EHS OS map 167-9 (1:2500) 1973.

Secondary sources
1 W.A. McCutcheon ‘The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland’ (HMSO 1980), pp.157, 175.
2 Desmond Coakham ‘Belfast & County Down Railway’ (Leicester 1998), p.41.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Rubble-built railway freight store of c.1898, once part of the station complex at Ballygowan. Most of the original arched openings are now blocked and the building now appears to be used for housing gardening equipment/ supplies. This is the last ‘recognisable’ former railway building in Ballygowan.