Ard View

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Ardview House large two storey gabled house of the 18th century with mild Palladian touches to the front facade. It is situated just north of the intersection of Killyleagh Road and Ardview Road and rests within its own wooded grounds. It is built over a ‘sunken basement’ and there is a large two storey hipped roof return to the rear, added c.1920. The house is of brick construction and is finished in rough cast render. The roof has Bangor blue slates and cast iron RW goods. The building may date from 1722, or represent a later 18th century remodelling of a house of this date.

The front SE elevation is symmetrical, and has a central bay which projects approximately 100mm. The central panelled timber door is surmounted by a rectangular fanlight with radial pattern. The doorway is flanked with simple panelled pilasters which are in turn flanked with margin windows and shallow plasters. Above the door and margins is a plain entablature. The inner pilasters support a pediment. Within the central bay are three evenly spaced first floor sliding sash and case windows with Georgian panes and to either side of the door is a matching window set within a shallow recessed panel. The panel has a semi circular head. The bay is finished with a simple pediment with one wide but squat window, which lights the attic space, within the tympanum. Either side of the projecting bay is one matching windows each to ground and first floor. The ground floor rests on a projecting string course. A string course extends to either side of the pediment above first floor. The windows to the sunken basement match those previously described and are in line with windows above, but they are shorter. A low rendered wall with decorative stone balusters guards the drop to the basement area and the sides of the short bridge which gives access to the front door.

The gable parapets are finished with stone dressings and tall, centrally placed, rendered chimney stacks. It may be that the chimney stacks were raised and large pots added in early Victorian times. The SW gable has a French door to the left hand side ground floor and one tall sliding sash and case window to the right. To the first floor are two evenly spaced but shorter matching windows. The attic floor has two similar but very short windows. This gable has no sunken basement. The NE gable is identical at attic and first floors. The ground floor, however, has one ‘blind’ windows and the sunken basement continues along this face. There are no windows to the basement on this side.

The sunken basement continues to the left hand side of the rear NW facade. Also to the left hand side of the rear facade are two sliding sash and case windows. The right hand window is shorter due to a small projecting ‘half landing’ flat roofed extension which is supported on a short rendered column. At first floor there are two similar windows. To the right side of the rear elevation is a two storey hipped extension. The owners informed the writers that this extension, which may have replaced an earlier (? single storey) return and was constructed in the 1920’s. It is a hipped roof with exposed rafter ends. Windows generally match those on the main house although two at first floor on the SW side are PVC. A small hipped roof single storey extension to the NW of the main return contains the rear porch. To the SW side of the return is a long single storey pitched roof wing. This is a recently added kitchen and dining area. Walls to the kitchen are much obscured by greenery. The rear court yard is surrounded by out houses. Those to the north and west are used as stables and those to the south are used as a family den. In the centre of the courtyard is a small hipped roof pavilion which was used as a milking parlour. The walls of this are completely obscured with ivy. A terrace to the immediate south of the den contains an open air swimming pool.

Dry closet a short distance to E of house (see ref HB24/17/008).

Historical information

Ard View House appears to have been built by the Potter family in the 18th century. The actual date of construction is uncertain, however the characters ‘1722’ are said to be inscribed on the basement facade. The house is probably that indicated on Taylor’s and Skinner’s 1777 road map of the area and marked ‘Potter Esq.’, though confusingly the name ‘Mr. Potter’ is also included on the map (as if there were two Potters and two dwellings), and the house has been placed to the south of Moore Hall when it is actually to the north. Local folk memory suggests that the residence may have originally been called ‘Mount Potter’.

The house is shown on the 1834 and 1859-60 OS maps, much as today except for the rear return, which appears to have been rebuilt in c.1920. The Potters seem to have remained in possession of Ard View for most of the 19th century. Various family members are listed in the 1835 and 1861 valuation returns, and Alexander Knox’s in his 1875 History of Co. Down refers to ‘Ard View the residence of Mr. Potter’. By 1886, however, the building was in the possession of a T.P. Millar and has witnessed a long list of residents during this century. The current owner acquired the house in 1986 and has carried out extensive restoration work particularly to the first floor rooms and the roof.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI [Library] 'Taylor’s & Skinner’s maps of the Roads of Ireland' (Dublin 1777), map 281.
2 PRONI OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 17.
3 PRONI VAL 1B/335 p.51 (204) 1st valuation Killinchy parish, Killinchy Td., c.1835.
4 S. Lewis 'A topographical dictionary of Ireland' (1837), p.148.
5 'Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland 1844-45' (Dublin 1846), p.480
6 PRONI OS maps 1st rev. 1859-60, Co. Down 17.
7 PRONI 2nd valuation, Killinchy parish, Killinchy td., 1861.
8 Alexander Knox 'History of Co. Down' (Dublin 1875).
9 George Henry Bassett 'County Down guide and directory' (Dublin 1886), p.399.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large two storey early to mid Georgian gentleman’s residence with mild Palladian overtones to the front facade. This house is set within its original small demesne and has a hipped roof return of c.1920 largely in keeping with the original structure. Much internal restoration work has been carried out in recent times but the character of the house has generally been maintained.
The extensive collection of outhouses appear largely intact and add much to the site as a whole.