Ballymorran Close

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Substantial one and a half storey house with attic, set within the clachan like grouping at Ballymorran Close, to the S of the Ballymorran Road, roughly one mile SE of Killinchy village.

Front W facade has a left of centre doorway with panelled door fanlight with margins and three pane sidelights with panelled aprons. To the left of the doorway are two sash windows with Georgian panes. To the right are two similar windows, widely spaced.
To the left on the ground floor of the N gable is a four pane window, with a similar window to the right at attic level. The S gable has a similar arrangement but handed and with the addition of a large lean to PVC conservatory which contains a glazed doorway which leads into the house proper.

To the rear there are three unevenly spaced four pane windows to the left and centre (of varying size) with a timber sheeted and glazed door to the right.

The entire facade is finished in plain render and painted. The roof is gabled and covered in Bangor blue slates with [?]concrete parapets. Four (evenly spaced) rendered chimney stacks. PVC rw goods.

Rendered wall to front (enclosing garden) with simple ‘arched’ wrought iron railings [?possibly late 19th century].

This house has been recently renovated and though the interior appears to have been radically altered, the facade has largely been restored.

To the N of the house is a collection of recently renovated outbuildings a section of which is thatched. To the N (and across the road) of these buildings is another long single storey house, which has a datestone which reads ‘S T M 1702’ on the front facade, though the property itself has been ‘modernised’ in fairly recent times.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS maps of 1834 and 1859-60 which probably corresponds with the present dwelling. Another house within this clachan-like grouping has a datestone of 1702, which, if original, would imply that the grouping has its origin in the early eighteenth century. The semi-formal front facade of the house, and the entrance in particular, may have been a c.1830s-40s attempt to give the facade an air of classical proportion, with a dummy chimney added to complete the illusion.
The valuation returns of c.1835 note that the dwelling was at that stage in the possession of a William Bernard [or Bennard] and that the outbuildings consisted of a ‘carhouse, barn [and] cowhouse’. In 1861 a Mary Bishop resided within the property, which was apparently leased from John Cleland (presumably of Stormont).

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.1071/A/H2/131-37 Dufferin and Ava Papers- Assignment and leases concerning lands in Ballymorran 1737-1828.
2 PRONI D.572/21/98/17 Rental concerning Ballymorran Td. 1796.
3 PRONI OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 17.
4 PRONI VAL 1B/335 p.58 (208) 1st valuation, Killinchy parish, Ballymorran td., c.1835.
5 PRONI OS maps 1st rev. 1859-60, Co. Down 17.
6 PRONI 2nd valuation, Killinchy parish, Ballymorran td., 1861.
7 UFTM WAG 2090 W.A. Green Collection - Photograph of Ballymorran Close c.1910. [Only the roof of this property can be seen in this particular photograph.]
8 UFTM L 1222.10- Transparency of the house at Ballymorran Close with 1702 datestone.

Secondary sources
1 Archaeological survey of Co. Down (HMSO 1966), p.319. [The survey raises a question as to the authenticity of the 1702 datestone on the house to the north of this building.]
2 Alan Gailey Rural houses of the north of Ireland (Edinburgh 1984), pp.238-41, 243-46.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Attractive one and a half storey former farm house of probable pre 1834 origin. The building has been recently renovated and whilst externally little has changed, the interior has been substantially altered thus reducing its historic character..