106 Old Holywood Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Semi-detached three-bay, one and a half storey red brick cottage, built c.1870 having central half-dormer to north, half-hipped gable to east and projecting chimney stack to west with single-storey red brick extension to west. The house is one of a pair of semi-detached buildings and is attached to 104 Old Holywood Road to south side (HB26/12/055A).

Pitched slate roof with roll-top terracotta ridge tiles, overhanging eaves supported on chamfered triangulated brackets, painted soffit and bargeboard. Gabled half-dormer to north. Two-stage chimney to west with leaded splays and leaded course, saw-tooth string course, terracotta pots. Ogee moulded uPVC guttering discharging to uPVC circular downpipes. Mono-pitched slate roof to extension.

Red brick walls with projecting stone plinth, moulded stone sill course and flush ashlar sandstone springing course to ground floor windows. String course to first floor half-hipped gable having upper and lower dentil course.

Front elevation faces north: Pair of segmental-headed window openings to ground floor , flanking doorway, with drip mould having chamfered brick detail. Square-headed timber casement windows to openings. Pair of segmental-headed openings to half-dormer. Segmental-headed door opening to east with drip mould with red brick shouldered surround. Diagonal sheeted timber door with fan-light over.

South elevation is attached to adjacent property 104 Old Holywood Road (HB26/12/055A)

West elevation has projecting chimney breast and stack flanked by ground and first floor window openings. Single-storey extension to south-west.

East elevation is single-bay two-storey with half-hipped gable with pair of segmental-headed windows openings to ground and first floor.

Materials:
Roof : Natural slate
RWG: uPVC
Walling: Red brick
Windows : Timber casement

Setting:
The house is one of a pair of semi-detached buildings and is attached to 104 Old Holywood Road to south side (HB26/12/055A). The building is located to the west of Old Holywood Road and enclosed with timber fence to north, dwarf red brick wall with hedge to east and mature gardens to west.

Historical information

Mid nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps show this site of this pair of dwellings to have been unoccupied by any building and to have been surrounded largely by open countryside. In 1860 the site formed part of the property of John L. Bell of nearby Moat House. He subsequently sold this property to Thomas Valentine who had Moat House rebuilt in 1863-4 to designs by the well known architect W. J. Barre.

Numbers 104 and 106 Old Holywood Road were constructed at some point between the rebuilding of Moat House and the mid 1880s. They are marked in ink on the Valuation Map covering the period c. 1860-c. 1885 and shown on the 1:2,500-scale Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1895.

The Valuation Revision Books are rather confusing in their presentation for the buildings on the Moat House demesne, and it is difficult to be more precise about the date of construction of numbers 104 and 106. However, it is possible that they represent the workmen’s houses that had been built by 1879 and which were given the valuation of £10. The occupiers of these houses are not noted until 1904 when they are identified as Thomas Culbert, whose dwelling was valued at £6 and James Campbell, whose dwelling was valued at £5; both houses were leased from Frank Workman who had acquired Moat House. Culbert is known to have been a gardener.

Street directories for much of the twentieth century refer to this pair of dwellings and other nearby houses collectively as Moat Cottages. Moat Cottage seems to have been the name reserved by the Culbert family for their home. Maggie Culbert who died in 1920 was of The Moat Cottage, while Mary Culbert who died in 1946 was of Moat Cottage.

The Culbert family remained in residence at 106 Old Holywood Road for most of the 1900s. Their neighbours in no. 104 for many years were the Robinsons. The Valuation Book for the period 1956-72 indicates that the immediate lessor of both houses was Ideal Planning Ltd. At that time no. 104, comprising a house, office and garden, was the home of J. Robinson and was valued at £10, while no. 106, a house and garden, was the residence of Agnes Culbert and was valued at £12.

References

Primary sources
1. PRONI, VAL/12/B/17/2A, 1863-66
2. PRONI, VAL/12/B/17/2B, 1867-78
3. PRONI, VAL/12/B/17/2C, 1879-86
4. PRONI, VAL/12/B/17/2E, 1887-91
5. PRONI, VAL/12/B/17/2H, 1891-97
6. PRONI, VAL/12/B/43/N/1, 1897-1905
7. PRONI, VAL/12/B/43/N/5, 1906-15
8. PRONI, VAL/12/B/43/N/8, 1916-30
9. PRONI, VAL/4B/7/47, 1956-72
10. PRONI, VAL/12/D/3/5A, c. 1860-[c. 1885]
11. PRONI, OS/6/1/5/2, 1855
12. PRONI, OS/10/3/5/5/1, 1895
13. PRONI, OS/10/3/5/5/5, 1922
14. Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1870 onwards
15. PRONI, Will Calendars

Secondary sources
1. Paul Larmour, Belfast: an illustrated architectural guide (Belfast, 1987)
2. J. A. K. Dean, The Gate Lodges of Ulster: a Gazetteer (Belfast, 1994)
3. Timothy Campbell and Stephen Royle, ‘East Belfast and the suburbanization of north-east County Down in the nineteenth century’, in Lindsay Proudfoot (ed.), Down: History and Society (Dublin, 1997)

Online sources
1. 1901 and 1911 census returns (www.census.nationalarchives.ie)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A well-maintained and proportioned victorian cottage building that forms one of a pair of semi-detached houses, located along the Old Holywood Road. Externally, many architectural features have been retained including the half-hipped gable, overhanging bracketed eaves, projecting chimney stack, drip moulds and moulded sill course. The building is referred to as 'Moat Cottage', due to its possible association with ‘The Moat’ or ‘Moat House’ and was probably occupied by men who worked on the estate. Although of some character the building has been altered and is not of special interest.

General comments

Well maintained building. Recently renovated and pictures from estate agent indicates survival of very few internal architectural details.