Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/15/023

Address :
Cook Industrial Estate (Former Upper Distillery) Park Way Comber Co. Down BT23 5AR

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Factory

Former Use
Factory

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
148/10

IG Ref:
J4603 6907

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Owner Category

Commercial

Exterior Description And Setting

The former Upper Distillery is a large complex of former distillery buildings situated to the E of Killinchy Street. The buildings date from two distinct stages of development the older mixed rubble structures dating from c.1835-40 and the large sandstone building and brick chimney from the early 1920s. The distillery ceased large scale production between 1948 and 1953 and the complex is now serves as an informal industrial park, housing, among others, a furniture manufacturer and a mechanic. In recent years some of the buildings belonging to the complex have been demolished with the remainder altered to a greater or lesser degree. The complex is actually entered from a narrow lane off Killinchy Street named Park Way. The entrance, which has modern metal gates, leads into a large yard. To the S side of the yard (to the SW of the gate) is a long two storey hipped roof building in a mixture greywacke and sandstone rubble. To the N façade this building sports a modern single storey flat roofed extension finished in rough cast. This façade also sports a few original brick dressed openings with the main entrance to the left, now with a painted render surround. The roof has natural slates and some cast iron skylights. To the SW of this building there is a large modern structure in corrugated iron. To the SE side of the yard (to the E of the entrance) is a similar sized building in similar rubble and roof covering but with a gabled roof. The S façade of this building faces out on to Park Way where it has two low doorways with stone surrounds and two upper ‘loft’ openings. Its W gable is rendered and to the N façade there is a large vehicle entrance with corrugated iron doors and some smaller openings, including another ‘loft’ doorway. To the E and N of this building there used to be addition structures of similar construction but most of these have been demolished with the result that the E half of the complex is now largely open yard. There is, however, a large greywacke rubble building to the very NE of the complex, set on a slope and much lower looking when viewed from the S. The low S façade of this building has large sections patched in breeze block to its right side and to the left the façade cuts in at an angle (like a large chamfer), so the that the W gable end (which has a large doorway) is much narrower than that to the E. The N façade faces out of the complex and has a few small high level openings. The roof is covered in natural slate. Slightly to the SW of this block, and set roughly in the middle of the whole complex, is a large two storey gabled building is largely in greywacke rubble with sandstone quoins and natural slates to the roof. To the E façade there is a line of small windows close to the eaves and a ground floor doorway. To the S gable there are door openings to all levels (some fairly recent). To the W façade there re openings to all levels, most of them original looking, though some to the ground level are recent insertions. To the N gable are two upper level window openings. To the W of this building is the largest single structure in the complex. This building is dressed sandstone with red brick dressings to the openings. It is roughly L shaped with a larger gabled portion running NE to SW and a much smaller gabled portion attached to the NW along with a two storey flat roofed section. This building was added to the complex in the early 1920s, replacing some earlier structures. To the SE façade there are many original openings, however to the ground floor some have been blocked up and there are some more recent doorway insertions. To the left side of this façade there is a gabled bay now covered with badly dilapidated corrugated iron. The SW façade is now linked to a building further to the W (see below) by a two storey section in breeze block. The NE gable is uneven and slopes into a single storey projecting section to the N corner of the building (now largely covered in creeping plant growth). The left side of this gable has a large chamfer. To the right (NW) of the rear facade of this building the smaller (but slightly taller) gabled portion is attached, along with the slightly incongruous two storey flat roofed section attached to it to the right (SW). The gabled portion is now largely covered in creeping plant growth. To the left of it is a large concrete tank, and the left of this is the projecting single storey section (see above). To the right of the flat roofed section is a gabled bay (which is the rear gable of the bay to the SE façade of the main building- see above). The roofs of the large gabled section and the smaller gabled portion are covered in natural slate. The roof of the larger section has two hipped roof ‘roof light’ projections to the ridge with a taller hipped roof ‘tower’ in corrugated iron projecting from the W end of the same roof. To the N of the large L shaped building is a tall octagonal tapering chimney stack in red brick with engineering brick as ‘quoins; To the W side of the complex is a long part single, part two and part three storey row whose W façade faces into Killinchy Street. The N end of the row is actually split level. At the very N end is a gabled house in greywacke rubble, which is two storey when viewed from Killinchy Street, but three storey when viewed from the E (within the complex). [This house is now recorded under the ref. HB24/15/110]. To the immediate S of the house the rest of the row (which is in similar rubble with a part slated part corrugated iron hipped roof) is single storey on the Killinchy Street side. Like the house, however, the northernmost section of this row is actually two storey when viewed from the E. A small part of this row, to immediate S of the house, is actually part of the house itself. The remainder of it is now a furniture shop/showroom and has large modern windows to the W façade. To the E façade the furniture shop has a square plan single storey extension in sandstone, with a corrugated iron covered hipped roof with a small ‘roof light tower’ to the apex.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Distilling on this site can be traced to the mid 18th century and one James Patterson who owned a ‘large malt kiln…with a good large house for the distilling business’. When Patterson died in 1761 the business was taken over by an Alexander Riddle who practised both distilling and brewing. Riddle gave up the business in 1767 and rented the buildings to John Andrews, (a local miller and ancestor of the later locally famous Andrews family) who installed William Murdock as manager. Andrews gave up the lease in 1788, but Murdock, who is described on his head stone as ‘the eminent distiller of Comber’ may have retained his connections with the business until his death in 1805. What happened to the business after this is uncertain, but by the 1820s, at least, George Johnston and a Mr. Gilbert were in possession of the site which by this stage was given over to brewing. In 1825 Johnston went into partnership with John Miller and the building converted for use solely as a distillery. By 1846, (Johnston presumably having died or retired), Miller was running the distillery in partnership with a Mr. Cairns (probably James Cairns of near by Maxwell Court). By 1856 Miller was in sole ownership of the business and four years later acquired Comber’s other distillery (the ‘Lower Distillery’- formerly to the south of the Newtownards Road, but now almost entirely demolished). Miller retired in 1871, at the age of 75, and both distilleries were acquired by Samuel Bruce. Bruce lived in England and installed as a resident partner a Mr. McCance [?or Blizard-McCance]. The Lower Distillery closed completely in c.1916 and the Upper gradually wound down production after 1948, closing for good in 1953. After this the business was acquired by an Inverness wine merchant, mainly for the stock. The equipment was dismantled and sold, and in 1957 the site was bought by local spirit dealers Hollywood & Donnelly, who sold off the remainder of the whiskey and appear to have used the buildings for storage. The former distillery buildings were later [?c.1960] sold to Mr. Jack Cook and a paper recycling business operated on the site until the mid 1980s. At present the former Upper Distillery is home to small industrial park. Most of the buildings on the site today appear to date from the later 1830s or 1840s, with the large sandstone dressed structure [?a former still house] built in c.1920. The house and the attached row to the west side of the complex (facing out on to Killinchy Street) may be pre 1834 as buildings in their position are shown on the OS map of that year, and a house matching the dimensions of the present dwelling is recorded in the contemporary valuation records. Many mid 19th century buildings to the east side of the complex were demolished in the 1980s and early 1990s. The mixture of rubble used in many of the mid 19th century buildings suggests that salvaged material from earlier structures on the site (shown on the 1834 map) was re-used. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI D.654/M1B/2 Londonderry Papers- ‘Survey of the town, tenements and parks of Comber…1722’. 2 PRONI VAL 1B/316A p.38 1st valuation, Comber, 1834. 3 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 10. 4 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.442. 5 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.505. 6 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10. 7 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber, 1861. [In print in PRONI search room and in the Linen Hall Library.] 8 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870). 9 PRONI OS/2/3/10 OS map, 2nd ed. 1901, Down 10. Secondary sources 1 Norman Nevin ‘The Story of Comber’ (c.1980s) [typescript in Comber library]. 2 Brian Townsend ‘The Lost Distilleries of Ireland’ (Neil Wilson Publishing Ltd. 1997), pp.73-77.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Former distillery complex with many rubble constructed buildings of the mid 1800s and a large [?] former still house of c.1920. To the west side of the site is a large two storey house with basement (and attached row of outbuildings), which may be pre 1834. The complex is now home to an industrial park and most of the buildings have witnessed alteration of varying degrees.

General Comments

Date of Survey

02 July 1999