Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB23/10/002 E

Address :
Ava Gallery Clandeboye Estate Clandeboye Bangor Co Down BT19 1RN

Townland:
Ballyleidy

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
31/07/1998 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Gallery/ Museum

Former Use
Gas Works

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
131/03

IG Ref:
J4738 7951

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

This former 1870s estate gasworks, in Scottish baronial style, is located between the vestry of Clandeboye Chapel and a single-storey former outbuilding at the SW corner of the farmyard just west of Clandeboye House. The building is aligned NE-SW with its principal elevation facing SE into the courtyard. It comprises a three-storey, two-bay building with shallow gabled return on its NW elevation. Pitched natural slate roof, with raised crow-stepped gables coped with cut sandstone. Half-round metal gutters and circular metal downpipes. Walls of quarried Silurian rubble with cut sandstone eaves course. The south-east elevation shows two phases of construction. The ground floor is of small stones which continue through to the adjoining building at right. By contrast, the upper floors are of much larger stones. The top floor of the right-hand bay is supported on a moulded sandstone corbel. There are three doorways to the ground floor of this elevation. That to the right-hand end has a flat brick head and matches the rest of the openings on the one-storey building at right. It contains a large 3-pane window. The remaining two doorways have semicircular brick heads. That to the middle now has a window and that at left has a dummy sheeted timber door. A small square window opening has been inserted between the second and third doorway from left. There are two flat brick-headed window openings to the left bay of the first floor. The left one has been infilled with random rubble and the right-hand one has a 1/1 sliding sash window with stone cill. There are two larger square-headed window openings to the top floor, each with ashlar sandstone dressings and containing a 1/1 sliding sash window with chamfered cill. Directly above each of these windows is an eaves gable, detailed as the main gables and each with a blank sandstone shield in bass-relief. The south-west gable of the three-storey building is devoid of openings. The north-west elevation is of small Silurian stonework to its ground and first floors and the remainder, along with the chimney, of larger stones. There is a clear break between the two phases of stonework. There are two semicircular brick arched doorways to the ground floor of the right-hand bay, both infilled with random rubble. This bay also has two brick-headed window openings to the first floor; the right-hand one has been infilled with stone and the left one contains a 2/2 sliding sash window with stone cill. There is a 1/1 sliding sash window to the second floor of each bay, each with a chamfered sandstone cill. In the apex of the gable to the return of the right-hand bay is a small slit window with ashlar sandstone surround. A rubble Silurian masonry chimney of square cross section fills the corner to the left of the return. At roofline level it insteps slightly and continues to its full height in regularly coursed sandstone blocks with a tapered advanced cut sandstone coping. At the base of its north elevation is a small metal opening set in a brick-lined opening (probably for cleaning out the chimney and/or controlling the draught). The exposed section of the north-east gable of the three-storey building has two square-headed louvred openings trimmed with sandstone. The apex formerly contained a bronze bell, now in safe storage whilst its protective pitched slate canopy is refurbished. Setting The former gasworks is set in the south-west corner of the stable and coachyards (HB23/10/002B) at Clandeboye, which comprises a quadrilateral courtyard arrangement of single- and two-storey rubble stone outbuildings, including the Chapel (HB23/10/002D). The wider estate
setting is accessed via a long sweeping drive from the main Bangor Road at north. Roof: Natural slate Rainwater goods: Metal Windows: Timber Doors: Timber and glass

Architects

Benjamin Ferrey

Historical Information

The gasworks was built in 1871-72. An expenditure of £680.6s.8d is recorded for the gasworks in the Clandeboye Estate ‘General Analysis’ account book for that period, and a further £30.10s.9d for gas making. At this time acetylene gas had not been developed, so the gasworks undoubtedly used coal (relatively easy to import at that time via the railway). Further modifications may have taken place in the late 1870s as expenditures of £67.9s.1d and £46.7s.5d are recorded for 1877-78 and 1879-80 respectively. The 1834 OS six-inch map shows a building at this location. The field evidence indicates that it was a two-storey building, three openings wide. In order to accommodate the gas plant in the early 1870s, the north two bays of this building appear to have been raised by a floor and the south end bay of the adjoining single-storey building by two floors. Along with the chimney to exhaust the retorts, the present three-storey, two-bay building was thus created. The south bay housed the gasholder, and the north bay the retorts. Finally, at some later date, the south bay of the original two-storey building was lowered to its present single storey. An acetylene gas plant eventually superseded the coal gas plant. This would have been after c.1880 as it was not possible to manufacture calcium carbide before that date. This new gasworks was apparently located just south of the farmyard; its associated external gasholder is shown on the 1895 OS 25-inch map. This plant was superseded by electric lighting in the 1920s. The coal gas retorts and holder were eventually removed from the defunct coal gasworks and the building was latterly converted into a grain dryer and silo. The bell is apparently from Burma and was installed c.1898. References – Primary sources: 1. PRONI OS/6/3/1/1, First edition OS six-inch map, Co Down sheet 1 (1834). 2. PRONI D1071/A/B/4/1. Clandeboye Estate accounts (missing from PRONI, but copy in Clandeboye Estate Archive). 3. PRONI OS/10/3/1/16/1, First edition OS 25-inch map, Co Down sheet 1-16 (1895). References – Secondary sources: 1. Hamond, F.W., Gasworks and outbuildings, Clandeboye Demesne, Clandeboye, Co Down (report prepared for Environment & Heritage Service, 4 Sept 1997, based on survey of 11 July 1997).

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

V. Authorship X. Local Interest Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Scottish baronial style three-storey former gasworks of early 1870s date. Converted from an earlier barn, is of interest on account of its decorative gables and cut sandstone embellishments, and because of the phasing evident it its fabric. Given its date and similarity in detailing to Helen’s Bay Station (HB23/15/039A), specifically its gable and chimney detailing, it is probably the work of Sir Benjamin Ferrey (or at least inspired by him). Its plan form is also of interest, reflecting the functional differentiation of its two main internal spaces – one for gas manufacture and the other for gas storage. It also has group value with the rest of the estate. Although the actual gas plant is long gone, the building is nevertheless of interest as an example of a domestic gasworks. It is probably the most elaborate survival of the relatively few such works which once existed in the Province.

General Comments

This record has been renumbered as part of the Clandeboye Estate. Previously HB23/10/020. Within Clandeboye Local Landscape Policy Area BR24

Date of Survey

09 June 2010