Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB23/15/007 A

Address :
Crawford House Old Windmill Road Crawfordsburn Co Down BT18 1XL

Townland:
Killaire

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
27/01/1975 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
115/11

IG Ref:
J4693 8222

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Owner Category

Commercial

Exterior Description And Setting

A substantial Scots Baronial style four-bay two-storey former country house with attic, now converted to apartments, dated 1906 and occupying a shore-side
setting on the east side of Crawfordsburn Country Park, to the east of Crawfordsburn village. The house is rectangular on plan with a variety of gables and gabled dormers to attic, entrance porch and portico to west, and substantial modern extension to south. Pitched Westmoreland slate roof with angled clay ridge tiles; ashlar sandstone chimneystacks with moulded caps and multiple pots; raised roll-topped saddleback fractables with double-gableted ends. Rainwater goods are ogee cast iron on ashlar eaves cornice; half round over exposed rafter tails to secondary elevations. Downpipes have box hoppers fixed with dated plate fixings (1906). Walls are uncoursed squared rock-faced Scrabo sandstone dressings with plinth. Dressings are honey-coloured sandstone. Windows are 1/1 horned timber sashes with chamfered ashlar surrounds (diminished to attic level). Doors are generally replacement timber. West elevation is asymmetrically arranged and four bays wide. Windows are primarily arranged singly or paired; exceptions are a triple window to ground floor right and a bowed bay with parapet, also with three windows. Second bay from left is wider, projects slightly and is abutted by a single storey porch fronted by a portico comprising two Composite columns with pilaster responds to either side of entrance, and carrying a neo-Baroque styled scrolled pedimented entablature with ornate coat of arms carving (bearing inscription 'Durum / Patentia / Franco') to pediment and blocking course. The entrance door is segmental-headed with impost mouldings carrying a moulded stone head with carved keyblock. Door is a modern six-panelled replacement with reconditioned stained glass sidelights, all accessed by three granite steps with swept side walls. Porch cheeks each have a round-headed window flanked by pilasters and with Classical surround. Windows to first floor right at this bay are corbelled out over recessed ground floor openings. The attic gable bears a datestone: A.D.1906. North (shore-facing) elevation is three bays wide and almost symmetrical, with gabled left and right bays. The centre bay is three openings wide to each floor (including a door to centre with tall transom light and surmounted by a carved stone monogrammed plaque). Right bay has a bowed bay to ground floor. Left bay is dominated by a full-height canted Baronial style mullioned-and-transom window with leaded and stained glazing (16 parts to main face, 3 to each cant and cheeks), surmounted by a parapet with carved stone panel. East elevation has a projecting bay set to extreme left and to right of centre. There is a single-storey quadrant bay lit by equally spaced windows to the N internal angle of the right bay. It is surmounted by carved panel and the wall head over supports a tall chimneystack fronted by a blank gable. The principal section of this elevation has a series of smaller windows to ground and first floor, and a door accessed by four stone steps with ramped side walls. Modern dormers to this side. Other openings are irregularly arranged. South elevation is partially abutted above ground floor level by the modern apartment wing. Generally, the elevation is L-shaped, consisting of a substantial ancillary projecting wing at right (opening onto an entry at ground floor and abutting extension to upper floors) and main block at left. There are two canted bays to ground floor, and the usual irregular arrangement of gables, in addition to a modern dormer. Setting The house occupies a shore-side setting overlooking Belfast Lough and out to sea, and the mature planted landscape of Crawfordsburn Country Park to other aspects. There is an expanse of lawn to east, terraced down to northern boundary, which is hedge lined. To west side is a tarmac car park, beyond which, to west, is a development of new houses. The modern extension block, built to imitate aspects of the original, occupies the south east portion of the site. A tarmac drive sweeps down from Windmill Lane, accessed by a pair of security gates on modern brick piers. A walled garden remains to west, now closed off from the grounds and in separate ownership. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Scrabo sandstone Windows: Timber RWG: Cast iron

Architects

Craig, Vincent

Historical Information

Crawfordsburn House was built in 1904-6 to designs by Vincent Craig, at an estimated cost of £20,000. The Irish Builder of November 19th 1904 invites tenders for the ‘erection of a new house at Crawfordsburn Co Down for Colonel Sharman Crawford D.L....This will do away with the rather historic, if excessively ugly old mansion on the shores, at the entrance of Belfast Lough’. The same publication announced on 3 December 1904 that the house ‘will shortly be begun’. The house replaced an earlier building, situated to the west, of c.1820, which itself replaced a house of c.1780. The house of 1820 is shown on the first and second editions of the OS map, captioned ‘Crawfordsburn Ho[use]’ and is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) and Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) as the property of the Crawford family, with dimensions given for the house and outbuildings in the Townland Valuation. (Patton, p.61) The new house is listed in Annual Revisions of 1908 at £380, replacing the former building which was valued at £70. The occupier was Robert Gordon Sharman Crawford. Following an appeal in 1909 the valuation is reduced to £350. The new house is shown on the fourth edition OS map of 1919-31. Colonel Robert Gordon Sharman Crawford was an army officer and politician who was MP for East Belfast from 1914 to 1918, when the seat was abolished and for mid Down from 1921 to 1922 when the seat was again abolished. He served on the Senate of Northern Ireland from 1921 until his death in 1934. (www.peterrobinson.org) In 1933 a valuer describes the building as a “well built modern mansion occupying attractive site on shore of Lough. Built about 30 years ago cost £20,000 + extras also large sums spent on cott[age]s and offices. Well planned house with good approach by drives from both C’burn and Helen’s Bay Roads. Extensive lawns, ornamental gardens, kitchen garden (walled in), conservatories and well built offices (none of which are used for agricultural purposes) including garages, carriage and coach ho, stabling for hunters &c. Ho[use] and offices have been well maintained and are in good general condition. Own water supply pumped from wells to service tank. Central heating. Lighting from own acet[ylene] gas plant. Drainage to septic tank. House and offices are now somewhat larger than required by occupier.” The accommodation at this time comprised, on the ground Floor, an outer hall and porch, a lounge hall, 6 rooms, two cloak rooms (WC and lav basins), a safe room, butler’s pantry, butler’s room and safe, brushing room, WC and cloaks, servant’s hall, housekeeper’s room, store room, flower room, kitchen, scullery larder, boots and WC, dairy, wood stores and coal hole. On the first floor there was a boudoir, minstrels gallery, 10 principal bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 WCs, a house maids’ pantry, linen room and sewing room. On the second floor there were 8 principal bedrooms, six maids’ rooms, three bathrooms, and two WCs. A wine cellar, store and safe were in the basement and cottages for the coachman and gardener in the grounds. An Estate Agent’s pamphlet of this period describes the house as having a thoroughly modern interior with 9 reception rooms, 25 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. It was thought that the house might be used as a private residence, ‘a Country Club, Hotel or Central Headquarters for a Holiday Camp’. Valuer’s notes of 1935 show that the house was let to W J Stewart, after Crawford’s death. This is likely to have been William John Stewart, MP for South Belfast from 1929 to 1946, and head of the building firm, Stewart and Partners, which had built the parliament buildings at Stormont in 1932. A rise in valuation to £310 takes place at this time. (Dod’s Parliamentary Companion) According to the valuer, Colonel Crawford’s representatives were obliged to spend ‘over £1250’ on improvements before the house could be let, including the installation of electric light and extra bathrooms with improved fittings. The valuer speculates that the house is to be let ‘until the heir comes of age’. However, the house was sold in 1948 to the Northern Ireland Tuberculosis Authority, a nurses home, recreation and school room being added to the site in 1948. In 1959 the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority took over, using the house as a geriatric hospital. In the early 1980’s it passed into private ownership and in 2000 was redeveloped to designs by MacRae Hanlon Spence Partnership who converted the building into 38 apartments with an additional 22 in a new courtyard development. (Patton, p.61; UA International) References: Primary Sources 1.PRONI OS/6/3/1/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834 2.PRONI OS/6/3/1/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858 3.PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02 4.PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31 5.PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41 6.PRONI VAL/1/A/3/1 – Townland Valuation Map (1828-40) 7.PRONI VAL/1/B/315 – Townland Valuation (1828-40) 8.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64) 9.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 10.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/8A-C – Annual Revisions (1894-1923) 11.PRONI VAL/3/D/4/17/H/7 – Valuer’s RV Binder (1933-57) 12.Estate Agent’s Leaflet regarding sale of Crawfordsburn Estate (n.d.) – available in NIEA file (HB23/15/007) 13.Irish Builder, Vol 46, 19th November, 1904, p.772 14.Irish Builder, Vol 46, 3rd December, 1904, p.801 15.Dod’s Parliamentary Companion, 1936 16.UA International, Vol 16, Iss 10, 2000, pp12-15 Secondary Sources 1.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999 2.www.peterrobinson.org

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

V. Authorship X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A Scots Baronial style four-bay two-storey former country house with gabled and dormered attics, built c.1906, now converted to apartments. The house was built as a replacement residence for the Crawford family, following the destruction of the earlier house by fire. Subsequent change of use to a hospital and currently to residential apartments has compromised the historic character and setting of the building. Although an overscaled extension has been constructed, the original character of the house survives. Ornamentation is plain, but appropriate to the style; the exterior is enlivened by a fine neo-Baroque portico, grand full-height Baronial window and some good carved stone detail. Although the building has been subdivided with the loss of some detailing, it remains one of the most significant houses in the immediate area. It is of interest as being connected to a prominent local family and through its former use as a hospital. It also has group value with its two gate lodges, Burn Lodge, Crawfordsburn Road (HB23/15/007B) and 20 Bridge Road South, Helens Bay (HB23/15/007C).

General Comments

Please note this record has been renumbered from HB23/15/007

Date of Survey

26 June 2010