Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB18/13/017

Address :
Former Roden Arms 75 Bryansford village Aghacullion Newcastle Co Down BT33 0PT

Townland:
Aghacullion

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
11/07/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
Hotel

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
255/6

IG Ref:
J3453 3295

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Long, two storey gabled former hotel of probable late 18th century construction, much altered in the late 1990s and now containing 5 private dwellings. The former outbuildings to the immediate W have also been converted to dwellings and the once open ground to the NW is currently being developed with many houses nearing completion. The building is situated on the N side of the main road running through Bryansford, close to the junction of the Upper Burren Road. The building is set on a slight slope running SW to NE. The former front façade faces SW, but is now actually the rear. It is asymmetrical and displays no overall unity of composition. To the far left on the ground floor is a semicircular headed window with modern frame. Next is a doorway filled with glazed double doors and fanlight. Next is a single storey canted bay with flat roof as balcony. This has a large window with modern frame to the outer sides and a pair of French doors to the ‘front’. There are French doors to the above balcony also. To the right of the bay is a broad elliptical arched doorway with French doors, then a large picture window with modern frame and then an semicircular headed window, as far left. To far left this façade merges with a tall rendered wall. To the right of this window is a two storey canted bay with hipped slated roof. To the first floor (all sides) and outer sides of ground floor are windows with modern frames. To the ‘front’ side of the ground floor are French doors. To the right of the bay is a broad doorway with French doors and large sidelights. To the right of this a large lean-to section has been added (actually to the NE gable). This has a similar large doorway to its SW face. Apart from the balcony doorway and the windows to the full height canted bay already mentioned, the first floor has six windows. They are of various size and shapes and sizes and all have modern frames except that to the far left, which has a sash frame. Some of the window cills to this floor have small ‘bap’-like brackets. The balcony sits ‘under’ a gable with shaped barges with finial and superfluous ‘tie beams’. The SW gable has two windows to the first floor with modern frames, with one to the ground floor. To the left this gable merges with the SW face of a rear return which has a window as before. There used to a small two storey gabled section attached to this end of the building, but this was demolished in the late 1990s. The NE gable has a large lean-to attached which appears to be wholly modern. It has modern windows and doors to the NE face and merges with a single storey house, wholly modern to the NE. What was once the rear (NW) façade is now the front. To the far left is a full height gabled bay with barges and ‘tie beam’ as front. This bay has a modern door and window to the ground floor and two similar windows to the first floor. All windows to the rear have modern frames. To the right of this is another similar window then a projecting single storey gabled porch with modern door and window (smaller than previous). To the right of this is another window and a door, as before. To the right of this is a broader window. To the far right is a large double gabled bay (generally as far left but times two). The first (left) gable has a doorway, as before but with porch hood over. To the right of this is a window. To the first floor are two similar windows. There are two more windows to the first floor of the right bay and a doorway to the ground floor, as previous. To the first floor between the end bays are six windows of various size and shape. The whole façade is finished in a recently applied rough cast. The roof is covered in natural slate. Four unevenly spaced rendered chimney stacks (there used to be five until the renovation). Metal rw goods. Low rendered wall to roadside (at what is now the ‘rear’. The SW of the main building is a two storey hipped roof building originally the servants’ quarters and stores. This has been recently converted to a dwelling with various sized window openings, with modern frames, and door openings. It is rough cast rendered as main building. To the N of this is a long two storey gabled range (probably originally stables etc.) which has also been recently converted to dwellings also. To the N of these buildings are newly built ranges of houses arranged in court formation.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

This building was originally built as a hotel, probably by the 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil in the late 18th century. It was certainly standing in the 1830s, for it is shown (along with some of the outbuildings) on the OS map of 1834. Unfortunately the details of the contemporary valuation survey are missing, so we have little indication of how old the valuers perceived, (or were informed), the building to be, however, the 1836 OS Memoirs comment that ‘it is built in the old style’ and Taylor and Skinners’ 1777 map indicates a long building on this side of the main road running through Bryansford, as does Bernard Scalé’s map of the same year (though the plan of the building does not match that of today exactly). Lodgings within Bryansford are also advertised in the Belfast News-Letter for April 26th 1785, suggesting that an inn of some sort was present in the village at this stage. The hotel is listed in Slater’s Directory of 1846 as including livery stable and posting house, all under the management of a Joseph McCullon. By 1863 it was run by a Charlotte Read and Hester Hunter, in 1870 by Mary Read, and in 1880 by a Robert Herron. An advertisement placed by Herron in Bassett’s ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ of 1886 describes the establishment as ‘beautifully situated on the confines of Tollymore Park…calculated to promote the convenience and comfort of the nobility, gentry and tourists’ and possessing a ‘comfortable coffee-room…set apart for the especial use of ladies not requiring a private drawing room’. With the growth in popularity of close by Newcastle and the building of the Slieve Donard Hotel in that town in 1898, the Roden Arms closed and the early 1900s building became a private dwelling for members of Jocelyn family, the relations of the Earl of Roden and latterly by Lord Roden himself. The building was sold in the 1990s, with it and the accompanying outbuildings renovated and divided in private dwellings. The following
references refer mainly to Bryansford village as a whole. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI MIC.147 Roden Papers 2 PRONI D.465 Roden Papers 3 PRONI D.2647 Roden Papers 4 PRONI T.2647 Roden Papers 5 PRONI T.3438 Roden Papers 6 Walter Harris, ‘The ancient and present state of the county of Down’ (Dublin 1744) 7 Dr. Pococke, ‘Tour in Ireland’ (Dublin 1752) 8 Map of Tollymore Park by Bernard Scalé (1777) [?Original in possession of Lord Roden] 9 ‘Taylor’s and Skinner’s Maps of the roads of Ireland’ (Dublin 1777), map 8 10 Thomas Milton, ‘Seats and demesnes of the nobility in Ireland’ (Dublin 1782-93) 11 Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast News-Letter’ 26th April 1785 12 R. Lewis, ‘The post chaise companion or traveller’s directory through Ireland’ (Dublin 1786) 13 Rev John Dubordieu, ‘Statistical survey of the county of Down’ (Dublin 1802) 14 A. Atkinson, ‘Ireland exhibited to England…’ (London 1823) 15 PRONI OS/1/3/43 OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co Down sheet 43 16 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland vol.3: Parishes of County Down I’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1990) 17 PRONI VAL/1A/3/43, 49 Valuation maps, Kilcoo (c.1836) 18 PRONI VAL/1B/362 First valuation records, Kilcoo (1836) 19 Samuel Lewis, ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ (Dublin 1837) 20 ‘Parliamentary gazetteer of Ireland’ (Dublin 1843-44) 21 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ]) 22 Maps of Lord Roden’s Co. Down estate (c.1855) [Originals in possession of Lord Roden] 23 PRONI OS/6/3/43/3 OS maps 1st rev.1859, Co Down sheet 43 24 PRONI Second (Griffith’s) valuation records, Kilcoo (1863) [in print] 25 Alexander Knox, ‘History of Co. Down’ (Dublin 1875). 26 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.137-139. 27 UFTM W.A. Green collection WAG 1, 564, 565 Photographs of Tollymore Park, Bryansford etc. c.1900 Secondary sources 1 EHS Records of the first survey of buildings of historical and architectural interest in Tollymore ward (1972-) 2 P.J. Rankin, 'Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Mourne area of South Down', (Belfast UAHS 1975) 3 ‘Tollymore Forest Park’ (HMSO c.1980) 4 Mark Bence-Jones, ‘A guide to Irish country houses’ (rev. ed. London 1988), p.274. 5 F. Hamond and T. Porter, ‘A tour of the Mournes’ (Belfast ?1991)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting

Historic Interest

V. Authorship

Evaluation

This well proportioned and detailed historic building is of special interest, as an example of an early hotel building, carefully sited, as part of a designed village Estate.

General Comments

Date of Survey

27 January 2000