Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB03/07/009

Address :
2-3 Cromore Station Portstewart Co Londonderry BT55 7GA

Townland:
North Ballyleese

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
22/06/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
Railway Station Structures

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
12-04

IG Ref:
C8364 3757

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A two-storey station house aligned N-S along the W side of the Coleraine-Portrush line which formerly incorporated the station master’s house, ticket office and waiting room. Pitched natural slate roof with projecting bargeboards, eaves and exposed rafter tails. Two-stage red-brick chimney with yellow-brick quoins on S gable; chimneys to middle and N gable removed. Ogee cast-iron gutters and round steel downpipes. Walls are of random rubble brought to courses, with yellow-brick quoins and slightly advanced base course with chamfered dressed sandstone coping. Sandstone string courses at GF and FF window arch spring levels, and also at FF cill level. GF window opes are semicircular headed and those to FF have segmental heads; all are trimmed with yellow brick and have sandstone cills. All have 1/1 timber sliding sash frames. Road (W) elevation has modern single-storey timber and glass entrance porch towards right-hand end, accessed by original stone steps. The porch is flanked by a single window to each side and there is a pair of windows of similar size to middle. At left is another pair of windows which continue down to base level. The right-hand end of this elevation continues as a single-storey return detailed as the main section, and with a pair of windows to its road elevation. The string courses on the W elevation continue across the gables of the main section and return but these walls are both otherwise blank. The left-hand end of the W elevation continues as a wall with sloping top which accommodates a painted timber door set in an ope trimmed with brick. The N gable is abutted by a single-storey lean-to with monopitched artificial slate roof, skylights and raised verges. The wall above is blank except for the string course continuing around from the W side. The track (E) elevation of the main section has string courses similar to the W side. There were originally GF doors at left and middle, but these have been infilled with rubble masonry and the string courses continued in concrete. There are also two pairs of windows to the GF. There are three pairs of windows and a slightly larger single one to the FF; the latter is in a semicircular headed opening with extends above eaves level and is protected by a small gablet. The single-storey return at the left end of this elevation has an infilled window ope. All vestiges of the ‘up’ and ‘down’ platforms and metal footbridge have been removed, nor is there any trace of the waiting room on the opposite side of the track. Goods store Just north of the station building is a small single-storey building, now converted into a house. McCutcheon cites it as a goods store and toilet (although the Valuation book places the latter at the S end of the station house). Pitched natural slate roof with projecting bargeboards, eaves and exposed rafter tails, and flat louvered ridge ventilator. Ogee cast-iron gutters and round steel downpipes. Walls are of random rubble embellished with yellow-brick quoins. Road (W) elevation has segmental-headed window ope at left with 2x2 replacement timber window and concrete cill. N gable has a high level segmental-headed window ope with 3x1 window, also with concrete cill. Track (E) elevation has a semicircular-headed window towards left in infilled former doorway. A second doorway at right, also infilled with random rubble. At far left is small flat-headed window, probably a recent insertion. No access to entrance on S gable, but probably has a flat-roofed extension which is accessed through segmental-headed brick-trimmed doorway in continuation wall from main station building. Setting The station complex is at the corner of Station Road and Roselick Road, immediately NW of a level crossing over the latter. To the west of the original station buildings and aligned at right angles to them are two blocks of holiday homes. The former station yard at the front is now gravelled over and landscaped with grass and hedge, with a security fence along the main road. Roof: Pitched natural slate Rainwater goods: Ogee cast-iron Walls: Rubble basalt Windows: 1/1 timber sash

Architects

Lanyon, Charles

Historical Information

The former Cromore Station lies on the Coleraine-Portrush branch line of the Belfast-Londonderry Railway. This branch was originally the main line between Ballymena and Portrush and was built by William Dargan in 1853-55 for the Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine & Portrush Junction Railway (BBCPJR). Portstewart Station, as it was originally known, lay some two miles outside the seaside town of the same name which it was intended to serve. It was on the outskirts of the town because various local landowners, notably John Cromie, refused to let the railway pass through his lands. The c.1850 OS six-inch map clearly shows Portstewart Railway Station on the W side of the railway line (as now), but on the S side of Roselick Road (it is now on the N side). Given that work on the line did not start until 1853, this appears to be an undated amendment to the original map. Moreover, no station is actually recorded in the Valuation revision books until 1864, when a ‘station house’ with a rateable valuation of £9 is noted; this low rating suggests that it was a relatively modest building. There may have been a station building before this date however, as a newspaper article of December 1861 noted a proposal for a tramway between the station at Cromore and the town. Whether the term ‘station’ referred to an actual building, or simply to a platform halt, is ambiguous. In 1861, the line was sold to the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway (BNCR). A report to a half-yearly meeting of the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway by the company’s Consulting Engineer (and presumably architect) Charles Lanyon, and its Resident Engineer Arthur Fforde in January 1865 notes “The building of the new station for Portstewart, the cost of which was included in the estimate for completing the works on the Ballymena & Portrush line, is being proceeded with and will shortly be finished.” This suggests that there was, indeed, an earlier temporary station, and that a new one was being built by the line’s new owners (although there is no mention of its opening in subsequent reports to shareholders). Perplexingly, it is not until 1892, that there is any hint of a rebuild in the valuation books. The entry for that year reads “station master’s house, WCs and siding”, rated at £17. The dimensions of one of the buildings is given as 33ft x 15ft x 1 storey and the WC is recorded as 15ft x 15ft x 1 storey. It was also noted that the station had been raised a storey, implying that it was now at least two storeys high. A possible explanation of this entry is that the original single-storey station building on the S side of the Roselick Road was replaced by a two-storey one on the other side of the road (see below for relocation). The stated dimensions correspond respectively with the single-storey buildings at the N and S ends of the present block. The 1904 OS map shows the station complex in its present position, north of Roselick Road. Captioned as ‘Portstewart Station’, it clearly shows the main building, smaller building to its N end, and a footbridge over the line (here doubled) to a waiting room on a platform opposite. North again is a signal box and water tower fed by a wind pump. The 1914 Valuation entry now rates the complex at £78, but there is no explanation of this vast increase from its previous £17, even when it was reduced to £42 in 1928 following an appeal to the Valuation Office by the railway company. When the first station was opened in 1855, passengers were conveyed to and from the town by a horse-drawn omnibus, and this arrangement continued after the new station opened. In 1882, the bus was replaced by a narrow-gauge steam tramway which was operated by the Portstewart Tramway Co along the public road between the town and station. John Lanyon, son of Charles, was the Consulting Engineer for this scheme. The tramway was taken over by the BNCR in 1897 and operated until 1926, when it was superseded by a motor bus service. As regards the operation of the line, the BNCR was taken over by the Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1903. This company was reconstituted as the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1923. At nationalisation in 1949, the line was taken over by the Ulster Transport Authority, the precursors of Translink, its present operators. Although the line was (and is) still operational, Portstewart Station closed in 1963. It reopened in 1969 under the name of Cromore Halt, but closed again in 1988. The premises were subsequently sold to a developer who, in the early 2000s, converted the existing buildings into houses and built two new blocks of holiday houses in the front yard. The waiting room and platform on the E side of the line were removed along with the footbridge, and the line singled, but whether this was done in the 1960s or after 1988 is uncertain. References – Primary sources: 1. Second edition OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 3 (c.1850). This map is available on the ‘askaboutireland.ie’ website rather than in PRONI. 2. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17A. Valuation revision book (1859-63). 3. Belfast News-Letter, 4 Dec 1861. 4. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17B. Valuation revision book, p.11 (1864-76). 5. Engineers’ report to BNCR shareholders, in Belfast News-Letter 31 Jan 1865. 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17C. Valuation revision book, p.14 (1877-87). 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17D. Valuation revision book, p.18 (1888-94). 8. PRONI OS/10/5/3/7/1. First edition OS 25-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 3-07 (1904). 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17F. Valuation revision book, p.142 (1906-17). 10. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17G. Valuation revision book, p.61 (1918-29). . 11. PRONI OS/11/12/4/1. First edition IG 25-inch map, sheet 12-04 (1966). References – Secondary sources: 1. W.D. Girvan, Historic Buildings in Coleraine and Portstewart (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972). 2. J.R.L. Currie, The Northern Counties Railway, vol.1, pp 88-106 and 203-206 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1973). 3. J.R.L. Currie, The Northern Counties Railway, vol.2, p.66 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1974). 4. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, p.213 and plate 39.4 (Belfast: HMSO, 1980). 5. S. Johnson, Johnson’s Atlas & Gazetteer of the Railways of Ireland, pp 107 and 130 (Leicester: Midland Publishing, 1997). 6. S. Johnson, Lost Railways of Co ‘Derry, pp 27-28 (Catrine: Stenlake Publishing, 2002).

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation J. Setting

Historic Interest

T. Historic Importance V. Authorship X. Local Interest S. Authenticity R. Age

Evaluation

A two-storey basalt station house of 1865 designed by Charles Lanyon for the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway on the Coleraine-Portrush line. Executed in black basalt, the building is enlivened by yellow brick quoins and ope trimming, dressed sandstone string courses, pairing of many of the sash windows, and oversailing eaves. Although no longer in railway ownership, the building is a tangible reminder of the significant contribution which the railway made to the development of Portstewart as a holiday resort destination at thetim eof its construction. While modern housing has been built in the immediate setting, this does not fabric has ensured its historic character remains of local interest.

General Comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.

Date of Survey

29 April 2013