The Forde, 14 Ballydrain Road, Cattogs, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5SR

The Forde is a large, two-storey gabled farmhouse sitting directly on the east side of the Ballydrain Road, just over a mile southeast of Comber town centre. In its outward appearance the building is largely late Victorian or Edwardian in character, with canted bay windows, moulded surrounds to openings, and yellow brick chimneys, but historical evidence strongly suggests that the core of the building predates 1830. The house sits within the townland of Cattogs and remains in private residential use.

The front (west) façade is symmetrical in composition. At ground floor centre sits a flat-roofed glazed porch added in the 1980s, though largely sympathetic in character. This porch has French doors to the front with sidelights and a fanlight, and windows of similar style to both its north and south sides. Its corner jambs are finished as panelled pilasters supporting a relatively plain frieze and blocking course, and the roof is lead-lined. To either side of the porch is a relatively shallow full-height canted bay with a hipped roof, each rising the full two storeys. Both floors of both bays are fitted with sash windows with horizontal glazing bars to each facet. On the ground floor these windows have moulded surrounds and cills; on the first floor they are encased with moulded pilaster jambs and rest on a continuous cill course. Between the two bays at first floor level is a central window detailed to match the rest of that level. A moulded eaves course runs across the full width of the front elevation.

At the north (left) end of the front façade the building merges with the west face of a large two-storey former outbuilding, which is somewhat shorter in height than the main house. The first floor of this outbuilding has been linked internally to the first floor of the main house. On this west face there are three smallish sash windows with vertical astragals at first floor level, one further similar sash window to the ground floor, and a smaller fixed-light window alongside it. Near the eaves at the far left is a very small square opening, now glazed. At the far left of this outbuilding facade is a large segmental-arched carriage entrance with timber-sheeted double doors.

The south gable of the main front portion of the house has a conservatory attached, part lean-to and part hipped in roof form. This was rebuilt recently in an enlarged form and, like the porch, is not wholly unsympathetic to the character of the rest of the building.

The rear of the property has been extended at various times and presents a complex arrangement. To the left (south) is a two-storey gabled return with sash windows matching those to the front — one to the left on the first floor of the gable and two to the ground floor. This gabled return has been further extended in a lean-to fashion on its left side, forming a two-storey wedge-shaped addition between the return and the east end of the conservatory (which itself terminates as a single-storey lean-to); the lean-to addition has a glazed rear door at ground floor level on its exposed east face. To the north of this gabled return, abutting it, is a large gabled section running parallel to the main front portion of the house. Viewed from the north this gives the whole building a double-pile appearance. On the east face of this rear section there are three sash windows to the ground floor: the left and centre windows match those elsewhere on the building, though the left one appears to have originally been a doorway, with the doorway opening remaining visible; the right window is smaller, with a horizontal glazing bar to the top sash only. At first floor level there are three further sash windows, the left and centre matching those at the front, with the right one smaller and without glazing bars. This rightmost section of the first floor is largely a recent extension, as indicated by the position of the chimney stack.

The north gable of this large rear section has a plain timber-sheeted door at ground floor level leading to a boiler house, and a sash window matching those at the front set to the right on the first floor. To the right of this window the gable abuts the rear of the long two-storey outbuilding on the north side of the main house. The rear of this outbuilding section has two four-pane upper-level windows, between which is a timber-sheeted door reached by a flight of steps. At ground floor level there is a stable door to the far left, a further similar door cut into the side of the steps, and a larger timber-sheeted double door to the right of the steps in the style of a garage entrance. To the far right, a doorway has been blocked in recent times; directly above it a former upper-level store door has been largely filled with timber sheeting but retains a small opening at the top for pigeons.

The entire front and main elevations of the house are finished in lined render, with roughcast applied to the rear of the outbuilding section. The roofs are covered in natural slate. There are two yellow brick chimneys to the main house and a further two to the rear portions. Metal rainwater goods are present, much of which appears to have been replaced recently.

The rear yard is enclosed to the east by a freestanding two-storey gabled outbuilding. Its upper level has been largely converted to a flat, but the lower level is used as a store and still retains horse stalls with their original cast iron fittings incorporating horse head motifs. The yard is enclosed to the north by a high rendered wall. To the front of the house, directly at the roadside, is a small garden enclosed by a low rendered wall with wrought iron railings which may be 19th century in origin. A King Edward VII post box is built into the large gate post to the north.

The historical record of the site is well documented. A building matching the plan of the present main front section and the attached outbuilding appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834. The contemporary valuation records show that at that date the dwelling was owned by a John Taylor and measured 30½ feet by 18 feet by 14 feet — dimensions consistent with the main portion of the current building, not including the bay windows. The valuers graded this building B-, indicating they believed, or were informed, that it was probably already at least thirty years old at that point, pushing its likely origin back to around 1800 or earlier. The revised Ordnance Survey map of 1858 shows a dwelling of broadly similar plan but with the addition of a return to the south side of the rear, where the present gabled return now stands, along with a substantial plantation to the east. On the earlier map this eastern area is marked as a nursery. The 1863 valuation records confirm the property was still in the possession of the Taylor family. By 1886 at the latest it appears to have passed to either a Robert Bell or a John Petticrew. During the early 20th century the property was acquired by a Mr Blakiston-Houston, a relative of the family of Roddens House near Ballyhalbert, who subsequently became Member of Parliament for the Dock Ward in Belfast. It was likely during the ownership of Bell, Petticrew, or Blakiston-Houston that the house took on its present external form, with the canted bays added to the front, the large rear extensions constructed, and the decorative internal detailing introduced. Around or shortly after the Second World War the building was bought by the Coulter family, then owners of the nearby New Comber House. It was in the hands of a William Lowry in 1980 when it was purchased by the current owner, who added the porch in the mid-1980s and rebuilt the conservatory.

The current owner has stated his belief that the house was once the residence of the agent for the Londonderry estate in this area and may have been locally known at some point as Londonderry House. According to the same account, the name The Forde was given to the property by Mr Blakiston-Houston, in reference to a ford crossing the Enler River that once lay directly to the east of the site.