Thornleigh 106 Bangor Road, Holywood, co Down, BT18 0LR

Thornleigh is a symmetrical two-storey three-bay Victorian stucco villa built around 1863-1865, located north of Bangor Road east of Holywood. It is a good and intact example of the smaller houses built in the district during a period of major expansion, illustrating the development of Holywood during the mid-19th century as an area for homes of the merchant and professional classes.

The building is rectangular on plan with single-storey canted bays to the front and a two-storey return to the rear. The pitched roof is natural slate with painted masonry chimneystacks featuring dentilled corniced caps and two tall terracotta pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are mounted on timber eaves brackets, with half-round guttering to the canted bay windows. The walls are painted smooth render with quoins.

The principal elevation faces north. Windows throughout are timber-framed 2/2 sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars and horns, except where otherwise altered. Those on the first floor are segmental-headed with simple painted masonry surrounds. The ground floor features canted bays to either side of the entrance. The door is a glass panel in a timber frame with a decorative cast-iron grille, replacement transom light, and is flanked by Doric pilasters surmounted by a plain entablature with dentilled cornice. The canted bays have moulded painted masonry surrounds and corbelled eaves. The east gable is blank.

The south (rear) elevation has three windows to the first floor and a small oculus at the extreme right. To the left at ground floor are two 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash windows and a glazed timber door; to the right is a replacement window. A two-storey return is abutted to the centre. The exposed section to the right has two windows to the first floor and a single timber-framed replacement window to the ground floor, with a timber-framed door abutted by a small conservatory opening to the south. The exposed section to the left has a glazed timber door and two replacement windows. The west gable is blank.

Much of the architectural fabric remains intact, the internal layout is largely unchanged, and the detailing is of good quality.

The site has had a house since at least the 1830s. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows a house on the site. In the Townland Valuation of 1828-40, this is listed as belonging to Mr Kennedy, valued at £16 2s, comprising a house and offices. The house does not appear in Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64, possibly being in a state of dereliction at that time. In 1863 a new house was in progress, finished by 1864, and valued at £40 as a house and garden. The dimensions for the detached villa are recorded as 15 x 8 x 2 x 1 acre and a return of 8½ x 5 x 2 x 1 acre, with the valuer noting a well-enclosed yard. The first occupier was William D Chermside, who leased from John Greenfield. William Dawson Chermside had previously resided at Spafield and was the son of Thomas Chermside of Belfast, who co-founded Drumaness flax spinning mill in 1850 with William Davidson; the mill operated until 1965. In 1880 the house was taken over by John Steel, leasing from Thomas K Greenfield. Steel remained the occupier until 1917, when it was occupied by Gavin Grainger, and after a period of vacancy, by Joseph Keown in 1919.

The house is set back from the road by a gravelled driveway, with a mature garden to the front, east, and rear, and some mature trees. It is bounded on all sides by mature trees and hedgerow.