Site of former 39 and 41 High Street, Comber, Co. Down

The remains are of a pair of demolished, probable late 18th or early 19th century, two-storey terrace houses that stood on the northwest side of High Street, to the west of Comber town centre. They were likely demolished sometime in the 1980s, after being surveyed in December 1975. The houses were constructed with rubble walls, a slated roof, and rendered gable ends. They had brick chimneys, and the front wall was dark stone rubble. Number 41 had two first-floor drop-hung windows with Georgian panes, while number 39 had two more recent top-hung windows on the first floor. The ground floors featured glazed and sheeted doors and windows (at number 41) and casement windows and a glazed door (at number 39). All ground floor openings were topped by stone lintels with keystones. The condition of the houses was described as poor. The frontage measured approximately 30 feet. The site is now occupied by landscaping and provides access to a modern housing estate.

The location of these houses is shown on a map from 1722 and subsequent maps. An 1834 valuation records that this section of High Street, then known as Cow Lane (though incorrectly labelled 'Mill Street' on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map), contained 23 houses exempt from rates, and it is probable that these two properties were among them. Primary source documentation relating to Comber, including maps from 1793 to 1810 and the 1834 valuation, are held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). Ordnance Survey maps from 1834 and 1858, as well as a second valuation from 1861, are also available at PRONI.