Site of 43 and 45 High Street, Comber, Co. Down

The remains are of a pair of demolished two-storey terrace houses, likely dating from the late 18th or early 19th century. These houses stood on the northwest side of High Street, west of Comber town centre, and were probably removed sometime after 1975, with estimates suggesting the 1980s. The site is now partially occupied by the entrance to a housing estate.

The houses were first surveyed in December 1975 and were described as having corrugated asbestos roofs, brick chimneys, and dark stone rubble front walls. No. 45 featured a sheeted door with a plain stone surround, and a drop-hung window without astragals on the ground floor. No. 43 had a drop-hung window with horizontal astragals and a simple cornice hood above the doorway, which itself had a glazed and sheeted door. All properties in this terrace were demolished and replaced with a new development which does not follow the original footprint.

The site was marked on a map of Comber from 1722 and subsequent maps. In 1834, the valuation records referred to “Cow Lane” (later incorrectly named “Mill Street” on an Ordnance Survey map), which contained 23 houses that were not subject to rates - it is likely that these houses were among them. The layout and appearance of the historic terrace is now lost, though historical maps, including those referencing the earlier name “Cow Lane,” are held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.