’Thorndale’, Calhame Gardens, Cloghy, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 1HU

Thorndale is a much extended two storey vernacular farmhouse of probable pre-1834 origin, though part of the building was single storey until recently. The house is set amidst leafy surroundings on the western side of the village of Cloghy.

The core building is a two storey gabled house to which lower gabled extensions have been attached to both the south-east and north-west gables. The north-west extension is currently undergoing conversion to two storey. The south-west front elevation features a large off-centre timber gabled conservatory or porch surrounding the front entrance. To the left of the porch is a single sliding sash and case window with horizontal and vertical astragals, with two similar but slightly smaller windows further to the left, these being on the former single storey extension. A window matching that immediately left of the porch sits to the right of the porch, with a single storey gabled store extension beyond. The first floor of the original house has windows to both left and right, with an off-centre tripartite sash and case window in the middle, all featuring horizontal and vertical astragals. The newly built first floor section to the right of the original house has two windows with horizontal and vertical astragals, made to resemble sliding sash and case but with top hung upper openers. The north-west gable has a similar upper level window, with two comparable windows to the rear of the newly built first floor extension. The rear of the original section contains various sliding sash and case windows with horizontal and vertical astragals, echoed in similar windows serving a large full height flat-roofed extension or return in the centre. A large but shallow metal water tank covers the roof of this return.

The rear of the store extension features a large timber double garage door at ground level in the centre, with an upper level smaller double door set in a gable above. Two small louvered ventilation openings sit either side of the upper level doorway. A small gable sits above the right rear window on the newly built first floor extension. The south-east gable of the store contains a small four-pane window at upper level near the eaves, with a small boarded opening at ground floor level to the right.

The original house and extensions are finished in pebbledash render, with the newly built first floor section to the north-west remaining unrendered at present. Smooth cement surrounds frame the windows of the original house and ground floor of the north-west extension. All roofs are gabled and pitched, covered with Bangor blue slates. Two potless yellow brick chimneys with dentilled corbelling serve the original house. The building employs a mixture of cast iron and PVC gutters and downspouts.

A building shown on this site on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map appears much the same as today, suggesting the house dates from at least the early nineteenth century, with the extensions to both gables also appearing to have been built by that time. The somewhat uneven spacing of windows on the original two storey centre section is unusual. The house is situated in Calhame Gardens; the word "calhame" appears to have meant "cold home", a euphemism for a cemetery, raising the question of whether a burial ground once existed close to this site.