45 Craigdarragh Road, Helens Bay, Co Down, BT19 1UB

This is a large two-storey, multi-bay attached house built around 1880, originally designed as the steward's house for a mill complex, situated off a private road to the north of Craigdarragh Road, Helens Bay. It is rectangular on plan and forms part of a wider group of buildings, some of which date from around 1840.

The exterior is finished in painted smooth render with a plinth, cavetto moulded eaves cornice, and cast-iron ogee rainwater goods. Between the floors on the canted bays and at the entrance bay there is a box panel moulding, and a continuous bead moulded course runs along the top of the first floor windows. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, with a hipped roof over the canted bays. The chimneys are painted render stacks with clay pots.

The principal entrance elevation faces south-east and is seven openings wide. At each end are two-storey canted bays, each fitted at ground floor level with replacement timber double-leaf glazed doors with transom lights. At the centre is a single-storey projecting entrance porch with glazed cheeks, accessed by a single concrete slab step. The porch door is a six-panelled double-leaf design with brass door furniture and a transom light, all set in a moulded surround. The south-west elevation is blank. The north-east rear elevation has modern timber glazed double-leaf doors to the right at first floor level, with two windows to the left; below these at ground floor are two slender window openings. To the left of the rear elevation is a two-storey projecting bay with blind apertures and a window at first floor, a modern double-leaf door and window at ground floor, and a single-storey abutment containing a window to the right. A rear return abuts this projecting bay to the left, with a blank gable; the exposed section to the right has a modern oriel window at ground floor and two replacement windows at first floor. The north-east elevation is abutted by an adjoining building. Throughout, windows are one-over-one timber-framed sliding sash with moulded surrounds and continuous cills, unless otherwise noted.

The house has a large garden to the front, enclosed by a rubble-stone wall with an entrance to the east. An access lane to the north is lined with brick outbuildings, and there is car parking to the rear.

The exterior has retained its architectural integrity despite alterations over the years, though the interior layout is likely to have been changed as a result of conversion into apartments at some point in the past.

The history of the site is well documented. The complex is first shown, uncaptioned, on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 records a steward's house, flax mill, offices and land as part of the estate belonging to Craigdarragh House, with Robert Francis Gordon as occupier and owner. The property was leased from the representatives of Robert S. Kennedy and valued at £75 for buildings. The valuation records give dimensions for a house, flax mill, and numerous outbuildings including a stable, cow house, and two piggeries. The steam flax mill was equipped with a ten horsepower engine, twelve stocks, and one set of rollers, working four months a year for twelve hours a day, with a threshing machine operated at the same time. The valuer also noted the presence of an oil mill, though this could not be worked with the same machinery.

In 1863 the mill passed to Lord Dufferin and Clandeboye, who had also taken over Craigdarragh House. By 1872 the flax mill had burned down, and the valuation was consequently reduced to £40. In 1882 the steward's house was deleted from the valuation record and the plot was redeveloped, with buildings described as being in progress. By 1883 the site was let as three separate properties, valued at £45, £11, and £9 respectively, and now leased from Thomas Workman of Craigdarragh House. The divisions between the different properties appear to have been somewhat fluid at this stage.

What is now Fairholme House and a separate neighbouring house to the south-west was, at this stage, a single property valued at £45 and let to Margaret Hill. What is now Mill Cottage was a second property let to David Patterson by 1887 and valued at £9. What is now the Old Mill House to the north of the plot was valued at £11 and let to the Hartley family.

By 1900, Thomas Workman is listed as the occupier of all three houses, and from this point the houses appear to have been let for the most part to relatives or associates of the Workman family. Fairholme and its neighbour continued to be let as a single property, with James Mackey as tenant.

In 1911, all the lessors requested a revision of their valuation. At that time, Edith Ewing was the lessor of Fairholme, which was vacant and comprised three reception rooms, five bedrooms, a servants' room, a kitchen, pantry, and associated spaces, with a pump in the kitchen and water supplied from the Clandeboye reservoir. The valuation was not changed. In 1913 the house was taken over by James Taylor.

By 1933 Fairholme was the property of the Very Reverend Edward Dupré Atkinson and was leased from Craigdarragh Estates Ltd. It was valued at £45, later raised to £72, and at that time comprised six bedrooms, three reception rooms, a kitchen, scullery, pantry, and two bathrooms. The water supply came from Helen's Bay and the house had electric light. A plan and dimensions recorded a motor house and a porch. The valuation was appealed in 1935, at which point the valuer described it as an old-type semi-detached residence in a good position, with very large rooms, slightly damp in places, poor offices, and a good garden. The Very Reverend Edward Dupré Atkinson (born 1855) was Archdeacon of Dromore from 1905 to 1930 and appears to have retired to this house. He was a keen local historian and published two works: An Ulster Parish in 1898 and Dromore: An Ulster Diocese in 1925.

In 1949 the house was converted into two flats, occupied by Ulric G. Huggins on the ground floor and Joseph Patterson on the first floor, each flat valued at £52. The valuer noted of the first floor flat that it was a nice flat, more attractive than the ground floor flat, nicely done up, with nice fittings in the bathroom, and that it was understood the tenant was a relation of the owner. The house has since been divided into two dwellings, the south-eastern portion continuing to bear the name Fairholme House.