4 Coastguard Cottages, Farmhill Road, Marino, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 0AG

Number 4 Coastguard Cottages is a mid-terrace, two-storey, single-bay former coastguard cottage built in red brick around 1870, designed by Enoch Trevor Owen of the Board of Works in Dublin. It sits to the east of Farmhill Road, to the north-east of Holywood town centre, and forms part of a coherent and significant coastguard estate grouping.

The building is rectangular on plan, with a two-storey extension to the rear. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with a brick chimney stack featuring sandstone dentilled eaves. Cast-iron ogee-profile rainwater goods are carried on projecting eaves. The walls are laid in Flemish bond red brick, with a yellow brick dog-tooth string course and ornamental stone dressings around the windows. The windows themselves are pointed-headed, multi-paned timber sliding sashes.

The principal elevation faces west. At first floor level there is a single window to the left. At ground floor level, a window sits to the left and the entrance door to the right. The entrance door is timber-sheeted with a pointed-headed glazed panel to its upper portion and a cast-iron door knob.

The north elevation adjoins the neighbouring property to that side. The east, or rear, elevation is abutted by a two-storey modern brick extension, which has a single window at first floor level and an entrance door with a window at ground floor level. The south elevation adjoins the neighbouring property on that side.

Architectural detailing across the terrace as a whole is of good quality and largely intact, including a weathervane at the top of the watch tower and carved stone angled gun loops.

The setting is notable. The terrace is set back from the road with a small planted garden to the front, enclosed by a mature hedgerow and a cast-iron gate. To the rear is a large mature garden, also enclosed by mature hedgerow, separated from the house by a communal pathway.

Historical background

On 15 October 1870 the Irish Builder reported: "A Coastguard station has been commenced at Cultra, Co Down under Board of Works. Messrs J and R Thompson, contractors. Quantities prepared by Mr Bermingham." The area north of Holywood was relatively undeveloped at this time. During the early 19th century a number of mansions and bathing lodges had been constructed along the coast, and the land further inland remained largely undisturbed until the early decades of the 20th century. When the coastguard cottages were built, they were surrounded by open fields and the grounds of large villas.

The station first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901, captioned as "Marino Coastguard Station." According to Charles Brett, the station was built inland, without a sea view, because coastal plots had already been earmarked for development following the opening of the railway line to Bangor in 1865. Government correspondence dated 1 June 1870 records that the watch tower was not considered vital to the finished building, since the villas yet to be built nearer the coast would have obstructed its view in any case.

The station first appears in valuation records in 1872, valued at £42. Street directories of the period record a Chief Boatman and four crew at the station. In 1880 the Chief Boatman was John Thompson, and the crew were Francis Beggs, James McKeown, William Medden and Cornelius Cronin. By 1892 the command structure had changed, with a Chief Officer named Edward Jeffers, two Commissioned Boatmen and two Boatmen recorded.

The 1901 census shows the current house as comprising four rooms and classed as second class in terms of size and construction, as were the other houses in the terrace. The occupier at that time was Robert Bartlett, a Commissioned Boatman of English origin, who lived there with his wife and three children, the eldest of whom was working as a carpenter.

By the 1911 census the coastguard houses are listed as vacant, and it appears that by 1913 the terrace had ceased to function as a coastguard station and had passed into private occupation. Separate valuations for each dwelling begin from 1913 onwards. The current house was valued at £4, in common with the other two central houses in the terrace. From 1913, Alexander Murray is recorded as occupier; by 1917 the house had been taken over by James Roe, and no further changes are recorded up to 1930.

Broader context

In 1856, the Coastguard — which at that time functioned largely as an anti-smuggling force — was transferred to the Admiralty, with some military functions added to its remit. Responsibility for building and maintaining coastguard stations was given to the Board of Public Works, which designed and built over sixty new stations during the following twenty years. The chief architect at the Board of Works was James Higgins Owen, but after 1863 he delegated responsibility for design to Enoch Trevor Owen, who is considered likely to have been responsible for the Marino station.

The Marino station follows the standard layout for coastguard stations of the period: a terrace of houses with a clearly defined officer's house at one end and a watch tower at the other. The watch tower contained the room used for the nightly watch and housed the crew's arms. According to Mayne, stations were often built to a standard design with slight amendments to suit local terrain and available materials. The standard arrangement for a crew's house provided a ground floor comprising a scullery of approximately 8 feet by 10 feet fitted with twenty-four wrought-iron hat and clothes pins, and a living room half the width of the house measuring approximately 17 feet by 11 feet. Upstairs was a master bedroom of the same dimensions as the living room, plus two smaller bedrooms. To the rear of each house was a yard with a coal shed and a two-seat privy with yellow pine seats. A communal wash house stood at the centre of the row, with wash days allocated by rota. A pump sometimes stood in the middle of the yard.

Coastguard stations were frequently targeted in times of unrest, the coastguard being regarded as representatives of the Crown. Following sectarian riots in 1864, gun loops were inserted into coastguard terraces in considerably greater numbers. The Marino station is particularly well defended in this respect. Oriel windows fitted with gun loops and wrought-iron shutters also formed part of the defensive arrangements. To enable crews to defend any part of the station, interconnecting doors were fitted between the bedrooms on the first floor.