Cromore Station, (Aka Portstewart Station), Cromore Road, North Ballyleese, Portstewart, Co.Londonderry

Cromore Station (formerly known as Portstewart Station) is a two-storey railway station house built in 1865 to designs by Charles Lanyon for the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway, situated on the Coleraine-Portrush line at the corner of Station Road and Roselick Road, immediately northwest of a level crossing. Now in private residential use, it originally incorporated the stationmaster's house, ticket office, and waiting room. It is of considerable local historical interest as a tangible reminder of the significant contribution the railway made to the development of Portstewart as a holiday resort destination.

Architectural Description

The main building is aligned north-south along the west side of the former railway line. Its walls are constructed of random rubble basalt brought to courses, enlivened by yellow brick quoins, a slightly advanced base course with a chamfered dressed sandstone coping, and dressed sandstone string courses at ground floor and first floor window arch-spring levels, and also at first floor cill level. The ground floor window openings have semicircular heads and those to the first floor have segmental heads; all are trimmed with yellow brick and have sandstone cills. All windows are fitted with one-over-one timber sliding sash frames. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with projecting bargeboards, oversailing eaves, and exposed rafter tails. There is a two-stage red brick chimney with yellow brick quoins on the south gable; the chimneys to the middle and north gables have been removed. Rainwater goods consist of ogee cast-iron gutters and round steel downpipes.

The road (west) elevation has a modern single-storey timber and glass entrance porch towards its right-hand end, accessed by original stone steps. The porch is flanked by a single window to each side, with a pair of windows of similar size to the middle. Towards the left is another pair of windows that continue down to base level. The right-hand end of this elevation continues as a single-storey return, detailed in the same manner as the main section, with a pair of windows to its road elevation. The sandstone string courses on the west elevation continue across the gables of the main section and the return, though these gable walls are otherwise blank. The left-hand end of the west elevation terminates as a wall with a sloping top, containing a painted timber door set in a brick-trimmed opening.

The north gable is abutted by a single-storey lean-to with a monopitched artificial slate roof, skylights, and raised verges. The wall above the lean-to is blank except for the string course continuing around from the west side.

The track-facing (east) elevation of the main section has string courses similar to those on the west side. There were originally ground floor doors at the left and middle positions, but these have been infilled with rubble masonry, with the string courses continued in concrete. There are also two pairs of windows at ground floor level. At first floor level there are three pairs of windows and a slightly larger single window; the latter sits in a semicircular-headed opening that rises above eaves level and is protected by a small gablet. The single-storey return at the left end of this elevation has an infilled window opening. All vestiges of the up and down platforms and the metal footbridge have been removed, and there is no remaining trace of the waiting room that formerly stood on the opposite side of the track.

Goods Store

Immediately north of the station building is a small single-storey structure, now converted into a house. It is cited by McCutcheon as a goods store and toilet, though the Valuation revision book places the toilet at the south end of the station house. It has a pitched natural slate roof with projecting bargeboards, oversailing eaves, exposed rafter tails, and a flat louvered ridge ventilator. Rainwater goods are ogee cast-iron gutters with round steel downpipes. The walls are of random rubble with yellow brick quoins. The road (west) elevation has a segmental-headed window opening at the left fitted with a two-over-two replacement timber window and a concrete cill. The north gable has a high-level segmental-headed window opening containing a three-over-one window, also with a concrete cill. The track-facing (east) elevation has a semicircular-headed window towards the left set within an infilled former doorway, and a second infilled doorway at the right. At the far left is a small flat-headed window, probably a recent insertion. Access to the south gable could not be gained, but it probably has a flat-roofed extension accessed through a segmental-headed, brick-trimmed doorway in a continuation wall from the main station building.

Historical Background

The station stands on what was originally the main line between Ballymena and Portrush, built by William Dargan between 1853 and 1855 for the Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine & Portrush Junction Railway. Portstewart Station, as it was originally called, was sited approximately two miles outside the seaside town it was intended to serve, because local landowners — most notably John Cromie — refused to allow the railway to pass through their lands.

An early edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map (circa 1850) shows a railway station on the west side of the line on the south side of Roselick Road (the building now stands on the north side), though as construction did not begin until 1853 this appears to be an undated later amendment to the original map. The Valuation revision books do not record a station until 1864, when a station house with a rateable valuation of £9 is noted — a modest rating suggesting a relatively simple building. There may, however, have been an earlier structure: a newspaper article of December 1861 referred to a proposal for a tramway between the station at Cromore and the town, though whether the word "station" referred to an actual building or merely a platform halt is ambiguous.

In 1861 the line was sold to the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway. A report to a half-yearly shareholders' meeting in January 1865, prepared by the company's Consulting Engineer (and presumably architect) Charles Lanyon and its Resident Engineer Arthur Fforde, states: "The building of the new station for Portstewart, the cost of which was included in the estimate for completing the works on the Ballymena & Portrush line, is being proceeded with and will shortly be finished." This confirms that an earlier temporary station existed and that a new one was being built by the line's new owners, though no subsequent shareholders' reports record its opening.

The Valuation revision books do not hint at any further significant change until 1892, when an entry records "station master's house, WCs and siding" rated at £17, with dimensions of one building given as 33 feet by 15 feet by one storey, and the WC as 15 feet by 15 feet by one storey. It was also noted at this point that the station had been raised a storey. A plausible interpretation of this entry is that the original single-storey station building on the south side of Roselick Road was replaced by the present two-storey building on the north side, the stated dimensions corresponding with the single-storey structures at the north and south ends of the current block.

The 1904 Ordnance Survey 25-inch map shows the station complex in its present position north of Roselick Road, captioned as "Portstewart Station". It clearly depicts the main building, the smaller building to its north, and a footbridge over the line — by then doubled — leading to a waiting room on a platform opposite. Further north are shown a signal box and a water tower fed by a wind pump. The 1914 Valuation entry rates the complex at £78, a large increase from the previous £17, though no explanation is given; this was subsequently reduced to £42 in 1928 following an appeal to the Valuation Office by the railway company.

When the first station opened in 1855, passengers were conveyed to and from the town by horse-drawn omnibus. In 1882 this was replaced by a narrow-gauge steam tramway operated by the Portstewart Tramway Company along the public road between the town and the station; John Lanyon, son of Charles Lanyon, was the Consulting Engineer for this scheme. The tramway was taken over by the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway in 1897 and operated until 1926, when it was superseded by a motor bus service.

The Belfast & Northern Counties Railway was taken over by the Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1903, which was reconstituted as the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1923. At nationalisation in 1949, the line passed to the Ulster Transport Authority, the predecessor of Translink, its present operators. Although the line remains operational, Portstewart Station closed in 1963. It reopened in 1969 under the name of Cromore Halt but closed again in 1988. The premises were subsequently sold to a developer who, in the early 2000s, converted the existing buildings into houses and built two new blocks of holiday homes in the former station yard. The waiting room and platform on the east side of the line were removed along with the footbridge, and the line was singled, though whether these works were carried out in the 1960s or after 1988 is uncertain.

Setting

The station complex occupies the corner of Station Road and Roselick Road, immediately northwest of the level crossing. To the west of the original station buildings, and aligned at right angles to them, are two blocks of holiday homes. The former station yard to the front has been gravelled over and landscaped with grass and hedging, with a security fence along the main road. Modern housing has been built in the immediate vicinity, but the historic fabric of the station buildings retains its character and local interest.