Newport House, 101 Culcavey Road, Maze, Co. Down

Newport House is an early 19th-century detached two-storey three-bay rendered house facing east onto the west side of Culcavy Road, County Down. It takes its name from an adjacent canal basin and bridge — marked as 'Newport Bridge' on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 — associated with the Lagan Navigation canal, which was completed in 1794 and once flowed just metres from the property. The listing covers the house itself together with its outbuildings and gates.

ARCHITECTURE AND EXTERIOR

The house is asymmetrical in plan and composition. A central early 19th-century block is flanked by a taller two-storey three-sided canted bay to the south and a single-storey three-sided canted bay projection to the north, both added by 1858. Although the canted bays somewhat dwarf the earlier central block, together they form an attractive composition within a landscaped rural setting.

The central block has a pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks at either end with terracotta pots. Both canted projections have hipped roofs with lead ridges. The walling throughout the central block is rendered with ruled and lined finish and vermiculated rusticated quoins. Window openings are square-headed with timber sash windows and painted masonry sills.

The front east elevation presents a central three-bay two-storey block with a gabled entrance porch. Windows are generally tripartite timber sash, diminishing in size to the upper floor: 1/1 sashes to the ground floor, 3/3 sashes with single-paned sidelights to the first floor, and a single 3/3 sash to the first floor centre. The two-storey canted bay to the south gable has single-pane timber sash windows; the single-storey canted projection to the north gable is similarly glazed with single-pane timber sash windows.

The rear west elevation is abutted by a single-storey lean-to extension with a concrete tiled roof and replacement uPVC windows, some of which have been enlarged — an inappropriate alteration that contrasts with the otherwise well-preserved character of the house. Abutting the north end of the house is a two-storey rendered outbuilding with a pitched natural slate roof and early 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes.

OUTBUILDINGS AND SETTING

The house opens onto a small concrete-paved yard leading to a larger bitmac-paved yard enclosed by various single and two-storey outbuildings, which add significant historic value and are an important part of the listing.

Attached to the house is a two-storey gabled structure that served as the former coal merchant's shop, featuring a carved timber bargeboard, a timber multi-paned sliding sash window to the first floor, a natural slate roof, and painted rendered walls. This building is abutted at ninety degrees by a further one-and-a-half-storey gabled outbuilding with corrugated metal to the north-facing roof slope, whitewashed roughcast rendered walls, and stone steps leading to a sheeted timber door at loft level at the west gabled end. The barn and former shop appear for the first time on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map.

Wrought iron gates on substantial square pillars span between this outbuilding and the barn, enclosing the north side of the yard. The barn comprises two distinct sections: a one-and-a-half-storey painted brick gabled bay to the east with traditional agricultural sheeted timber sliding doors, and a lower random rubble-stone west bay with red brick dressings to openings and a traditional cut timber roof with pegged joints. The two sections are connected by a door at loft level and both have natural slate roofs.

A series of taller outbuildings with corrugated metal barrel-vaulted roofs enclose the yard along its south and west sides, appearing for the first time on the 1902 Ordnance Survey map. The southernmost of these is built in red brick with yellow brick dressings; the westernmost has a cat-slide mono-pitched roof projecting into the yard, with walls and doors clad in painted corrugated metal. Within this mono-pitched projection there is a Belfast Truss roof, with further V-profile trusses running parallel below — the latter possibly feeders.

The front bitmac avenue runs perpendicular to the road along the north side elevation of the house and is enclosed by hedging, terminating in a simple cast iron railing and gate set between tapered octagonal posts that lead to the front entrance. The front lawn is also enclosed by hedging and divided by a single footpath opening onto the road through a decorative iron pedestrian gate. On the opposite side of the avenue is a former orchard, accessed through a further decorative iron gate set within a red brick arched opening. These decorative iron gates considerably enhance the character of the setting.

HISTORY

Nothing is shown in the vicinity on James Williamson's county map of 1810, but the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 depicts an L-shaped structure corresponding to what appears to be the present main front section and the northern return. The first valuation book of approximately 1835 to 1838 records the occupier as a Jeremiah Harvey, although building details were either not recorded, mistakenly omitted, or lost. Harvey — referred to as 'of Newport' — is mentioned in the Belfast News-Letter in November 1796 in connection with a stolen or strayed horse, and is recorded as a 'coal merchant' in Culcavy in a document of November 1810 (PRONI D671/D/14/4/37). He is again referred to as 'of Newport' in the Belfast Commercial Chronicle in June 1821.

An auction notice in the Northern Whig dated 24 July 1842 for 'Newport House and farm' describes the property as 'most admirably situated for general business, which was extensively carried on by the late Mr Harvey for fully fifty years', noting that the late proprietor had supplied the neighbourhood with 'coals, iron, timber etc.' This suggests Harvey had been established in the vicinity from the early 1790s — consistent with the 1796 notice — and that the property may in part date from that time.

By the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1858, an additional return to the southern end of the house is shown, with the plan broadly similar to the present but without the attached rear outbuildings. The valuation of 1861 records the owner as Jacob Green, who appears to have continued the coal trade. A valuer's note refers to a 'new addition building', and an annotation of April 1863 mentions a 'new house in progress' — a two-storey structure measuring 10 yards by 6½ yards, dimensions that appear to match the taller two-storey southern section, which is stylistically consistent with the 1860s. This extension caused the rateable value to rise from £10 to £18.

By 1878 a new occupier, Henry J. Wardell, is recorded. By 1881 a new shop at the north-western end of the house and further outbuildings had been added, pushing the rateable value to £24. In 1890 the property was taken over by the East Downshire Steamship Company, with Edwin G. Sands taking up residence as the company's coal agent; the house was recorded at this point as the 'Manager's House'. The Ordnance Survey maps of 1902 to 1903 show further expansion to the rear, and by 1929 the buildings were valued at £35. E.R.R. Green's The Industrial Archaeology of County Down (1963, p.74) notes that Newport was one of several landing places on the Lagan Navigation canal and that a large coal-store was erected shortly after the First World War. The Lagan Navigation Canal Company was wound up by 1954, and navigation on the stretch adjacent to the house was abandoned in 1956. At the time of survey in 2010, Newport House was in use as a private residence.