F.H.Ebbitt Field Study Centre, Boiler room and store, 54 & 56 Bryansford Village, Ballyhafry, Newcastle, BT33 0PT

This is the boiler room and store (number 56 Bryansford Village) forming part of the F.H. Ebbitt Field Study Centre, a complex centred on a former Dower house built around 1825 and extensively remodelled around 1860. The building is picturesque and slightly Tudoresque in character.

History

The main house, formerly known as 'The Nest', was built around 1825 by the 3rd Earl of Roden as a dower house for his mother, Julianna Anne Orde, and is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834. Following Julianna's death around 1840, the property's occupation becomes uncertain, and no resident is recorded in the 1863 valuation, though that same record confirms the building was undergoing extensive renovation and extension at the time, including the raising of at least part of the roof. The 4th Earl, who succeeded to the title in 1870, made the property available as the rectory for Kilcoo parish, a function it served until the 1920s, after which it became a private dwelling. The last private resident, Mr Frank Ebbitt, was chairman of Down County Education Committee. In the early 1970s he persuaded the Committee to purchase the house from the Roden Estate and convert it into a residential centre. Mr Ebbitt died shortly afterwards, and in 1973–74 the building was converted into a field study centre for local schools, the centre subsequently being named in his memory.

The main building

The main house is a long, one-and-a-half-storey former Dower house with projecting one-and-a-half-storey bays and dormers, all featuring a profusion of overhanging gables. The front façade is symmetrical and faces roughly north. At its centre is a full-height gabled bay containing the main entrance: a pair of panelled timber doors set within a Tudor arch-headed opening with a plain fanlight above. The doorway is flanked by two tall openings with timber apron panels. Above the door and flanking windows runs a stepped drip moulding with label stops, and directly above this is a prominent projecting string course. At the centre of the pediment is a four-pane fixed-light window with decorative painted stone dressings. The roof overhangs the gable and is supported on decorative projecting purlin ends. To the left and right of the central bay are two gabled half-dormer windows, each containing a two-pane casement window with dressings as described, and directly beneath each is a four-pane casement window with drip moulding and label stops. To the far right is a larger one-and-a-half-storey projecting bay with a further casement window with matching dressings, set above two two-pane windows each with a stepped drip moulding. A deep concrete-lined ditch runs either side of the front door.

The east face has two four-pane windows with matching dressings to the first floor, while the ground floor is slightly recessed. At ground-floor level there is one high-level wide modern three-pane window to the left of centre and a door to the right. The roof overhangs the gable as before, though the apex is slightly hipped, and the overhang is supported on decorative brackets.

The west façade shows the gable of the main block to the right merging with the side of the front bay to the left, with overhanging verge and eaves supported on decorative brackets as elsewhere. At ground-floor level to the left is a two-pane top-hung window with a metal security grille, and to its right a two-pane casement window also with a security grille. At first-floor level is a single round-headed window whose lower sash is tilting.

The rear, south-facing façade is more complex and has been altered significantly. To the left is a single ground-floor two-pane top-hung window. To the right of this is a small single-storey projection with a single modern window to its south face and a glazed door to its west face; directly above is a single-pane window set within a gabled half-dormer as before. Further right is a modern concrete canopy sheltering modern entrance doors. To the right again are two half-dormers: the right-hand one follows the original pattern, while the left has had a modern projecting bay added beneath it, with a modern entrance door below that. Continuing right is a further one-and-a-half-storey bay with a single first-floor window, the lower portion of which is obscured by a small single-storey flat-roofed extension; the roof to this bay overhangs as before. Immediately to the left of the bay is a further half-dormer with a casement window with stone surround as before, and below it a window that has been largely blocked, though its drip moulding survives. To the right of this is a small single-storey flat-roofed extension with a central modern door with a fanlight over it, flanked by two tall narrow multi-pane windows, and to the left and right of this extension are small semicircular-headed window openings. Directly above the bay is a half-dormer with window and stone surround as before, though the lower sash appears to be blocked. To the right again is a large modern window with a drip moulding as before, and at the far right of the rear façade is a further half-dormer with window, stone surround, and blocked lower sash. Below this dormer is a modern door flanked by two small windows, the windows and upper portion of the door all having painted surrounds. At the far right the east façade recess cuts in as described above, and there is a plain square pier supporting the overhanging upper floor. The façade is rendered and painted throughout.

The roof is covered in Bangor Blue slate, with overhanging eaves supported on decorative brackets and rafter ends. There are five tall decorative chimney stacks, rendered at their lower portions and finished in dark red facing brick above.

To the immediate rear of the main building, physically attached only by a concrete canopy roof covering a walkway, is a large modern two-storey building housing science laboratories, a lecture hall, and storerooms.

The boiler room and store (No. 56)

Number 56 Bryansford, immediately to the west of the main house, serves as the boiler room and store for the field study centre. It formerly acted as an outbuilding and stables for the Dower house and has historically been associated with the main building. It is a simple gabled structure, single storey to the north and two storeys to the south. The north elevation has two double sash windows, each with a broad central mullion, decorative drip moulding, and label stops. At the far left this elevation merges with the blank wall of a flat-roofed garage. The east face is blank at first-floor level, with the blank side of the flat-roofed garage at ground-floor level. The south face has a large door opening at ground floor and a narrow door opening at first floor, accessed by a modern concrete stair; to either side of this upper door is a narrow slit window. The roof is finished in Bangor Blue slate, and on the south side two stainless steel flues emerge close to the ridge.