Carpenham, Greenpark Road, Rostrevor, Co.Down

Carpenham is a country house in the Picturesque Tudor style, commenced in 1826 on land leased from the Ross-of-Bladensburg estate. It was built for Henry Hamilton (c.1775–1850), a brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington. The house takes its name from a play on words derived from his wife's name, the Hon. Caroline Penelope Pakenham (d.1854), whom he married in 1808. The building remains in private hands and continues in residential use.

The house was the work of the celebrated Dublin architect William Vitruvius Morrison (1794–1838), whose involvement is attested to in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1836 and apparently also in an appreciation of Morrison published in the first volume of John Weale's Quarterly Papers on Architecture of 1844. Morrison would have been well known among the Rostrevor gentry, having designed the nearby Ross Monument a few years previously. At Carpenham, he is said to have worked around an existing dwelling — itself possibly relatively newly built at the time, since nothing of sufficient significance to merit inclusion appears in this vicinity on Williamson's county map of 1810. Morrison is thought to have extended the building to the south, remodelled the whole in a Picturesque Tudor style, and added a range of outbuildings to the north.

By the time of the valuation survey compiled in the autumn of 1835, the house was recorded as a "new" building in good condition, receiving the highest grade of "A+". Its various sections were recorded with the following measurements: 57ft x 27ft x 18ft, 13ft x 11½ft x 18ft, 21½ft x 20ft x 15ft, 38ft x 19ft x 15ft, and 20ft x 10ft x 7ft. The grounds also included a gatehouse measuring 22ft x 14ft x 7ft with a return of 14ft x 14ft x 7ft, and outbuildings measuring 66ft x 15½ft x 7½ft, 62ft x 18½ft x 15ft, 38ft x 7½ft x 7½ft, and 33ft x 12ft x 6ft.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1836 describe the residence as "a large house of the old English style of architecture." An illustration showing it much as it appears today was published in the 1846 Picturesque Handbook to Carlingford Bay. By the time of the second valuation, compiled around 1861, the house was described as "a very handsome Elizabethan villa." The component dimensions recorded at that date were: 4yds x 4yds x 2 storeys, 5yds x 6yds 2ft x 2 storeys, 6yds 2ft x 6yds 2ft x 2 storeys, 11yds x 4yds x 2 storeys, [figures unclear] x 2 storeys, 7yds x 7yds x 1½ storeys, and 6yds 2ft x 13yds x 1½ storeys. These dimensions are difficult to reconcile with those of 1835, suggesting either that the building had been altered in the intervening period, or that the valuers simply divided the house into different portions for measurement purposes — a not uncommon practice. The small scale of both the 1834 and 1860 Ordnance Survey maps makes it difficult to determine whether any physical changes occurred between those dates. It is possible that some of the outbuildings recorded in 1835 were removed before 1861, or perhaps incorporated into the main dwelling, since only the two large structures of approximately 60ft in length are noted in the 1861 valuation, and the plans of these buildings as shown on the respective Ordnance Survey maps do not match exactly.

Henry and Caroline Hamilton had no children, and after their time the house was leased by the Ross estate to Theodosia H. Forde, a relation of the family of Seaforde, before passing in 1865 to Major Charles Forde, another relation. The property subsequently passed through a long succession of tenants: Francis John Oldfield, a retired Indian army colonel, from 1873; Adam Samuel Forester from 1879; Edward Courtenay Biggar from 1887; and Joseph William Warburton from around 1900. In the 1901 census, Warburton — a 63-year-old widower and retired assistant clerk to the Foreign Office, subsequently Consul General — was recorded as occupying the house with three domestic servants, the building being noted as a first-class dwelling with 15 rooms in use. By the time of the 1911 census, Frederick Radford, a retired Captain of the Royal Dragoons, was living there with his wife Constance, their son Francis Vaughan Radford (a Justice of the Peace), and three domestic servants. George Walker had succeeded the Radfords as tenant by 1915, followed by the Reverend John Howard Murphy in 1926. Miss Laura Waldegrave Hewson was resident for much of the 1930s, the Liddle family occupied the house from at least 1946 to 1950, and a family named Ball was residing there in 1969.

At some point before 1901 the gate lodge was demolished. The surrounding garden, which had been laid out "with great taste" to complement the house in a typically Romantic manner, remained largely intact until around 1960, when part of the land to the south was acquired for housing development, now known as St. Rita's Park. To the north, the pitch belonging to St Bronagh's GAC was created at some point prior to 1979.