Item 1 - Auction Brochure for Ards House and Estate

Brochure advertising the sale of Ards House and Estate. The brochure has photographic prints of Sheephaven Bay, Ards House, and the associated workmen’s cottages. It is noted that the sale includes 2,000 acres. Ards House comprises a stone-built Georgian style residence with ‘six reception rooms, a billiard room, 19 principal bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a nursery suite, splendid servant’s quarters, ample garages and stabling, 20 cottages and beautiful pleasure grounds’. The brochure provides details on various facets of the property and notes that the owner (Lady Ena Stewart-Bam) ‘has been in negotiation with the Irish Land Commission, who are quite prepared to give every facility to an intending purchaser’. The agent is noted as Messrs Battersby & Co., 39 Westmoreland Street, Dublin. The brochure also notes:
• The sale of the historic ‘Doe Castle’ ruin with about 30 acres of demesne land.
• The potential sale of ‘furniture which includes some old and rare pieces and a valuable library’.
• That the ‘Ards Estate has been in the possession of the Stewart family for about 150 years. The first Stewart of Ards and the First Marquess of Londonderry were only brothers. The present head, Lady Stewart-Bam of Ards, is selling the property as her husband’s chief interests are in South Africa’.
• That the price for the freehold is £50,000 including sporting and fishing rights.