Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB25/04/001

Address :
Rockfield 29 Greengraves Road Dundonald County Down BT16 1UZ

Townland:
Ballyoran

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
14/02/2014 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Residential Home

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
Yes

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OS Map No:
148/2

IG Ref:
J4431 7357

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A two and-a-half-storey five-bay 18th century Georgian house; rectangular plan form with numerous historic and modern abutments to the sides and rear. Located at the end of a long driveway on the north side of Greengraves Road, east of Dundonald. Now vacant and partially derelict. Hipped natural slate roof with leaded ridges and hips; diminutive leaded parapet (partially removed) over moulded cornice at eaves level; concealed leaded gutters with uPVC replacement hoppers and downpipes; rendered chimney stacks with no pots. Painted roughcast walling. 1/1 timber sliding box sash windows with horns (generally boarded over); painted masonry cills. Ionic portico (now infilled with modern door and side panels) with smooth columns rising to entablature; surmounted by decorative iron railing. Portico served by stone steps with modern handrails. Wide timber front door with bolection moulded lower panels; glazed upper panel with side lights and a half circle batwing fan light over. The front elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged. The entrance is located centrally and flanked by two windows either side; five windows to first floor over ground floor openings. Pediment over central bay with moulded coping and a central oculus with moulded surrounds. Left of the portico is modern ramped access with timber railing. The north elevation is blank and abutted by a historic two-storey, two-bay gable-ended wing to the left, which is significantly extended to the north by a single storey over basement modern nursing home. The east face of the two-storey wing is abutted by a single storey lean-to extension c.1960. The rear elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged. Largely matching the principal elevation, the rear is abutted centrally by a subservient two-storey hipped return; with round-headed casement windows and high level horizontal rectangular windows. Two steel-framed bi-partite roof lights to the rear (right hand roof light removed). The south elevation is asymmetrically arranged; bi-partite timber glazed windows to the left side of both ground and first floors. The right is abutted by a single storey extension comprising a lean-to roof against a parapet, c.1960. Setting: The house is located at the end of a curving wooded driveway. At the entrance of the driveway is a single storey hipped roof gate-lodge c.1850. Sloping lawn to the front with a large yard to the rear accessed via large gated sandstone piers (gates replaced). The outbuildings to the rear have been converted to residential use with the northern block replaced with modern apartments. Adjoining the house to the north is a large residential home (now vacant). Various other modern outbuildings are located to the south. The rear yard is partially enclosed by the walls of the former gardens to the east; included in the walls are original arched gate opening. Beyond the immediate grounds is open rural landscape and wooded areas. There are scheduled monuments in close proximity to Rockfield ref. No.s DOW005:033 Medieval Church & Graveyard; DOW005:044 Holy Well; DOW005:028 Kempe Stones and DOW005:064 Anglo Norman Village. Roofing: Natural slate Walling: Roughcast render Windows: Timber sliding sash RWG: Leaded

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

According to a descendant of the McLean family, Rockfield was built between 1795 and 1800 as the family home of Adam McClean, a Belfast merchant. (Family informant) The building is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834 captioned ‘Rockfield’ with much the same rectangular plan form as today, with a porch to the front facade and attached outbuildings to either side. Further outbuildings are arranged around the edges of an open courtyard in front of the main house, which is set within a demesne laid out with trees and pathways. ‘Rockfield’ is mentioned in the OS Memoirs for the parish of Dundonald as a gentleman’s seat surrounded by a young plantation. (OS Memoirs) The site chosen for the house was adjacent to a field known as ‘Chapel Field’ and containing the remains of an ancient church. The remains are not shown on the first or second edition but are captioned ‘Church (site of)’ on the third edition. The house is listed in the Townland Valuation as the residence of Adam McClean, a linen merchant and property developer. Dimensions are given for the house, a gardener’s house and numerous outbuildings including a coach house, stables and piggery. The valuation is £31.13s. McClean (sometimes known as McLean) was the son of an innkeeper and moved to Belfast with his two brothers Samuel and Andrew who carried on a wine and spirit business in Sugarhouse Entry around the turn into nineteenth century. Adam was initially in the woollen trade but by 1831 he had been appointed onto the committee of the White Linen Hall and may by this time have turned to linen. (Bigger, Belfast Newsletter) He bought up much of the land to the rear of what was then the White Linen Hall between Linenhall Street and what is now Great Victoria Street. The area, which became known as McLean’s fields, was a damp and unattractive floodplain of the River Blackstaff and little development took place there until the draining of the land in the 1850s following which the land could be leased at a large profit. (Brett) McClean was the builder of a block of houses on Donegall Square South between Linenhall Street and Adelaide Street (now gone). He was also for some years the owner of the Shrine of St Patrick’s Bell, constructed around 1100 under the patronage of Domhnall Ua Lochlainn, King of Ireland, to house the bell of St Patrick which was then kept at Armagh. The shrine now forms part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of Ireland, having been acquired by Trinity College from McLean’s estate after his death. He died about 1849, aged 82. (www.museum.ie, Stuart) By 1852 the house had been let to James Shaw Esq and a gate lodge has been added to the plot, Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) noting a slight rise in valuation to £36. Shaw paid a rent of about £100 yearly for the house and land of over 46 acres. In 1873 the house was taken over by Adam S Forster and the valuation was increased the following year to £45 indicating some improvements or additions to the house or outbuildings. By 1876 the house had passed to the Symington family, from Exeter. Samuel Symington was a yarn salesman and died in 1898 leaving all his estate, unusually, to his three daughters. One of the daughters died shortly afterwards and by the 1901 census Maria Symington was resident with her two brothers, 50-year-old Samuel, a retired linen merchant, Robert, also a linen merchant and her sister Josephine. Also resident were two boarders in the linen trade, a 70-year-old retired linen merchant from Armagh, and his son. The house had 17 rooms and was deemed to be of the first class. (Wills of Samuel and Sarah Symington; 1901 census) The Symington family firm was Messrs Symington and Kirkwood & Co of 47 Queen Street, Belfast. Robert Symington was a worshipper at Dundonald Presbyterian Church, and was Clerk of Session and Sabbath School Superintendent from 1879 to 1895. In 1898 Symington formed a church choir and a Boys’ Brigade company in Dundonald. The flute band of the Boys’ Brigade became known as the Brigade Band and regularly entered competitions with great success. When Robert Symington died in 1923 the band changed its name to the Symington Memorial Flute Band and the North of Ireland Flute Band Association, which was founded by Symington, began to present an annual Symington cup. In 1951 the band changed to brass instruments and continues to play today, known by the name of the Symington Memorial Silver Band. (www.symingtonmsb.co.uk) By 1909 the occupant was William L Greaves, a linen merchant who lived with his wife and a small staff of two, a cook and a parlourmaid. (1911 census) The Greeves family were to remain in the house for some time, until the late 1960s, when the house passed to Isaac Agnew. (First and Second General Revaluation) In recent years the house was converted for use as a nursing home and now lies vacant. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/5/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834 2. PRONI OS/6/3/5/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858 3. PRONI OS/6/3/5/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901-02 4. PRONI OS/6/3/5/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-20 5. PRONI OS/6/3/5/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-39 6. PRONI VAL/1/B/317 – Townland Valuation (1828-40) 7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/17 – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/5A-F – Annual Revisions (1866-1929) 9. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/34 – First General Revaluation (1936-57) 10. PRONI VAL/4/B/3/68 – Second General Revaluation (1956-72) 11. PRONI Will of Samuel Symington died 6th January 1898 12. PRONI Will of Sarah Symington died 24th March 1900 13. 1901 census online 14. 1911 census online Secondary Sources 1. Bigger, Francis Joseph “Merchants in the High Street of Belfast at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century” in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Second Series Vol 8 No 3 (Jul 1902) pp.138-42 2. Brett, C.E.B., Gillespie, R. and Maguire W.A. “Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850, Maps Buildings and Trades” Dublin and Belfast: Royal Irish Academy and Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 2004 3. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down II, 1832-4, 1837, Vol. 7.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1991. 4. Family Informant 5. Stuart, J “Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh” London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast: 1819 6. www.museum.ie 7. www.symingtonmsb.co.uk

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior

Historic Interest

R. Age S. Authenticity Z. Rarity X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two and-a-half-storey five-bay 18th century Georgian house. Screened from public view, the house is located at the end of a long meandering driveway through wooded landscape. Well sited with extensive views across the landscape through an opening in the surrounding woods - although the setting to the rear of the house has been compromised due to the conversion of outbuildings to modern apartments. Despite internal alterations to reflect the previous function as a nursing home some high quality detailing still remains intact. Externally the house has retained its proportions with a symetrically arranged front elevation displaying the charateristics of the Georgian period. A relatively rare, large eighteenth century country house that although altered still retains sufficient architectural interest to warrant listing.

General Comments

Date of Survey

07 July 2011