Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB19/06/003 A

Address :
Larchfield House 375 Upper Ballynahinch Rd Lisburn County Down BT27 6XJ

Townland:
Aghnaleck

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
20/06/1984 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
184/08

IG Ref:
J3106 5853

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached three-bay two-storey over concealed basement rendered country house, built c.1850, facing south with a four-bay west garden elevation incorporating an earlier house, built c.1755, visible to the rear. Extended as an L-plan three-storey wing to the northeast c.1870. Located within its own estate accessed via long winding avenues to the south and to the northwest with an extensive stableyard located to the east (HB19/06/003B). Hipped natural slate roofs with rolled lead ridges behind corniced blocking parapet wall. Several tall sandstone ashlar chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots. Ruled and lined lime rendered walling with projecting sandstone plinth course and rusticated sandstone quoins. Square-headed window openings with sandstone sills and 6/6 timber sash windows. Symmetrical front elevation with central shallow breakfront abutted by tetrastyle Ionic portico with balustraded parapet, paved platform and three nosed steps. Square-headed door opening with Portland limestone architrave surround and timber door with eight raised and fielded panels. Tripartite Wyatt-style timber sash windows to either side of portico set within shallow arches recesses and diminutive cornice at impost level. West side elevation is four windows wide with smaller windows to the first floor. Multi-bay two-storey over exposed basement rear elevation with a two-bay central block dating from c.1755 and forming a shallow breakfront. The east section is recessed and abutted by the adjoining three-storey L-plan wing with further single-storey over basement flat-roofed section having flight of stone steps to the rear enclosed garden. Single-bay two-storey east side elevation has a single window to the first floor and abutted by a modern side entrance porch. Northeast L-plan wing has hipped natural slate roof with a single-bay south elevation projecting beyond the east side elevation of the main house. Cast-iron rainwater goods with rendered chimneystacks and ruled and lined cement rendered walling. Square-headed window openings with stop-chamfered surrounds, stone sills and horizontally-glazed timber sash windows. Setting: Set within its own estate on the north side of Bailliesmill Road and to the southeast of Ballinahinch Road accessed via two winding bitmac avenues opening onto Bailliesmill Road, opposite HB19.06.003D, via a pair of rebuilt stone-faced concrete block splayed walls and opening onto Ballinahinch Road, opposite HB19.06.003C via a pair of decorative cast-iron gates supported on pair of rusticated sandstone piers with fluted cornice and capstones with stone ball finials. According to the current owner, both of these gate screens were reconstructed in 2010 and widened to improve visibility. To the rear (N) of the house is a walled garden, vegetable plots, a formal pleached hedge garden and a lake. Materials Roof Natural slate RWG Concealed behind parapet wall Walling Ruled and lined lime rendered Windows 6/6, 1/1 & 2/2 timber sliding sash

Architects

Not Known Lanyon, Charles

Historical Information

The Larchfield estate was created some time between c.1744 and the early 1750s by Daniel Mussenden I. Mussenden (c.1685-c.1763), the son of Francis Mussenden, Registrar of the Diocese of Down, was a Belfast merchant involved in importing and exporting goods to the Americas and Northern Europe, ‘with other business interests including shares in a local wine company, an interest in a salt company, a partnership with John Bradshaw connected with the linen industry and an involvement in the Tyrone Colliery Company.’ He also ‘acted in a banking capacity’ and was a partner in Belfast’s first bank, Mussenden, Adair and Bateson, established in 1753. By the mid-1740s, Daniel had accumulated enough wealth to invest in a country estate and acquired land at Aghnaleck, between Lisburn and Ballynahinch, where he buit a new house, ‘Larchfield’. The actual date of the building is uncertain; however the house is marked on Kennedy’s County Down map of 1755, so it would seem that it was standing at this date, but may not have been fully fitted until a year or so later. Internal detailing suggests a 1740s date also. The property passed to Daniel’s son, William Mussenden I (1712-80), who seems to have been an unpopular landlord judging from the fact that in January 1772 a 300 strong contingent of the Hearts of Steel ‘surrounded the house and swore they would see it in flames…[and] lay the estate waste’. Both house and grounds appear to have survived the Steelboy rising unscathed and came into the possession of Daniel Mussenden II in 1794. Daniel’s son, William Mussenden II (1782-1860), inherited in 1829. As discussed above, the earliest section of the house was built sometime between 1744 and 1755. There appear to be no extant 18th century or early 19th illustrations or detailed descriptions of the building, but from the six-inch OS map of 1834 it would appear that the main block we see today was originally about half its present size, that the front elevation faced west, and that there were smaller rear returns. The valuation of c.1835 lists the main block as measuring 63½ft x 24½ x 27 (with 9ft high basement) and four ‘rere’ sections of 10 x 24 x 27, 34 x 21 x 20, 13 x 11½ x 11½ (also with basements). Also recorded is a long block of 90 x 23 x 17½ with ‘servants rooms [in the] over storey [with] wash house etc. under’; this appears to have been the northern return in its original two-storey form, and considering it is not shown on the 1834 map, indicates that it was built shortly after this date. Sometime between this valuation and 1859 the building took on much of its present form, with a new block built on to the west, the south side extended and remodelled to form a new front, complete with portico, and new portions added to the east of the long northern service wing. In the 1862 valuation, the enlarged main block is recorded in two sections amounting to 15½yds x 20 x 2 [storeys] and 7 x 8 x 2 with the shallow projections to both the front and north sides 8 x 2(ft) x 2, whilst the returns are noted as measuring 10yds 2ft x 8 x 2, 5 x 10yds 1ft x 2, 3½ x 8½ x 1 and 4 x 2yds 1ft x 1 with the large service wing (‘½ house ½ office’) 27yds 1ft x 7yds 2ft x 2. The architect responsible for the remodelling of the house is not known. Brett rejects Hugh Dixon’s idea that they may have been by Charles Lanyon on a mistaken belief that the the information contained within the valuations indicates that the alterations are post-1850s (and consequently not consistent with Lanyon’s style after this date); but as discussed above, the valuations and the OS maps clearly show the changes to be pre-1859 – possibly as early as the later 1830s. That said, there seems to be no documentary evidence to link Lanyon, or any other architect for that matter, with the property. Between 1862 and 1866 Mr. Ogilvie Blair Graham (1820-1897), managing partner in the York Street Flax Spinning Co., Belfast, became the new occupant of Larchfield house. Over the next decade Graham made numerous changes to the site. In 1878 the Annual Revisions record that the gate lodges were replaced with the current Hillsborough Lodge (HB19/06/021) and Lisburn Lodge increasing the value of the property to £112. In 1883 Graham erected a new office, built a new south facing entrance and raised part of Larchfield house itself by a storey. This is undoutedly a reference to the northern service wing and the section attached to the south of it, both of which have late Victorian detailing. There was little further change to the building until 1898 when Ogilvie Graham died and left the house to his widow Louisa Sara Graham. The 1901 Census records that Louisa (then 70yrs old) was born in America and lived at Larchfield House with her two children and four grandchildren. She was attended by at least 12 servants and owned a farmstead which consisted of over 30 out offices. The third edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1900-01) shows that the majority of these farm buildings were located a short distance east of the house; the farmstead was at that time named ‘Home Farm’ and greatly expanded between c.1830 and c.1920. With Louisa’s death in 1907 the house was left to her son, also named Ogilvie Blair Graham who was recorded as occupant until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929. The current owner’s family acquired the property some time before 1968. In the mid-20th century some of the buildings to the north-east were demolished and what is now the large garage structure was added, replacing a similar-sized structure shown on the 1902 map. The house was listed in 1984 and in the same year the chimney was dismantled and restored; the slated roof was also repaired. In 2006 some of the buildings around the southern yard were converted to function rooms, with the brick lean-toof the eastern wing added at this time. References: Primary Sources 1. HED ‘A map of the County of Downe’ (1755) 2. PRONI D354/305, 895, 1035, 1047 (1744-72) 2. PRONI VAL/1/B/338 A-B – Townland valuations c. 1835 3. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/15 – Field Map c. 1834-38 4. PRONI OS/6/3/15/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834 5. PRONI OS/6/3/15/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1859 6. PRONI OS/6/3/15/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-1901 7. PRONI OS/6/3/15/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920 8. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/35 – Second valuation 1862 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/1 A – Annual Revisions 1866-1875 10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/1 B – Annual Revisions 1876-1885 11. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/1 C – Annual Revisions 1886-1897 12. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/1 D – Annual Revisions 1897-1914 13. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/1 E – Annual Revisions 1915-1929 14. Ordnance Survey Memoirs – Down III, Vol. 12. Secondary Sources 1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of North County Down’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002. 2. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994. 3. Hart, H. G., ‘The new annual army list and militia list for 1861’ London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1861. 4. Rankin, K., ‘The linen houses of the Lagan Valley’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002. 5. HED File – HB19/06/003. 6. Dean, J.A.K. 1994 The gate lodges of Ulster- a gazetteer, (Belfast), p.81-2 7. PRONI ‘Introduction to the Mussenden Papers’

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

V. Authorship W. Northern Ireland/International Interest T. Historic Importance R. Age S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Detached three-bay two-storey over concealed basement rendered country house, built c.1850. Possibly designed by Charles Lanyon, its principal elevation faces southwest with a four-bay garden elevation incorporating an earlier house, built c.1755, visible to the rear. Extended as an L-plan three-storey wing to the northeast c.1870. Occupying a site dating back to the mid eighteenth-century this well proportioned building exhibits an array of original fabric and detailing making it a most impressive country house. When seen from the southwest, the house presents a formal composition befitting its demesne setting and is enhanced by its large stableyard, walled garden and rubblestone boundary walls. It has group value with the stableyard outbuildings (HB19/06/003B) and gate lodges (HB19/06/003C & D). Although reconstructed in 2010, the Bailliesmill Road and Ballynahinch Road gate screens significantly augment its character.

General Comments

This record has been re-numbered. Formerly HB19/06/003. Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.

Date of Survey

14 September 2010