Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB07/04/042

Address :
Knowe Head 45 Knowehead Road, Broughshane, Co. Antrim, BT43 7LF

Townland:
Knockboy

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
26/03/2021 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:
56/13NE

IG Ref:
D1505 0706

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Picturesque, two-storey, gentleman farmer’s residence of 1867 with asymmetric plan and steeply-pitched gable-ended dormer roof. The property is located on a lofty site to the north of Broughshane, approached by a curving tree-lined drive opening off Knowehead Road. To the rear there is an enclosed yard with a relatively large collection of two and single-storey (mainly) rubble-constructed outbuildings, many of which predate the dwelling house. The house faces W and is square in plan with a projecting porch to the front, projecting canted bays to the S and a two-storey return to N. Materials: Roof: Natural slate with large glazed section over the stairwell RWG: Appear to be largely PVC Walls: Rendered (dry-dash) with stone window surrounds to canted bays Windows: Generally painted timber sliding sash 2/2 to main house and 6/6 to return. Generally all walls are dry dash render, with stucco quoins at the corners. The window openings have stone cills and are square-headed to the ground floor and arch-headed to the first floor. The plinth is rock- faced rubble-stone with a stone course capping. The eaves consist of a painted timber fascia and soffit with decorative bargeboards. There is a cast metal ogee profile gutter and metal downpipes. The roof is natural slate with plain blue/black- clay ridge tiles and chimneys are yellow-brick with yellow clay octagonal pots. Front elevation (W) Asymmetrical elevation with 2 no. gables and an entrance porch located off-centre, at the apex of the gables. To the right-hand side is the larger of the 2 gables with 1 no. window centrally located at each floor level. To the left-hand side is smaller gable with similar window arrangement (windows on this side are not aligned). The porch is projecting with a hipped natural slate roof and is supported on 4 no. decorative timber posts with stone base pads and struts and braces at the eaves. The porch rests on a single large stone step and the main doorway is square-headed and slightly recessed with a plain stucco surround. The door is painted timber and panelled with 2 no. glazed arch-headed panels at the upper section. There is a metal and glass pendant porch light above the door. On the roof there is a yellow-brick chimney (off-centre) with 1 no. tall yellow clay octagonal pot and 1 no. small red-clay pot. Rear elevation (E) The rear elevation has a gable to the left-hand side with 1 no. square-headed window at first floor level. To the right-hand side there is a square-headed window opening at each level (6/6 window panes to ground level) and an oil tank mounted on a concrete base. There is another small window at this level adjacent to the oil tank (partially obscured from view at time of survey). On the roof there is a plain rendered chimney with slim concrete cap (replacement). Side elevation (S) Symmetrical elevation with 2 no. single-storey canted bays at ground level flanking a single centrally located window. There is a gable with a single window over each bay. The bays are tri-partite with stone surrounds and flat roofs. The stone surrounds have roll-moulded mullions and a large chamfered cornice. There are over-sized decorative timber brackets at the eaves. Side elevation (N) A plain elevation with 3 no. gables with clipped verges. The right gable has exposed rubble-stone walls and there is a square-headed window opening at first floor level. The left gable is rendered and has 2 no. square-headed casement windows at first floor level (possibly replacement) and a door opening at ground level(doorway has a glazed overlight). Attached to the central gable is a large rectangular two-storey return with rendered walls, clipped verges and asbestos slate roof. The E and W facades of the return have 1 no. square-headed window opening at each level with 6/6 sliding sash windows. The gable is plain with a yellow-brick chimney with slim concrete capping and 2 no. tall yellow clay octagonal pots. Attached to the gable are the remains of a single-storey extension (possibly incorporating original walls of an earlier house). At the time of the survey the extension was in the process of being demolished.

Architects

Historical Information

Samuel Davison of ‘Nowhead’ is mentioned in a Belfast News-Letter notice in August 1774 indicating that a dwelling house existed on or close to the present site at this date.[refs 2-4] The Davison family had been long-established in Knockboy townland, with three individuals of that name named as householders in the 1666 hearth money rolls.[1] Two of the dwellings recorded at this time were single-hearth structures with the third, the then residence of John Davison senior, possessing two hearths. It is likely that this last building, (as seemingly the largest of the three) was the principal family residence and as such probably the predecessor of the present ‘Knockboy’, located to the north-west off Knockan Road, but it is possible that one of the other two may equate – in some form - to this site. The Davisons retained the lease of Knowe Head (held from the O’Neill - Mountcashel - estate) until sometime between 1808 and 1834.[6-10] By the latter date it had been acquired by James Logan, who is noted in the valuation of the latter year as holding a dwelling, offices, beetling mill, corn mill and kiln.[12] Unfortunately (and unusually) the valuers do not supply dimensions for any of these, but the near contemporary OS map shows a building of different plan and orientation roughly in the same location as today’s residence, with a larger U-shaped complex to the immediate west which in part matches the current outbuilding to this side, and other smaller structures to the immediate north and east some of which coincide with the structures still extant to this side.[11] The various mill buildings were situated some distance further east, closer to the Artoges River. The 1835 OS memoirs states that the beetling mill was powered by a ‘breast water wheel 18 feet by 4 feet 4 inches’ with the corn mill possessing a smaller wheel of ‘13 feet by 2 feet 8 inches’.[13] In summer 1850 the lease of Knowe Head was advertised for sale in two lots, the newspaper notice referring to lot 1 as comprising ‘the mansion house…(a most desirable residence)…office houses, walled-in garden, six beetling engines, wash-mills and every requisite for finishing linens’, as well as, ‘an excellent corn mill…two kilns [and] five workmen’s cottages’, whilst lot 2 consisted of over 37ac of farmland.[14] Both lots appear to have been purchased by David Wilson, for he is noted as the proprietor when the property was offered for sale again in November 1858, the sale advertisement this time describing the house as ‘in good order, and fit for the reception of a respectable family…[and] commanding a beautiful prospect’, with the garden ‘enclosed by a wall and well stocked with fruit trees’, whilst the corn mill and kiln were ‘nearly new, having been put up within the last two years’.[16] The OS map of the previous year would appear to confirm this, showing a larger corn mill compared to that of 1832, as well as a larger dwelling, the latter having been extended much further to the east in particular, possibly incorporating what may have formerly been a separate outbuilding to this side.[15] The second valuation of 1859 notes that the house consisted of a main thatched section of 57ft x 19½ x 9½, with slated portions of 19½ x 23 x 14, 22 x 8 x 6½ and 37 x 11½ x 6½, with a newspaper description of September 1862 informing us that it contained a ‘parlour and drawing room, five good bedrooms, kitchen, pantry, scullery and servants’ apartments.’ The extensive collection of outbuildings meanwhile was (according to the valuers), made up of structures measuring 23 x 11½ x 6½, 28½ x 16 x 10, 52 x 19 x 14, 37½ x 13 x 8, 70 x 20 x 13½, 23 x 20 x 13½, 20 x 13 x 8, 30 x 13 x 7, 41 x 14 x 8, 55 x 13½ x 7½ and 20 x 15 x 11½.[18] The house, mills and a portion of the farmland were sold in c.1859-59 to Edward Barr Currell. Currell did not stay there long, however, with everything put up for sale again in late 1862 and sublet to Samuel McCahey and John Craig, by 1865.[18-20] Their tenure was relatively short also and in 1866 the lease of the house, mills and all of the farmland was sold to William Orr Wilson, a draper from Ballymena. In 1867-68 Mr. Wilson constructed the present dwelling. At least part of the older house appears to have been retained, however, for the valuers only record the latter as ‘down’ (i.e. demolished) in 1883, and evidence (in the form of hand-made brick) suggests that a portion of the fabric of the former structure may have been retained to form part of the rear (northern) return.[20] As for the new house itself, the quality of the composition suggests an architect was employed in the design rather than a skilled builder, but the authorship remains a mystery. In c.1896 the mills at Knowe Head came under the management of the Raceview Woollen Mill, (a company then belonging to a Wilson relation), although the rest of the property remained with W.O. Wilson and his family.[20] It was at Knowe Head that William and Jemima’s youngest son, Guy Livingstone Wilson (1885-1962), the noted daffodil breeder, lived until early adulthood. A white variety of the flower raised by him is named after the property.[36] William Orr Wilson died in 1906 and Jemima in 1910, the latter in quite tragic circumstances - drowning after accidentally falling into the millrace.[23] Knowe Head subsequently passed to their eldest son Major-General James Barnett Wilson (1862-1936) and his wife Kathleen Dorothea (1872-1946), and from them to their elder son, Col. John Barnett Wilson (1899-1964), who was the last of the family to live there. In c.1956 Knowe Head was acquired by Major Robert Bruce Morton (1922-?98) who appears to have retained it into the 1990s. By 2003 a Mr. Peter Carrington seems to have been living there.[34-38] The present owner bought the property in 2019.[33] The plan of the house and outbuildings appears similar to that shown on the 1903 OS map, although there appear to have been various alterations to the outbuildings in the course of more recent decades, and the single-storey portion of the house return was (which may have contained some fabric from the pre-1867 dwelling) was largely demolished in 2019 as part of a major refurbishment of the building. The mills to the east have been cleared away post-1967 with their site now occupied by two dwelling houses. [22. 25, 30] References – primary sources 1 Hearth Money rolls for Co. Antrim in Carleton, S.T., ‘Heads and hearths: The hearth money rolls and poll tax for Co. Antrim 1660-69’ (PRONI, 1991) 2 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 12-16 August 1774, p.3 3 PRONI D509/563 20 September 1775 4 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 23-26 April 1776, p.3 5 ‘A map of County Antrim…by J. Lendrick, 1780’ 6 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 10-13 August 1784, p.3 7 PRONI D509/781 1 April 1790 8 ‘Hampshire Telegraph’, 21 April 1800 9 ‘Belfast Commercial Chronicle’, 11 November 1805 10 PRONI T1116/31 14 March 1808 11 OS map, Co. Antrim sheet 33, 1832-33 12 PRONI VAL1B/15A-C First valuation, Skerry Parish, November 1834 13 OS Memoirs, 1835 14 ‘The Banner of Ulster’, 6 July 1850 15 OS map, Co. Antrim sheet 33, 1857 16 ‘Ballymena Observer’, 13 November 1858 17 ‘Ballymena Observer’, 15 January 1859 18 PRONI VAL2B/1/4 Second valuation, 1859 19 ‘Ballymena Observer’, 11 October 1862 20 PRONI VAL12B/3/7A-E Valuation revision books, 1864-1929 21 ‘Ballymena Observer’, 19 May 1866, p.1 22 OS map, Co. Antrim sheet 33, 1903 23 ‘Belfast Weekly News’, 25 August 1910 24 PRONI VAL12B/3/16D Valuation revision book, 1910-29 25 OS map, Co. Antrim sheet 33, 1921 26 ‘Ballymena Observer’, 8 September 1922, p.1 27 ‘Ballymena Weekly Telegraph’, 16 August 1941, p3 28 ‘Ballymena Observer’, 25 October 1957, p.7 29 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 12 October 1961 30 OS map sheet 56-13, 1967-68 Secondary sources 31 Davison Harbaugh, Elizabeth, ‘The Davison Genealogy’, (Ironton, Ohio, 1948) 32 Davison, Alexander, ‘The Davisons of Knockboy, Broughshane, County Antrim’, (Black Eagle Press, 1995) [The writer was unable to consult this book.] 33 Information from owner, November 2019 34 https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=157224.0 [accessed 7 January 2020] 35 https://snake43.webs.com/j-barnett-wilson-cb-cmg [accessed 8 January 2020] 36 http://www.rjbw.net/GLWObit.html [accessed 8 January 2020] 37 https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/dZDXlJ2FA33PO3CKdNQ0hgs6TLU/appointments [accessed 8 January 2020] 38 https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/NI045219/officers [accessed 8 January 2020]

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 J. Setting

Historic Interest

R. Age S. Authenticity U. Historic Associations X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Knowe Head is a picturesque, two-storey, ‘gentleman farmer’s’ residence of 1867 of relatively compact proportions and asymmetric appearance, with steeply-pitched overhanging gable-ended dormer roof and decorative bargeboards. Its design is unusual and attractive, of particular note being the contrast between the double-gabled frontage with its rustic porch and the somewhat more formal symmetrical garden front with its canted bays, as well as the mixture of finishes and the possibllity that the somewhat plainer rear return may incorporate part of an earlier structure. The building is largely intact both inside and out and retains finely-worked detailing including moulded sandstone surrounds with subtle Gothic motifs to the bays, bevelled sandstone window sills and some memorable timberwork to the porch, with the overall effect of the composition enhanced by the lofty mature setting complete with sweeping lawn and curving tree-lined approach. The accompanying cobbled yard and rubble-built outbuildings are also well-preserved, the latter structures of specific interest as most of them predate the house itself, and are quite probably – in part at least - of 18th century construction. The walled garden is also intact and something of a rare survivor in a property of this size. The building is of local importance being the site of a house since at least 1774 which had connections to nearby corn and flax mills, whilst one of the former occupants was Guy Livingstone Wilson (1885-1962), the internationally renowned daffodil breeder, with one of the varieties of the flower raised by him named after the property itself.

General Comments

Date of Survey

27 November 2019