Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB16/06/058

Address :
ARNO'S VALE 75 WARRENPOINT ROAD ROSTREVOR CO.DOWN

Townland:

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Survey 1:
B1

Date of Listing:
22/09/1981 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
HOUSE

Former Use
HOUSE

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:

Vernacular:

Thatched:
No

Monument:

Derelict:

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OS Map No:

IG Ref:
J1664 1848

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Owner Category

PRIVATE

Exterior Description And Setting

According to the ‘Newry Magazine’ of 1815, the original house on this site was a ‘neat cottage’, built by ‘Rev ___ McArthur, Curate of Rosstrevor, and to which his daughter gave it the name of Arno’s Vale.’ The Magazine goes on to infer that this residence was replaced by one built by John Darley, which was later occupied by James Moore and then by Thomas Mercer ‘during Mr. Moore’s residence in India’. The ‘Rev. McArthur’ was most likely Denis McArthur, who served as Vicar of Kilbroney in 1736-37, and so it is likely that the original house was of that date. John Darley, was the Collector of Customs at Newry from 1762 to 1771, and acquired the property sometime before 1777, and as the house was of sufficient note to be included on Taylors and Skinner’s road map of that year, it is probable that original ‘cottage’ had been superseded by that date. Darley, is mentioned in connection with the house again in the 1786 ‘Post-chaise companion’, but by 1789, however, Thomas Mercer was living there. Therefore, if the sequence of ownership / occupation as recounted by the Newry Magazine is accurate, then James Moore must have acquired it - and then sub-let it - in the intervening period. Thomas Mercer was a widely-travelled Dublin-born merchant-captain, who amassed considerable wealth trading in India and who became prominent in the Newry area. He was also politically active, and in July 1792 it was he who supplied a supportive address (together with a ‘patriotic gift’ of £173) from the people of Newry to the French National Assembly on the second anniversary of the Revolution. Following Mercer’s death c.1800 and the property reverted to Moore, another leading local merchant who had married Elizabeth Hall (d.1831) of Narrowwater and assisted in her family’s efforts to develop the town of Warrenpoint. He died in 1817, and in 1819 Bradshaw’s Directory noted that the Rt Hon. James Hewitt (1750-1831), Viscount Lifford, the then Dean of Down, was living at Arno’s Vale, presumably (as there appears to be no indication of a sale) renting it from Mrs. Elizabeth Moore. Mrs. Moore is still listed as living in the Rostrevor area in Pigot’s 1824 Directory, although it is not stated exactly where. It is possible that in the latter half of the 1820s it was occupied by a family named Hawkins for a short period, but this is not certain. The lands of ‘Arno’s Vale, situated near the sea shore, containing sixty acres [Irish]’ as well as the ‘spacious’ dwelling house and ‘large walled garden well stocked with fruit trees’, were advertised for sale in March 1829. They were acquired at some point shortly afterwards by Rev. Thomas Carter (1765-1849), an English-born cleric, who served as Rector of Ballymore from 1803, Dean of Tuam from 1813, and a Magistrate for County Down. The 1835 valuation (see below), suggests that Carter paid £4,000 for the concern. The C-shaped plan of the house as shown on the 1834 OS map looks largely similar to the present, but with a smaller northern wing. The valuation of the following year describes the building as a ‘not new’ (grade B+/-) and records the dimensions of its various constituent parts as 53½ x 20½ x 20, 53½ x 20½ x 15 (‘wing’) , 42½ x 20 x 15 and 42½ x 7 x 11, with offices to the immediate north of 52 x 19½ x 14½, 78 x 19 x 14½, 63 x 13 x 12, 45 x 19 x 11 and 34 x 19½ x 13, a gate lodge (at the main entrance along Warrenpoint Road) measuring 29 x 17 x 8 and a ‘steward’s house’ (probably further north of the outbuildings on the site of the present no.12 Drumsesk Road) of 39½ x 17½ x 7. On the revised OS map of 1860 the northern wing appears larger, indicating that some alterations had been carried out post-1835. That there had been some changes is borne out by the 1861 valuation which records a greater volume overall, with the main section with the entrance set on the north-south axis to the west side noted as measuring 17yds x 6yds 2ft x 2[storeys - 18ft], a ‘glass conservatory’ amounting to 6yds 2ft x 4 x 1, ‘returns’ of 19 x 8 x 2 (‘very good part of house’ - probably the southern wing), 3 x 5 x 2, 25 x 4 x 2 (’part office’), 8 x 5 x 2 (‘kitchen etc. - good roof on old walls’), 6yds 2ft x 4 x 1 and 3 x 3 x 1. The valuers remark that the house consisted of ‘extended buildings, rather straggling and part old’, suggesting a building that had grown organically over the years. To the north of the house the ‘extensive offices’ all covered in ‘old roofing’ are noted as measuring 40 x 6yds 2ft x 2, 15 x 6yds 2ft x 2, 6yds 2ft x 11 x 1½ and 8 x 7 x 1. The lodge and the steward’s house are recorded as before, but by this point they had been joined by a ‘gardener’s house’ of 13 x 6 x 1. As well as the additions to the buildings, changes to the grounds had also been undertaken during this period, as the 1860 map shows an additional drive to the south-east, and another branching off the original (southwestern) drive and running parallel with the western boundary of the property. By 1860, Arno’s Vale had been acquired by Edward Curteis of Glenburn, Co. Antrim, via his wife, Catherine Elizabeth (nee Tipping), the widow of William Frederick Carter (d.1848), a son of Rev. Thomas Carter. Edward died in 1865 and Catherine in 1867 and the property passed to Edward’s sister, Mrs Patrickson. By 1868, according to the valuations, the house had been acquired (or passed to) William Calvert who leased it to Robert McBlain. By c.1884 Mary Kilpatrick had become tenant, with David Martin and David Sinton named as joint leaseholders from 1885 and George G. Tyrrell taking over the tenancy in the same year. Tyrrell was succeeded in 1894 by William F. Terry and then in c.1898 by Edward Richards. In the 1901 census the Dublin-born Richards is recorded as a 76yr-old retired civil engineer, who was occupying the house with his wife, Frances Elizabeth Richards, their four grown-up children, a grandson, and three domestic servants, with the house itself noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 14 rooms in use. Mr. Richards died c.1903 and in the 1911 census the household had shrunk to Mrs Richards, three of her children as well as three servants. The property remained with the Richards family, first passing to Herbert Richards in c.1912, and then his sisters, Lucy and Amy, in 1923. By 1931, it had been bought by William Vint Hogg, a Newry-based auctioneer, and it later passed to his son, who was still living there in 1971. The valuations do not record any major changes to the house in the course of the later 19th and early 20th centuries, and the footprint of the building appears largely unaltered from the 1860 OS map up until that of 1979. However, the appearance of the southern wing, with its regular stone-dressed fenestration and overhanging roof, suggests that this section at least was extensively refurbished in the late Victorian period or early 1900s. In more recent years the house has undergone a more comprehensive refurbishment, with addition sections added to the north and east sides of the northern wing. References - Primary sources 1 ‘Taylors and Skinner’s maps of the roads of Ireland’, (Dublin, 1777-78), maps 11, 285 2 Wilson, William, ‘The post-chaise companion or traveller directory through Ireland’, (Dublin, 1786) 3 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 15-18 June 1779 4 Wilson, William, ‘The post-chaise companion or traveller directory through Ireland’, (Dublin, 1786) 5 PRONI D2225/B/1/1/234 (19 January 1789) 6 PRONI D2225/7/38P, R-S (31 July 1788, 25 February, 4 June 1789) 7 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 27-30 April 1790 8 ‘A Map of the County of Down…by James Williamson, (1810) 9 ‘The Newry Magazine or literary & political register for 1815’, (Newry, 1815) 10 Bradshaw, Thomas, ‘The general directory of Newry, Armagh…’ (Newry, 1819-20) 11 PRONI D4160/L/14 (1836-72) 12 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834 13 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36) 14 Day, Angelique and McWilliams, Patrick ed. ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…vol.3’ (QUB, 1990), p.35 (1835-36) 15 Slater’s commercial directory of Ireland’ (Manchester, 1846) 16 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1860 17 PRONI VAL2B/3/61B (1861) 18 PRONI VAL12B/19/22A (1865-69) 19 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929) 20 OS map, Co Down sheet 54 (1901-02) 21 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie 22 PRONI VAL12B/19/9A (1923-29) 23 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 21 August 1931 24 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 18 March 1971, p.2 Secondary sources 25 ‘Belfast Evening Telegraph’, 9 October 1909 26 ‘Newry Reporter’, 8 February 1910, p.6 27 Leslie, James B., ‘Armagh clergy and parishes…’, (Dundalk, 1911), pp.24-25 28 O’Muiri, Reamonn, “Newry and the French Revolution, 1792”, in ‘Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society’ Vol. 13, No. 2 (1989), pp. 102-120 29 http://www.ocotilloroad.com/geneal/carter1.html#WILL1 [accessed 2020.06.01]

Architects

Historical Information

According to the ‘Newry Magazine’ of 1815, the original house on this site was a ‘neat cottage’, built by ‘Rev ___ McArthur, Curate of Rosstrevor, and to which his daughter gave it the name of Arno’s Vale.’ The Magazine goes on to infer that this residence was replaced by one built by John Darley, which was later occupied by James Moore and then by Thomas Mercer ‘during Mr. Moore’s residence in India’. The ‘Rev. McArthur’ was most likely Denis McArthur, who served as Vicar of Kilbroney in 1736-37, and so it is likely that the original house was of that date. John Darley, was the Collector of Customs at Newry from 1762 to 1771, and acquired the property sometime before 1777, and as the house was of sufficient note to be included on Taylors and Skinner’s road map of that year, it is probable that original ‘cottage’ had been superseded by that date. Darley, is mentioned in connection with the house again in the 1786 ‘Post-chaise companion’, but by 1789, however, Thomas Mercer was living there. Therefore, if the sequence of ownership / occupation as recounted by the Newry Magazine is accurate, then James Moore must have acquired it - and then sub-let it - in the intervening period. Thomas Mercer was a widely-travelled Dublin-born merchant-captain, who amassed considerable wealth trading in India and who became prominent in the Newry area. He was also politically active, and in July 1792 it was he who supplied a supportive address (together with a ‘patriotic gift’ of £173) from the people of Newry to the French National Assembly on the second anniversary of the Revolution. Following Mercer’s death c.1800 and the property reverted to Moore, another leading local merchant who had married Elizabeth Hall (d.1831) of Narrowwater and assisted in her family’s efforts to develop the town of Warrenpoint. He died in 1817, and in 1819 Bradshaw’s Directory noted that the Rt Hon. James Hewitt (1750-1831), Viscount Lifford, the then Dean of Down, was living at Arno’s Vale, presumably (as there appears to be no indication of a sale) renting it from Mrs. Elizabeth Moore. Mrs. Moore is still listed as living in the Rostrevor area in Pigot’s 1824 Directory, although it is not stated exactly where. It is possible that in the latter half of the 1820s it was occupied by a family named Hawkins for a short period, but this is not certain. The lands of ‘Arno’s Vale, situated near the sea shore, containing sixty acres [Irish]’ as well as the ‘spacious’ dwelling house and ‘large walled garden well stocked with fruit trees’, were advertised for sale in March 1829. They were acquired at some point shortly afterwards by Rev. Thomas Carter (1765-1849), an English-born cleric, who served as Rector of Ballymore from 1803, Dean of Tuam from 1813, and a Magistrate for County Down. The 1835 valuation (see below), suggests that Carter paid £4,000 for the concern. The C-shaped plan of the house as shown on the 1834 OS map looks largely similar to the present, but with a smaller northern wing. The valuation of the following year describes the building as a ‘not new’ (grade B+/-) and records the dimensions of its various constituent parts as 53½ x 20½ x 20, 53½ x 20½ x 15 (‘wing’) , 42½ x 20 x 15 and 42½ x 7 x 11, with offices to the immediate north of 52 x 19½ x 14½, 78 x 19 x 14½, 63 x 13 x 12, 45 x 19 x 11 and 34 x 19½ x 13, a gate lodge (at the main entrance along Warrenpoint Road) measuring 29 x 17 x 8 and a ‘steward’s house’ (probably further north of the outbuildings on the site of the present no.12 Drumsesk Road) of 39½ x 17½ x 7. On the revised OS map of 1860 the northern wing appears larger, indicating that some alterations had been carried out post-1835. That there had been some changes is borne out by the 1861 valuation which records a greater volume overall, with the main section with the entrance set on the north-south axis to the west side noted as measuring 17yds x 6yds 2ft x 2[storeys - 18ft], a ‘glass conservatory’ amounting to 6yds 2ft x 4 x 1, ‘returns’ of 19 x 8 x 2 (‘very good part of house’ - probably the southern wing), 3 x 5 x 2, 25 x 4 x 2 (’part office’), 8 x 5 x 2 (‘kitchen etc. - good roof on old walls’), 6yds 2ft x 4 x 1 and 3 x 3 x 1. The valuers remark that the house consisted of ‘extended buildings, rather straggling and part old’, suggesting a building that had grown organically over the years. To the north of the house the ‘extensive offices’ all covered in ‘old roofing’ are noted as measuring 40 x 6yds 2ft x 2, 15 x 6yds 2ft x 2, 6yds 2ft x 11 x 1½ and 8 x 7 x 1. The lodge and the steward’s house are recorded as before, but by this point they had been joined by a ‘gardener’s house’ of 13 x 6 x 1. As well as the additions to the buildings, changes to the grounds had also been undertaken during this period, as the 1860 map shows an additional drive to the south-east, and another branching off the original (southwestern) drive and running parallel with the western boundary of the property. By 1860, Arno’s Vale had been acquired by Edward Curteis of Glenburn, Co. Antrim, via his wife, Catherine Elizabeth (nee Tipping), the widow of William Frederick Carter (d.1848), a son of Rev. Thomas Carter. Edward died in 1865 and Catherine in 1867 and the property passed to Edward’s sister, Mrs Patrickson. By 1868, according to the valuations, the house had been acquired (or passed to) William Calvert who leased it to Robert McBlain. By c.1884 Mary Kilpatrick had become tenant, with David Martin and David Sinton named as joint leaseholders from 1885 and George G. Tyrrell taking over the tenancy in the same year. Tyrrell was succeeded in 1894 by William F. Terry and then in c.1898 by Edward Richards. In the 1901 census the Dublin-born Richards is recorded as a 76yr-old retired civil engineer, who was occupying the house with his wife, Frances Elizabeth Richards, their four grown-up children, a grandson, and three domestic servants, with the house itself noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 14 rooms in use. Mr. Richards died c.1903 and in the 1911 census the household had shrunk to Mrs Richards, three of her children as well as three servants. The property remained with the Richards family, first passing to Herbert Richards in c.1912, and then his sisters, Lucy and Amy, in 1923. By 1931, it had been bought by William Vint Hogg, a Newry-based auctioneer, and it later passed to his son, who was still living there in 1971. The valuations do not record any major changes to the house in the course of the later 19th and early 20th centuries, and the footprint of the building appears largely unaltered from the 1860 OS map up until that of 1979. However, the appearance of the southern wing, with its regular stone-dressed fenestration and overhanging roof, suggests that this section at least was extensively refurbished in the late Victorian period or early 1900s. In more recent years the house has undergone a more comprehensive refurbishment, with addition sections added to the north and east sides of the northern wing. References - Primary sources 1 ‘Taylors and Skinner’s maps of the roads of Ireland’, (Dublin, 1777-78), maps 11, 285 2 Wilson, William, ‘The post-chaise companion or traveller directory through Ireland’, (Dublin, 1786) 3 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 15-18 June 1779 4 Wilson, William, ‘The post-chaise companion or traveller directory through Ireland’, (Dublin, 1786) 5 PRONI D2225/B/1/1/234 (19 January 1789) 6 PRONI D2225/7/38P, R-S (31 July 1788, 25 February, 4 June 1789) 7 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 27-30 April 1790 8 ‘A Map of the County of Down…by James Williamson, (1810) 9 ‘The Newry Magazine or literary & political register for 1815’, (Newry, 1815) 10 Bradshaw, Thomas, ‘The general directory of Newry, Armagh…’ (Newry, 1819-20) 11 PRONI D4160/L/14 (1836-72) 12 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834 13 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36) 14 Day, Angelique and McWilliams, Patrick ed. ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…vol.3’ (QUB, 1990), p.35 (1835-36) 15 Slater’s commercial directory of Ireland’ (Manchester, 1846) 16 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1860 17 PRONI VAL2B/3/61B (1861) 18 PRONI VAL12B/19/22A (1865-69) 19 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929) 20 OS map, Co Down sheet 54 (1901-02) 21 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie 22 PRONI VAL12B/19/9A (1923-29) 23 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 21 August 1931 24 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 18 March 1971, p.2 Secondary sources 25 ‘Belfast Evening Telegraph’, 9 October 1909 26 ‘Newry Reporter’, 8 February 1910, p.6 27 Leslie, James B., ‘Armagh clergy and parishes…’, (Dundalk, 1911), pp.24-25 28 O’Muiri, Reamonn, “Newry and the French Revolution, 1792”, in ‘Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society’ Vol. 13, No. 2 (1989), pp. 102-120 29 http://www.ocotilloroad.com/geneal/carter1.html#WILL1 [accessed 2020.06.01]

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Historic Interest

Evaluation

General Comments

Date of Survey