Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB16/06/011

Address :
KILBRONEY HOUSE KILBRONEY ROAD ROSTREVOR CO.DOWN

Townland:

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Survey 1:
B+

Date of Listing:
26/02/1976 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:
J1904 1970

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Owner Category

PRIVATE

Exterior Description And Setting

Architects

Historical Information

A building of similar orientation to the present, but with a smaller, slightly different planform, is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834. In the valuation of the following year this is recorded an old house in good condition (grade ‘C+’) measuring 55ft x 21 x 11, with returns of 43 x 16 x 7, 43 x 5 x 7 and 30 x 10 x 5 and offices of 17 x 10 x 9, 24 x 19 x 14 and 34 x 22 x12. It is likely that this dwelling was of mid-18th century construction and was built by the founder of the bleach mill that formerly stood a short distance to the south. In a 1977 sale notice for the present house, it is stated that the title deeds date back to ‘approx. 1745’, whilst the ‘Belfast News-Letter’ contains
references attesting to the existence of a ‘bleachyard’ in Kilbroney TD in 1756, and a mill is shown in this vicinity on a map of 1767. In 1756 the bleaching concern is noted as being in the hands Hugh and James Moore, but by at least 1815 both it and the house - ‘Kilbroney’ - were in possession of Robert Martin. Robert died in 1831 and the whole passed to his sister, Jane Martin (1765-1840), and from her her nephew, another Robert Martin (1814-58). The present house was built some time before 1860, most likely shortly after 1840, when the younger Robert Martin came into the property. Paul Larmour credits its design to architect Thomas Duff of Newry; however, no concrete evidence linking Duff to the building has yet come to light. The new house is shown on the 1860 second valuation of 186 27yds x 9 x 2[storeys - 19ft] and two returns of 4? x 13? x 2[18ft] and 2 x 6? x 2[18ft]. It is not certain whether any of the fabric of the previous dwelling was incorporated into the new building. Robert Martin and his wife, Millicent, died of scarlet fever - within days of each other - in 1858, and Robert’s brother, John Martin (1812-75), moved to Kilbroney to look after his seven orphaned nieces and nephews. ‘Honest’ John Martin had risen to prominence in the late 1840s as one of the leading members of the radical nationalist ‘Young Ireland’ group, his actions eventually leading to his arrest, and, along with other members of the organisation, his transportation to Australia in 1848. He was fully pardoned in 1856 and returned to Ireland in 1858, remaining permanently following his brother’s death. He became active in politics again in the 1860s, championing the cause of legislative independence and tenant right, and was elected MP for Co. Meath in 1870, holding the seat until his death in 1875. In c.1870 Kilbroney House passed to John Martin’s nephew, Robert Martin (1849-1940) who went on to manage the bleach mill with David Martin (probably his uncle - David Martin (1824-1905)). In the 1880s there appears to have been a legal dispute about the title to the property. The details are not clear, but this may have involved the claims of descendants of the Moore family who held the property in the mid- 1700s, and which may or may not have been complicated by mental illness on the part of both Robert Martin and his younger (and only) brother, John; the latter being declared a ‘lunatic’ in 1889 and the former in 1893. It was possibly as a result of this that the house was advertised for lease in September 1884 the advertisement declaring that that it possessed a ‘drawing-room, dining-room, library, six bedrooms, servants’ rooms, kitchen, pantries, store-rooms, two water closets, cellars etc…[as well as]…good stabling, four loose boxes, coach-house, harness-room…a gate house’, together with five acres and additional land ‘to the extent of fifty acres…if required.’ Throughout all of this time, David martin appears to have continued to operate the mill, and indeed his name is against the whole property in the ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directories’ throughout the this entire period; moreover, there is no indication in the valuations that the house itself was ever leased outside of the Martin family, with the aforementioned John Martin, his wife Mary, and their son John, recorded as living there in the 1901 census. In 1905 the property appears to have been sold to John Porter Porter of Belle Isle, Co. Fermanagh, who leased it to Percy A. Baker and then, in 1911, to Robert Maximilian Rainey Robinson, a ‘Colonel Indian Army Active List’, who in the census of that year was occupying the house with wife, Alice Frances, their three young daughters, a governess and two domestic servants, with the house itself noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 18 rooms in use. Col. Rainey Robinson was appointed to ‘an important command overseas’ in late 1915 and by late 1918 Eric C. Lindsay had become tenant. In 1920 both the house and the mill (which at that point had not been worked for several years) were sold to Sir Frances William Stronge (1856-1924), brother of Sir James H. Stronge of Tynan Abbey, Co. Armagh. In a strange twist of fate given the history of Kilbroney House, Sir Francis and his wife, Lady Mary Stronge died within a few weeks of each other in 1924. Thus, the following year the ‘delightful gabled country residence’ was up for sale again, the advert describing the residence as containing a, ‘central Hall, 3 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms…excellent servants’ apartments, and has every modern convenience. There is a spacious travelled terrace along the front and end of the residence. The entire property is in perfect order, and is lighted electrically throughout by means of a turbine. It is approached by an avenue with gate lodge leading from the county road from Rostrevor, and there is a second entrance from the Newtown Road. There are beautifully placed and well stocked rock, rose, and Fruit and Vegetable Gardens, all in good order. The pleasure grounds and arable lands are well timbered, of good quality, well fenced and watered and laid off in convenient sized divisions…[and]…are easily kept in order. There is excellent gravitation water supply laid on to the residence and property, and the sewerage system is up-to-date and in splendid order. The farm yard is of convenient size, and embraces ample stable, Garage. byre, fowl and dairy accommodation. There are also two workmen’s cottages.’ The house appears to have been eventually sold or leased sometime after 1927 to Mrs. Alice Mary Lindsay, who had lived there with her husband Eric, about a decade previously. Mrs. Lindsay died in 1931 and John William Jennings was householder from at least late 1933 to early 1936 and a Miss Fenton in 1941-42. In August 1942 the building was sold for £4,750 to Mrs. F. Kennedy, who appears to have leased it to the Fenton family again. Alexander McCann is noted at the resident in 1953, and Major Gerald W. Reside in 1961, with Mrs. Kennedy recorded as living there herself the following year, and W. McDonald in 1982. References - Primary sources 1 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 22 June 1756, p.3 2 ‘The Newry Magazine or literary & political register for 1815’, (Newry, 1815) 3 ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle…Vol. XCVII (London, 1827), p.548 4 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834 5 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36) 6 Day, Angelique and McWilliams, Patrick ed. ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…vol.3’ (QUB, 1990), p.35 (1835-36) 7 ‘Newry Examiner and Louth Advertiser’, 24 August 1842, p.2 8 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1860 9 PRONI VAL2B/3/61B (1861) 10 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929) 11 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’, (Belfast, 1865- ) 12 ‘Belfast News-Letter, 14 October 1884, p.2 13 ‘Belfast News-Letter, 17 September 1889, p.2 14 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 22 August 1890, p.2 15 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie, accessed 2020.05.19] 16 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1902 17 ‘Belfast Weekly News’, 12 October 1905 18 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 5 October 1915, p.10 19 ‘Northern Whig’, 7 December 1918, p.7 20 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 16 March 1920, p.12 21 ‘Northern Whig’, 21 August 1924, p.6 22 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 16 September 1924, p.4 23 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 7 February 1925, p.1 24 ‘Portadown News’, 17 September 1927, p.7 25 ‘Northern Whig’, 28 September 1927, p.9 26 ‘Portadown News’, 22 October 1927, p.3 27 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 8 August 1931, p.1 28 ‘Northern Whig’, 14 December 1933, p.11 29 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 19 October 1936, p.1 30 ‘Belfast telegraph’, 28 February 1941, p.9 31 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 18 August 1942, p.4 32 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 29 August 1942, p.4 33 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 27 January 1944, p.2 34 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 8 May 1953, p.7 35 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 8 May 1961, p.10 36 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 21 September 1961, p.3 37 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 26 May 1962, p.6 38 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 12 June 1973, p.18 39 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 27 September 1977, p.19 40 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 17 January 1978, p.19 41 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 7 April 1983, p.8 Secondary sources 42 Richard Pierce et al, ‘Take for granted - A celebration of 10 years of historic buildings conservation’, (Belfast, 1984), p.127 43 http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/1133 accessed 2020.06.11 44 http://www.theballards.net/Harshaw/Martin/Diary/Appendix.html accessed 2020.06.10

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Historic Interest

Evaluation

General Comments

Date of Survey