Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/03/043

Address :
Lisnabrague Lodge Scarva Co Down BT63 6NR

Townland:
Lisnabrague

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
14/10/1975 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:
237/2

IG Ref:
J0708 4147

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

An asymmetrical two-storey four-bay detached house over semi-basement, built c.1770, with nineteenth-century alterations and extensions, and an attached farmyard. Rectangular plan with two-storey projecting bays to east and nineteenth-century return to north. Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles and raised masonry verges; rectangular roughcast rendered chimneystacks. uPVC rainwater goods. Walling is roughcast render with quoins; rear is partially slate-hung. Windows are uPVC replacements in smooth rendered surrounds with masonry sills; metal casements to return. The principal elevation faces west and is five openings wide to each floor. To right of centre at ground floor is a recessed entrance in elliptical-arched opening accessed by a single step, comprising raised-and-fielded ten panel timber door surmounted by fanlight having cusped and pointed glazing. Sidelights are flanked by ¾ engaged Ionic columns on pedestals and surmounted by an entablature. The north gable is blank; abutted at left by a return. The east (rear) elevation is abutted by a two-storey hip roofed return to left and a two-storey hip roofed return to right with ridge line parallel to main block. Central bay has a window at ground (right) and first floor (left) (first floor walling clad in natural slate). Left return comprises a uPVC replacement Venetian window to first floor right (first floor walling partly clad in natural slate); left cheek has two windows to first floor (boarded), uPVC window to ground floor right and replacement door to ground floor left (ground floor walling partly clad in natural slate); steps at left lead to basement; right cheek not viewed. Right return comprises a window to first floor left; modern uPVC door with sidelights to ground floor left and two narrow windows to ground floor right (first floor walling partly clad in natural slate); left cheek blank; right cheek abutted to north range. The south gable has a window to ground floor and first floor right. Setting Situated on a large mature site overlooking Lough Shark; accessed via a long tree-lined avenue from Bann Road. Variety of two-storey outbuildings to rear around a central yard; those to south have been fully refurbished and are in use as accommodation. Walled garden to south is lawned with a variety of mature trees and bounded by a tall rubble stone wall; modern single-storey bungalow and a variety of modern agricultural sheds to east. The entrance is located to south, comprising rubble stone boundary wall and ashlar gate piers with moulded caps. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Render Windows: uPVC replacements RWG: uPVC

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Lisnabrague Lodge dates from c.1770, and is shown captioned ‘Union Lodge’, the residence of Dawson Esq, on Taylor and Skinner’s 1777 map of the Irish road network. The Dawsons were relatives of the linen-producing Christy family who are credited with having brought linen production to the Banbridge area. William Dawson formed a partnership with John and Joseph Christy in the Christy and Dawson bleachworks at Millpark and Springvale, which was active in the early nineteenth century. Elmfield house (HB17/01/034A) later became the Dawson family home. (Rankin) Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the house changed hands and in 1786 ‘Union Lodge’ is mentioned in a Georgian travel guide, ‘The Post-Chaise Companion’ which records it as the seat of ‘Mr Fivey’ close to Scarva House. Captain William Fivey was a Volunteer and Aghaderg parish church preserves colours owned by Fivey and presented to the ‘Loughbrickland Loyalists’ Corps of Volunteers when he resigned his command in 1781. By the time of the United Irish rebellion the occupier of the house was John Fivey. Fivey was involved in assisting the military in March 1797, giving them accommodation in Union Lodge and helping them to search houses around Scarva for arms and ammunition. A letter from Lord Downshire to John Reilly of Scarva survives in which he enquires whether Reilly thinks, “Fivey’s house [is] strong enough to protect the army that are lodged with him in case of any attack being made upon it?”. (PRONI) By 1828 the house was the home of a second William Fivey, who appears in April of that year in the pages of the Belfast Newsletter as the victim of a burglary. The burglars entered through a pantry window and stole ‘two silver goblets, a silver tun-dish, three glass decanters, and a writing desk containing £7 and some silver coins’. Suspects were apprehended and brought to trial, having told witnesses that one of the decanters had been hidden in ‘the race to Mr Fivey’s mill’, but were subsequently acquitted. The house is shown, captioned ‘Union Lodge’ on the first edition OS map of 1834 as a dwelling house of similar plan form to today with ranges of outbuildings around a rear courtyard. The outbuildings extended further forwards than they do today and have been partly demolished/altered by the second edition of 1860. The house overlooks ‘Lough Shark’ and formal gardens adjoin the buildings to north and south. A ‘corn mill and kiln’ associated with a mill race are captioned to the south of Union Lodge. The mill and mansion, and the Fivey family, are mentioned a number of times in OS Memoirs. Fivey is noted to be the most extensive resident proprietor after Reilly of Scarva. His ancestor, also William Fivey, is said to have drained nearby Loughadian lake c.1750, suggesting that the family were resident in the area from at least this date. The water wheel at the corn mill is said to have been built in 1800 and is 14 feet in diameter, the machinery is all wood and there is one pair of stones. The Townland Valuation (1828-40) lists the buildings as a house and offices valued at £28.13s. Dimensions are given for the house and two returns, together with two 2-storey slated outbuildings and a cellar. Some years later in 1851, tragedy hit the Fivey family when William Fivey, stated to be a gentleman of independent means, accompanied his niece and a young woman with whom he had had a child and to whom he was about to be married, Margaret Anne Minnis, to a hotel in Dublin where Minnis subsequently fell or jumped from a window and was killed. (Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser) By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1858-64) ‘Union Lodge’ was the home of medical doctor William Saunderson and was a ‘house, offices, corn mill, kiln and land’ with buildings valued at £60. The building is situated in over 177 acres of land. In 1885 the house was taken over by Andrew McElvaine and the valuation reduced to £40.5s because the corn mill and kiln were taken out of the valuation and listed separately at £16. The second edition OS map (1860) shows that a second corn mill, kiln and mill pond have been constructed north of the first, and both mill complexes are captioned. In 1891 the valuation is reduced to £35.5s. No reason is given and the reduction may have been the result of an appeal. In 1901 the census records Scottish-born Andrew McElvaine, farmer and land valuer, in residence with his wife and four children, together with three servants, a cook, a nurse and a ‘cattle man and farm servant’. The house is of the first class and has thirteen rooms and 17 outbuildings including two stables and three cow houses. By 1911 he is the head of a family of seven surviving children, one of whom is not at home. The family employs a governess, a general domestic and a farm servant from County Louth. The McElvaines remained in the house until 1938 when the house was taken over by Joseph Johnston. In 1934 the house was revalued under the First General Revaluation at £32.10s for the house and £12.5s for ancillary agricultural buildings. The house, described as a ‘large residence, substantially built and in fair condition’ comprised 6 bedrooms, 3 receptions, a bathroom and combined WC, a kitchen, pantry and scullery. In 1949 the house became the home of Major-General F G Beaumont-Nesbitt (1893-1971) who appears to have changed the name to ‘Lisnabrague Lodge’ and it is thus captioned on the map edition dating from the 1960s/70s. Major-General Beaumont-Nesbitt had an Anglo-Irish background and was the son of E J D Beaumont-Nesbitt of Tuberdaly, County Offaly. (www.peerage.com) His military career in the Grenadier Guards was most distinguished and he was decorated with the Military Cross. He was also awarded the CBE (Commander, Order of the British Empire) and CVO (Commander, Royal Victorian Order). Beaumont-Nesbitt was Director of Military Intelligence after the outbreak of the second world war (1939-40), and then served on the General Staff of the British Army in Washington DC and the Middle East, North African and Italy between 1941 and 1945. He was ADC to King George VI from 1944-45, and retired at the end of the war in 1945, but became Gentleman Usher to the Queen from 1959-67. A memoir survives that covers his early life and career including his time at Eton and Sandhurst and his experiences in France during the 1914-18 war. (Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London) Two of the outbuildings to the south of the main house were remodelled into dwellings in 1951, providing accommodation for Beaumont-Nesbitt’s land steward and another employee. The houses were valued at £13.10s and £11 respectively, the former being a three-bedroom parlour house and the latter a smaller, two-bedroom house. The garden at Lisnabrague Lodge is featured in the ‘Parks and Gardens UK’ database. The site is described as ‘denuded…with a lime avenue and a walled garden with garden house.’ The house continues in use as a dwelling. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/33/1 First Edition OS Map 1834 2. PRONI OS/6/3/33/2 Second Edition OS map 1860 3. PRONI OS/6/3/33/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903 4. PRONI OS/6/3/33/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18 5. PRONI VAL/1/B/351 Townland Valuation (1828-40) 6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/22A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929) 8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/3 – First General Revaluation (1936-57) 9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/S/4 – First General Revaluation (1933-57) 10. PRONI D607/E/174 – Lord Downshire to John Reilly Scarva 11th March 1797 11. PRONI D607/E/193 – John Fivey to Lord Downshire 15th March 1797 12. PRONI D607/E/204 – Lord Downshire to John Reilly 18th March 1797 13. Wilson, W “The Post-Chaise Companion or Travellers Directory through Ireland” Dublin, 1786 14. Belfast Newsletter 4th April 1828 15. Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser 13th January 1851 16. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Vol. 12.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1992. Secondary Sources 1. Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London (collection index at www.aim25.ac.uk) 2. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007 3. www.parksandgardens.ac.uk 4. www.peerage.com

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Lisnabrague Lodge, formerly Union Lodge, is an asymmetrical two-storey four-bay eighteenth-century detached house, with nineteenth-century alterations and extensions. The setting survives and, although the outbuildings have been modified and refurbished, the surviving courtyard arrangement adds to the historic interest of the site. Although its character has been compromised by the insertion of modern uPVC windows and other modifications, the impression of a prosperous farmhouse survives, its age is of note and Lisnabrague Lodge is a good example of the type.

General Comments

Date of Survey

01 January 2011