Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/12/002

Address :
Balleevy House 11 Balleevy Road Balleevy Td Co Down BT32 4LS

Townland:
Balleevey

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
17/05/1976 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
221/6

IG Ref:
J1566 4511

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A symmetrical three-storey over exposed basement three bay Georgian house, built c.1790, located on a secluded woodland site in Ballievey Td, east of Banbridge. L-shaped on plan with double-height return to rear. Double-pile hipped natural slate roof (half-hip only over rear right bay) with angled clay ridge and hip tiles. Half-round cast iron gutters on drive-in brackets over stone eaves. Two central rendered chimneystacks to ridge. Walling is unpainted cement rendered throughout, without ornament. Windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash with horns, in plain reveals with masonry cills, diminishing in height; 3/3 configuration to second floor, 3/6 to basement. Principal elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged, five windows wide, about a central doorcase. It is unclear whether the ground level has been lowered. Main floor accessed by nine sweeping stone steps with slender wrought iron handrail. Classical doorcase, painted white, embraces a six panelled timber door with bolection mouldings and brass door furniture, surmounted by a spiderweb fanlight contained within a broken-bed triangular pediment supported on semi-engaged columns with double-capitals, squared with guttae over circular foliate. North elevation is five windows wide to upper floors. Piano nobile has two windows to left side, right side is lit by a timber framed canted oriel having five 4/4 sashes divided by panelled timber mullions. Basement has a modern door inserted to centre. Rear elevation projects to right side, which is abutted at basement and ground floor level by a double-height return with hipped slate roof, detailed as house, with lean-to porch to left cheek at basement level. Central bay is lit by a window to half-landing level at each floor, that to first floor landing is round-headed. Right bay is lit to second floor only. Return has irregular fenestration including a circular pivot window; the porch is accessed via a timber sheeted door with multi-light panel. South elevation is two windows wide; piano nobile windows are 1/1 sashes. Glazed door to basement left. Setting The house is set in extensive wooded grounds, well concealed from the road with open aspect over countryside towards Banbridge to west. Gravel forecourt accessed by a long sweeping unpaved avenue bounded by woodland and the River Bann to north side. Courtyard to rear bounded on two sides by an L-shaped two-storey limewashed random rubblestone outbuilding with corrugated metal roof. Painted timber louvred openings and timber sheeted doors to courtyard facing elevations. The south elevation of the outbuilding faces an orchard and garden, and is exposed rubble stone, extended to right by a secondary outbuilding which bounds a further yard to rear. To this elevation, windows are metal framed to ground floor, and multi-paned timber to first floor; some are lined in brick. The east elevation of the outbuilding range overlooks a secondary yard, accessed by an open entry with cobbled floor. Exposed rubble stone and vestiges of timber windows and doors; internally roof is supported on pegged timber trusses, and there are vestiges of timber animal stalls. Remains of other stone and brick outbuildings, and later industrial structures, including remains of a brick building at low level, screened by undergrowth, and the remains of a two storey rubble stone flour mill (IHR:0775300000) to eastern fringe of site. The rear yard is also bounded by a lime-rendered single-storey with attic vernacular style building, altered and of little interest. Rear yard accessed from Ballievey Road via a modern gate on roughly dressed stone piers. Adjacent, bounding the river to north, is the former bleach mill, now converted for use as a house (IHR:0314400000). Roof: slate Walling: render Windows: Timber RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Balleevy House was constructed in the late 18th century and is first depicted on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1833 as a square-shaped building situated along the Bann river and captioned ‘Balleevy House;’ this map also shows that the L-shaped outbuilding to the north of the house had been constructed at this time, as well as an additional similar shaped out office to south-east of the dwelling (that has since been greatly expanded and altered). The northern-most outbuilding was originally a beetling mill belonging to the Crawford family, local Linen Merchants and Bleachers (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, p. 125; Ulster Town Directories). The Townland Valuations (c.1830) note that Balleevy House and its mill were jointly valued at £47 and occupied by both Mr George and Thomas Crawford. By the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1860 there had been a modification to the site as the map records that the extension had been added to the rear of Balleevy House linking the dwelling to the outbuilding that had formerly stood to the south-east of the house. This alteration work resulted in the increase of the value of the house and it’s out offices to £60 in Griffith’s Valuation of c. 1862. The valuer noted that occupation of Balleevy House had passed to Miss Olivia Crawford (widow of George Crawford) who owned the property outright; Crawford also owned a number of other small properties in the townland which she let out to a number of tenants. Olivia Crawford resided at Balleevy House with her brother-in-law Thomas Crawford and his wife Anne, however they both died in the 1870s (PRONI Wills). There was little change to Balleevy House over the next two decades although there was a slight decrease in the value of the site in 1864 to £55 although the reason for this decrease was not noted in the Annual Revisions. Olivia Crawford continued to reside at Balleevy House until her death in 1883 at which time she left her ‘land, houses, mills and premises’ to her son George Crawford (PRONI Wills). George Crawford remained at Balleevy House for nearly thirty years. The 1901 Census recorded that Crawford (60, Presbyterian) resided at the site with his wife Isabella and their two daughters; the census building return described Balleevy House as a large 1st class dwelling that consisted of 21 rooms and possessed a large number of farm buildings (mostly located in the outbuildings to the rear of the house) including two stables, a dairy, two barns and a boiling house. The farm mainly supplied beef and milk, George Crawford possessed 14 cow houses and five calf houses; however by 1911 the number of farm buildings recorded in that year’s return was significantly less with only four cow houses and a single calf house noted. This change was likely an enumerator’s error or perhaps simply a reorganisation of the farm as there was no change in the valuation of the site during this period. George Crawford died in 1911 leaving possession of Balleevy House and its associated property to his wife Isabella who continued to live there for another decade. By 1921 Balleevy House had passed into the possession of Frederick, Robert and Samuel McCaw whom the valuation sources state resided there together until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929. Rankin states that there had been a bleach works and beetling mill on the site from the mid-eighteenth century which was in possession of the Crawford family from at least 1763 when a Mr. Gilbert Crawford was occupant. The house itself is believed to have been constructed in 1784 as the date is carved in a room within the building. The Crawford’s were an important linen manufacturing family who were based around Banbridge and possessed a number of historically significant dwellings which include Millmount House (HB17/04/017) and Ballyvalley House (HB17/04/009). Gilbert Crawford’s son George Crawford originally constructed the house at Balleevy; in 1808 George’s daughter Catherine married John Lindsay of Tullyhenan House (HB17/13/006) creating a union between the two principal linen families in the area which later manifested in the firm of Crawford & Lindsay, merged with the Ballydown Weaving Co. In 1822 and continued to operate as one of Banbridge’s most important textile companies until the decline of the industry in the aftermath of the First World War. Balleevy House was occupied by Walter Crawford in 1817; however in 1827 he put the house up for sale in order to emigrate to Canada. The house and its mill were either not sold, or found their way back into family hands, as in the 1830s Walters brothers, George and Thomas Crawford, were in possession of the site and operated the Balleevy mill as well as their own mills in the townland of Ballydown. Balleevy House remained in the possession of the Crawford family until the 1920s and in the early 1940s Dr. W. Haughton Crowe, a headmaster of Banbridge Academy (ref Edenderry House HB17/04/014) purchased the site (Rankin, pp 29-32). Balleevy House was listed in 1976 and continues to be occupied as a private dwelling; the two-storey outbuildings to the south-east of the dwelling survive. References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833 2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1860 3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1918 4. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/27 – Townland Valuation map 1833 5. PRONI VAL/1/B/366 – Townland Valuation c. 1830 6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64A – Griffith’s Valuation c. 1862 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A – Annual Revisions 1864-1874 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6C – Annual Revisions 1874-1884 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6E – Annual Revisions 1885-1894 10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6F – Annual Revisions 1895-1906 11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6G – Annual Revisions 1906-1914 12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6H – Annual Revisions 1915-1929 13. PRONI Wills Catalogue (18 Nov 1872; 23 Apr 1879; 19 Aug 1883; 31 May 1911) 14. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down III Vol. 12 (1834) 15. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911) 16. Ulster Street Directories (1843-1918) 17. First Survey Record – HB17/12/002 (1971) 18. Ordnance Survey map – 221-6 (1974) Secondary Sources 1. Rankin, K., ‘The linen houses of the Bann Valley: The story of their families’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007).

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

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Balleevey House is a substantial symmetrical mid-Georgian house, having three bays and four floors including piano nobile over exposed basement and with later extensions to rear. Elegantly proportioned and plainly detailed, ornamentation is restricted to the classical doorcase. Of an early aspect, and enhanced by its setting of orchards, terraced lawn and farm buildings, as well as elements of industrial heritage that add to its historic context. The ground level appears to have been lowered at some point, exposing the basement and this affects the historic proportions somewhat but is of interest as a historic development. Ballievey House is fine example of the type in original condition and represents the historical development of the area and the linen industry.

General Comments

Date of Survey

23 January 2012