Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB19/22/003

Address :
Berwick Hall Hillsborough Road Aughnadrumman Craigavon Co. Down BT67 0HG

Townland:
Aughnadrumman

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
27/06/1980 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
Thatched House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
Yes

Thatched:
Yes

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
183/2

IG Ref:
J1589 6069

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A two storey, four bay, direct entry thatched house with a roughcast and whitened finish to random rubble stone walls. The house faces north-east overlooking a strip of garden, bounded by a low wall, about half a mile along Hillsborough Road from its exit travelling south-east between the Moira roundabout of the M1 Motorway (exit 9) and the village of Moira. There are three entrances. That serving the house is a decorative iron gate hung between square panelled pillars with projecting concave pyramidal cappings. Access to the yard is by means of a flat iron gate hung between circular roughcast pillars with conical cappings. Access to the eastern extremity of the site is open but there remains a flat iron gate hung on a square pillar with projecting pyramidal capping. A similar feature but with more widely projecting capping punctuates the wall a little way to the west. The roof is thatched between cement skews. Three rows of scollops are exposed at the ridge and one at the eaves. Each gable rises to a corbelled chimneystack with two chimney pots and a similar feature over the position of the living room hearth is flaunched at the top. The entrance now with a modern interpretation of a raised and fielded four panel door and surmounted by a rectangular leaded fanlight with applied painted motifs is franked to the left (south-east) by three and to the right by two 6/6 vertically sliding windows with sash stops and narrow sills. In the corresponding positions on the first floor there are six 3/3 vertically sliding windows, including one above the entrance, with sash stops and narrow sills. The right-hand (north-west) gable is lighted at upper level by a pair of small vertically sliding windows with sashes divided vertically into two. A circular pier with conical capping remains at this gable. The left-hand gable has similar windows at high level and with the addition of a pair of larger windows of similar construction to those above lighting the ground floor parlour. The widows at the rear are vertically sliding with sashes divided into two vertically with sash stops and sills of traditional depths. Starting from the right-hand (south-east) corner there are three of these windows and then a timber-sheeted half door with observation panel before coming to a sun lounge with pitched natural slate roof, masonry plinth and plain timber-framed fenestration. This feature serves to provide access from the main house to the barn. There are four windows at upper level of the type described irregularly spaced on the rear elevation. The barn has been converted into living accommodation. The construction is of exposed random rubble construction with plain rendered dressings to the openings and to the half dormers. The windows are vertically sliding with sashes divided vertically into two panes. A sun lounge that abuts the south-west gable with lean-to natural slate roof is of similar construction to the other lounge.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

A sample taken from one of Berwick Hall’s roof timbers has been dated to 1682, suggesting, (if the timber is original and not taken from elsewhere and re-used), that the house could well have been built in this year or shortly afterwards. Moreover, the property’s former front door, (which was removed in the later 1900s, but which is believed to survive today in the Ulster Folk Museum), with its six raised and fielded panels with ‘shouldered and curved tops’ to the upper two, is suggestive of the early 18th century. Apart from this, however, evidence relating to the early history of the building is lacking. The house is shown on the first edition OS map of 1833-34 and marked as ‘Berwick Hall’. In the contemporary valuation records it is noted as a very old thatched property in good condition (quality letter ‘2C+’), with dimensions of 60ft x 24½ x 15 for the house itself, with related thatched and slated ‘offices’ of various ages measuring 84 x 21 x 7½, 24½ x 16 x 6½, 15½ x 21½ x 6, 26½ x 20½ x 11 and 43 x 18½ x 10, as well as a pig sty. The rateable value of £11-13-0 is relatively high for the time. The second valuation repeats much of these findings, with one of the valuers adding the comment ‘neat concern- house old’. From all of this we may deduce that there is a strong certainty that the building was constructed towards the end of the 17th century. The house is said to have been built by the Berwick family (hence ‘Berwick Hall’), but no evidence appears to have been uncovered to confirm this.* At any rate we do know that it was occupied by the Berwicks from 1834 to 1883 at least, with Edward Berwick listed as resident in the 1834 and Mark Berwick in 1861 (with Sir Thomas Bateson as the lessor). In the latter year it was bought by George Wilson, whose [?]wife [?daughter], Sarah acquired the freehold in 1909. Her descendants occupy the property today. *PRONI contains a number of copies of documents relating to the Berwick family, particularly Rev. Edward Berwick (1750-1820), the erstwhile chaplain to the Earl of Moira. Whilst these show the family’s connection with the Moira area, there appear to be no definite
references to this house. According to the Archaeological Survey of County Down Berwick Hall of c.1700 illustrates a type of two storey yeoman’s house which persisted into the 19th century in the English-settled area of the Lagan Valley. On 16 June Consarc reported that some of the original timbers were dated as 1682 by the School of Geosciences, Queen’s University.The dates contained on the report are a few years after 1681 and 1685 +/- 9 years. The 1833 OS map does not show the barn that is now converted or the range of outbuildings at the rear of the house. The 1858 OS map shows the house and the outbuildings similar to the existing. In Alan Gailey’s opinion the earliest surviving 17th century door at the time of writing was at Berwick Hall. It was a fairly thin panelled door which dates from about 1700 with raised fields in the uppermost two panels, which are shouldered with curved tops. He states also that Berwick Hall of about 1700 is of probable British origin but not of hearth-lobby plan. A timber beam in the kitchen that was replaced with an RSJ in 1999 was sawn to size and used on a fireplace. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI VAL/1A/3/13 OS map, County Down sheet 13, with valuation references, (1834-c.38) 2 PRONI VAL/1B/347 First valuation, Moira (1834) 3 PRONI VAL/2A/3/13 Revised OS map, County Down sheet 13, with valuation references, (1859-c.61) 4 PRONI VAL/2B/3/47A Second valuation, Moira (1861) 5 PRONI VAL/12B/21/7A-E Annual valuation revision books, Moira (1864-1929) Secondary sources 1 ‘Archaeological Survey of County Down’ (Belfast, HMSO, 1966), p.354 2 Dixon, Hugh, ‘Introduction to the Architecture of Ulster’ (Belfast, 1975), p.31 3 Brett, C.E.B., Oram, Richard, et al, ‘Lists of Historic Buildings…Craigavon’ (revised edition, Belfast, [?1979]) 4 Gailey, Alan, ‘Rural Houses in the North of Ireland’ (John Donald, Edinburgh, 1984), p.130 5 Brett, C.E.B., ‘The Buildings of North County Down’ (Belfast, 2002), p.147 6 Report by School of Geosciences, QUB to Consarc 16 june 1997. 7 Reports, letters etc in EHS file since date of listing.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form F. Structural System J. Setting

Historic Interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A two storey, four bay, direct entry thatched house with a roughcast and whitened finish to random rubble stone walls including front boundary wall. The building retains a variety of original features or has had them restored to match the early detailing. The roof structure is of paramount interest.The house appears on the 1st. Edition OS of 1833-34 but ther is evidence that it could be much older. Dendrochronological dating of a sample of roof timber gives a date of 1682.This means that if this piece of timber is original and not re-used from elsewhere then the house could have been built in that year or shortly afterwards.

General Comments

Date of Survey

06 January 2001