RANFURLY HOUSE,

The Department's description

Historical information

A building of slightly larger plan is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834. In the valuation of the October 1835 this is noted as a ‘new’ house of 44ft x 39 x 22, with 8½ft high basement storey ‘four-fifths a dwelling one-fifth as stores’, two ‘return[s] as dwelling[s]’ measuring 27 x 7½ x 7½ and 50 x 18 x 16, offices on the ‘opposite side of wall’ (seemingly to the west of the house) of 18 x 13 x 6 and 41 x 11 x 6 and to the rear, a large ‘garden and pleasure ground’ and a ‘large hot house’. This would appear to be the same house as present, with the larger planform as shown on the OS map accounted for by the presence of the returns. It is likely that the latter two sections were demolished at some point before 1838-39, as they are are not shown on the amended valuation town plan that was produced at this time.

The property is recorded at this point as the residence of ‘Lady Lifford’, that is Lady Mary Hewitt (nee Acheson), who had married James Hewitt (1811-87, 4th Viscount Lifford from 1855) just a few months prior to this. James’s grandfather (the Rt Hon. James Hewitt (1750-1831), 3rd Viscount Lifford), is recorded as residing at Arno’s Vale just outside Rostrevor in 1819, whilst he was Dean of Down [see HB16.06.058]; so the family had associations with the village from at least that time. It is possible that this house was built as residence for the newly-married couple just shortly before their wedding, a date which would tie-in with the style of the building and the fact that the valuers regarded it as ‘new’ in 1835. The first survey report of December 1969 suggested that the design may be the work of William Vitruvius Morrison. Morrison had worked in the Rostrevor area in the mid-to later 1820s on the Ross Monument (completed 1826 -see HB16.06.063) and Carpenham house (1826-27, see HB16.06.061) and the building’s Gothick details show affinities with his other designs; however, there appears to be no documentary evidence to link him with it.

The property is mentioned as among Rostrevor’s ‘several good houses’ in the OS Memoirs of 1836. The Hewitts were still occupying it at this stage, but by 1837, Thomas Knox, 1st Earl of Ranfurly (1754-1840), was living there and had named the house ‘Ranfurly Villa’. An advertisement of late 1842 for ‘a house in Rostrevor, partially furnished, containing parlour and drawing room, five bed-rooms and good servants’ parts…’, all for £50 per year, would appear to be a reference to the property. By at least 1851 it was in possession of Mrs. Louisa Anna Pollard (nee Pakenham).

In the 1861 valuation the house is described having a ‘very superior style and finish’ with ‘good basement and beautiful grounds’. The ‘returns’ recorded in 1835 are not referred to, however, a conservatory of 16yds x 16? x 1[storey] is mentioned, along with an outbuilding (located to the west) of 16 x 6 x 2.

In 1871 (according to the valuations) it was let by the Walter James Pollard to Captain J.H. Thompson, with Isabella C. Blakeley living there the following year, with Abraham Wilson noted as tenant in 1876.

In 1877 the house and grounds were acquired Francis Charles Needham, Viscount Newry (3rd Earl of kilmorey from 1880), in order to allow the construction of the Warrenpoint and Rostrevor Tramway, a project in which he was the prime mover. The subsequent construction the tramline / road (present Shore Road) just west of the house, lead to the loss of the outbuildings to this side and part of the garden. The house itself was thereafter leased to Hill Charles Moore, passing to Edith Moore in 1883. In 1884 Viscount Kilmorey sold the Tramway, and by at least 1892 the lease of Ranfurly Villa had been acquired by John Quin Henry who sublet it to Margaret Barbara Orme. In the 1901 census Mrs. Orme, a 60yr-old widow, was occupying the house with a single domestic servant, with the building itself a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 14 rooms in use.

In 1911 ‘this desirable residence…which has every accommodation for a gentleman’s family’ was let to Miss Alice Sarah Hall. In 1939 the property is recorded in the valuation book as vacant, and would seem to have remained so until a Colonel Whyte took up the lease in 1948, with Dorothy Whyte listed as the tenant from 1950 to 1956. In the early 1960s the building appears to have been subdivided into three flats and was still as such in 1972. The property appears to have been vacant since at least 2009.

MARY STREET - WARRENPOINT ROAD This thoroughfare on the western side of Rostrevor lies along the original route between Kilkeel and Newry, and by the late 1760s it had come to form the western end of the village’s main northeast-southwest axis. A large house is shown in this general vicinity on James Kennedy’s map of 1755, and although the scale of the map makes it difficult to draw any conclusions as to the actual location of this building, it may relate to the fact that the present ‘Old Hall’ (see HB16.06.055A) takes its name from a pre-1800 mansion that is said to have stood on or close to this site. It is possible that this older house may equate to either the ‘castle’ built by Edward Trevor in 1611-12, or that (presumably earlier), said to have belonged to Rory Magennis, that stood ‘near the centre of the town between the main street and the shore’.

The south-eastern corner of Mary Street is shown developed on a 1767 estate map, with buildings at the opposite junction with present Green Park Road and several more scattered structures along the southern side of the street depicted on James Williamson’s map of 1810 and on the OS map of 1834. The extent of development did not expand much beyond this until the 1960s, when the housing schemes to the north were created with the equally large schemes to the south following around the turn of the 21st century. Long before this, in 1877, what is now Shore Road was cut to the south of Mary Street in order to carry the Warrenpoint and Rostrevor Tramline. This horse-drawn service ran approximately three miles from Warrenpoint railway station to Rostrevor Quay. It was operated from July 1877 until January 1915, when a combination of falling revenue and damage sustained in a recent storm lead to its closure.

References - Primary sources
1 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834
2 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36)
3 ‘Newry Telegraph’, 24 November 1842, p.1
4 ‘Newry Telegraph’, 28 March 1850, p.3
5 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1860
6 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
7 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie [Accessed 12.08.2020]
8 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 9 November 1905, p.1
9 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 24 February 1911, p.2
10 12 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
11 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 12 February 1932, p.9
12 PRONI VAL3C/4/23, 1936-57
13 ‘Northern Whig’, 22 July 1937, p.1
14 13 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
15 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 10 April 1950, p.4
16 PRONI VAL4B/3/81, 1956-72
17 OS map, sheet 277, 1979

Secondary sources
18 ‘Archaeological survey of County Down’, (HMSO, Belfast, 1966), p.434
19 McCutcheon, W.A, 'The industrial archaeology of Northern Ireland', (HMSO Belfast, 1980), p.163