Strathmore

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively large, somewhat sprawling, but generally plain two to three-storey house which assumed its present form in 1874 when an existing dwelling of probable mid-18th century construction was enlarged and remodelled, probably to designs by architect William James Watson of Newry.

The surveyors only had access (at a distance) to the frontage of this property, and consequently what follows is a partial survey.

SETTING The house is set within leafy surrounds to the E of Horner’s Lane, within the southern ‘suburbs’ of Rostrevor, roughly 0.23km S of the village centre. To the immediate N of the property are three closely grouped houses (nos.7, 7A and 9) which front on to Horner’s Lane, with another (no.3) further to the W/NW. To the S, E and W is an extensive, wooded area, which is bounded relatively close by to the E by the Rostrevor / Kilbroney River.

GENERAL The building has a complex asymmetric planform, reflecting the two stages of its construction. The main, original, 2-storey gabled block is set roughly on E-W (actually NW-SE) axis, with the main entrance, which is within a projecting porch, facing S. To the W end of the rear of this is a full-height double-pile return, with the western pile having a hipped roof. To the E end there is a large N-S wing, which is 2-storey and gable-fronted to the south, but which is taller to the N; this appears to be in part at least due to the rise in ground level, however, this part of the building also appears to contain an attic storey. Branching off to the E of this taller section there is a large gabled projection of the same height.

WALLS and ROOF The walls appear to be completely finished in painted roughcast with smooth render ‘quoins’. The roof is covered in natural slate with tall, rendered, chimneystacks and plain bargeboards. The projection to the E has exposed rafter ends, whilst to the south side of the (taller) section to the N there is a small multi-sided dormer with a hipped roof. RW goods appear to be cast-iron.

WINDOWS and DOORS The window openings that could be observed were all flat-headed with bevelled reveals, painted stone cills, and plain 1/1 timber sash frames. Many of those openings to the front of the original section noticeably narrower. Of the doorways, only the main entrance could be seen clearly. This consists of a panelled timber door, set within a typically High Victorian Gothic style timber porch, similar to those seen in the (other) houses designed by William James Watson in Horner’s Lane.

FRONT (S) ELEVATION Only this elevation could be seen in its entirety. Asymetric arrangement. Entrance roughly to centre. To far left is a full-height canted bay with three windows to each floor and a hipped roof. To left of this on the ground floor is a window, then the entrance porch, with another window to right of this. To right is a full-height gabled projection (then end of the N-S wing) with a window to the ground floor. To the first floor, right of the canted bay, there are four windows with another to the gabled bay at right.

W ELEVATION This consists of the W side of the rear return and (to right) the gable of the original block. It could not be seen in its entirety, but there appears to be a window to the first floor of the return.

E ELEVATION This is made up of the side of the N-S wing. To far left there is a full-height canted, as that to front. To immediate right of this is the gable of the projection, but beyond this the elevation could not be seen. There appears to be a doorway / French window to the S-facing side of the gabled projection.

N (REAR) ELEVATION This could not be seen at all, but would appear to consist of the gable of the N-S wing to fer left, with the double-pile return to far right.

Historical information

The area of Rostrevor immediately west of the Kilbroney River in the vicinity on the present Horner’s Lane, was formerly known as ‘Mill Vale’ or ‘Mill Bank’, the name deriving from the one-time presence of a corn mill, which according to the OS memoirs of 1836, was ‘a slated house in good repair...built about 1760’. The mill is shown on the OS map of 1833 as a long, roughly rectangular structure with two other blocks of similar size and shape to the south and west, the former the miller’s dwelling house, the other an outbuilding. In the 1835 valuation the house is noted as a relatively old, slated structure measuring 44ft x 22 x 16, with the mill itself consisting of sections amounting to 17 x 24 x 22 and 44 x 24 x 17, a corn kiln of 16 x 17 x 12, and an ‘office’ (the outbuilding) of 64 x 17 x 13 – all of similar age as the house. As the Memoirs suggest, all these structures may have been of c.1760, although there appears to be no evidence to confirm this. No buildings are indicated in this part of the settlement on the 1767 map, although admittedly this map, (drawn-up by the Downshire estate show the line of the then new road from ‘Eight Mile Bridge’), is not particularly detailed.

In 1819 the mill was in the hands of a Samuel Wilson, who remained there - leasing it from Rev. James Anderson, then Chaplain of Warrenpoint - until at least 1836. At some point before c.1860 the complex was split between a number of tenants, with the dwelling house in possession of Miss Jane Mayne by this date, Isaac Scott holding the mill and Mary Souter occupying another residence on the site that appears to have been created out of the outbuilding to the west. The dimensions for the house quoted in the 1861 are similar to those recorded previously, although by this point a single-story return of 5yds x 4 and single-storey outbuilding of 6 x 4 had been added to the rear (north) and eastern side of the building respectively.

Rev James Anderson died in 1869 and at some point before 1872 the entire Mill Vale plot was acquired (either on a long lease or on freehold – it is not clear) by Edward Greer (1832-1912) of Moygannon who set about its redevelopment. Almost immediately he commissioned architect William James Watson of Newry to work on a new terrace of four Gothic Style dwellings at the northern limit of the site (‘Avoca Terrace’ – of which only two were built), demolished the mill and reclaimed the adjacent mill pond, and erected a new house in similar red brick Gothic – ‘The Willows’ - in their stead. At the same time, he created the present ‘Strathmore’ by extending and remodelling the former miller’s dwelling, adding the large wing to the east-northeast, the returns to the north, the canted bays and the porch, a valuer’s annotation of 1873 recording the ‘east wing’ as 8yds x 5 x 23ft, the ‘north wing’ 5yds x 11 x 23ft, a ‘stable’ of 6yds x 8 x 23ft and ‘coach house’ of 8yds x 8 x 15ft. The detailing to the porch suggests that W.J. Watson may also have been responsible for this scheme, and indeed there is an entry in the ‘Irish Builder’ in September 1872 that refers to a tender being awarded to one Rantin for ‘alterations to a house at Rostrevor…for Edward Greer…Mr. W. James Watson C.E., architect’.

This new much grander residence was completed in 1874 and leased to Francis Horner (b.c.1818), the then agent for the Newry Branch of the Bank of Ireland, who, in 1886, added a gate lodge at the entrance to the west of the property. In the 1901 census return notes that the house was a ‘1st Class’ dwelling consisting of 14 rooms with 9 outbuildings (to the immediate north and west) which was occupied by the 83yr-old Horner along with his widowed daughter, Anna Kirk Liddell (b.c.1859), her three daughters, as well as a governess and four servants.

Horner died c.1908-09 and the property passed to Mrs Liddell who in 1911 leased it to an Amy Lloyd, and then, in 1916, to William Chambre [possibly one of the Chambre family of Hawthorn Hill, Killevy.] Mary Chambre (William’s widow) is listed as the occupant from 1926, and seems to have remained there until her death in October 1945. The ‘very desirable and attractive residence [with] 3 reception, 5 bedrooms, bathroom, servants’ room, kitchen, pantries etc. was to let a few weeks afterwards. It does not appear to have found a tenant, however, and was offered for sale the following April, the sale advert also mentioning ‘extensive fruit & vegetable gardens, greenhouses, pleasure grounds, gate lodge [within which was a sitting-room, kitchen, and 2 bedrooms], field, tennis court, lawns and rose gardens…two large greenhouses, potting-house…enclosed yard with garage and ample out-offices.’

The sequence of ownership / occupation after this is not clear, but a Mr. and Mrs. George Harris appear to have been in residence from at least late 1949 until c.1958. Dr. and Mrs. M. McVerry were living here in late 1966; the property remains with their descendant although it is no-longer occupied.

References - Primary sources
1 PRONI T1763/2 Map of County Down by Oliver Sloane, 1739
2 HERoNI Map of County Down by James Kennedy, 1755
3 PRONI D671/M7/2 Map of Rostrevor and surrounding lands, 1767
4 ‘A Map of the County of Down…by James Williamson, (1810)
5 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1834
6 PRONI VAL1B/361 (1835-36)
7 Day, Angelique and McWilliams, Patrick ed. ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…vol.3’ (QUB, 1990), p.35 (1835-36)
8 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861)
9 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929)
10 ‘Irish Builder’, 15 September 1872
11 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie, accessed 2020.06.30]
12 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’, (Belfast, various dates 1877- )
13 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1919
14 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 23 October 1945, p.1
15 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 21 December 1945, p.1
16 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 17 April 1946, p.1
17 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 8 December 1949, p.1
18 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54, 1950
19 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 16 September 1955, p.2
20 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 10 October 1966, p.3
21 OS map, sheet 277, 1979

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A relatively large, somewhat sprawling, but generally plain two to three-storey house which assumed its present form in 1874 when an existing dwelling of probable mid-18th century construction was enlarged and remodelled, probably to designs by architect William James Watson of Newry. This is an unusual building with an interesting history, having started out as the miller's residence associated with a nearby corn mill, and is an interesting palimpsest, the original Georgian section easily discerned from the Victorian additions, with the whole largely intact externally.