Dunbarton House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey with attic, three bay early Victorian house built c.1845 possibly to designs by architect Thomas Jackson. Square plan with prostyle tetrastyle porch, bowed bays, rear return, associated outbuildings and conservatory (HB17/01/015F and B). Located at the end of a long sweeping driveway off Dunbarton Street, north west of Gilford village centre.

Hipped natural slate roof with leaded hips, surmounted by a balustraded widows walk surrounding chimney stacks with multiple tall octagonal yellow clay pots. Paired shaped eaves brackets framing soffit paters. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Stucco rendered walling with rusticated channelling to the ground floor; plat band to first floor cill course and frieze course over paired corner pilasters. 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with horns (unless otherwise stated); moulded stucco surrounds with dentilled entablature; painted masonry cills. Prostyle tetrastyle Ionic portico with dentilled entablature surmounted by balcony with cast-iron balustrade; infilled with timber panelled and glazed screens forming enclosed porch; timber panelled entrance door with bolection mouldings; four glazed upper panes and rectangular bipartite overlight.

The principal elevation faces south west and is symmetrically arranged. The central bay comprises the portico with a tri-partite window directly over; flanked by single ground and first floor windows. The tripartite window comprises a 6/6 sliding sash flanked by 2/2 sliding sashes with horizontal glazing bars; panelled timber frame rising to decorative console brackets.

The north west elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Tripartite bowed bay window to ground floor right with curved sashes (2/2,6/6,2/2), replacement console brackets, panelled outer pilasters rising to dentilled entablature surmounted by a cast-iron balustrade. Left of bowed bay is a former window opening altered to accommodate a door with four glazed upper panels over two solid panels, single ground floor window to the left. Four uniformly arranged first floor windows. 3/3 sliding sash gabled dormer window to the right with leaded roof and slated cheeks and roof light to the left. The left is abutted by a double height rendered wall enclosing the rear yard.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Gabled rear return left of centre, two-storey flat roofed abutment to left and single-storey lean-to abutment to right. Bipartite 6/6 ground floor and single first floor to the rear elevation, right of the return. Casement dormer window right of centre; quadripartite roof light to left, diminutive bipartite roof light to right. The return is subservient; lower eaves and ridge level; decorative barge boards; blank gable end; right cheek has a ground floor window to centre and a door and window to far right with a window to centre and right at first floor; left cheek has a 4/4 window to far left, a window left of centre and to right with matching windows directly over to first floor; no ornamentation. The single-storey abutment L-shaped wraparound with lean-to roof and curved corner; variety of windows and doors. Two-storey abutment comprises ground floor four panelled door to right with 1/1 timber sliding sash window to far right and 1/1 timber sliding sash window directly over door to first floor; single ground and first floor windows to the left cheek. Pump to rear.

The south east elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Tripartite bowed bay window to ground floor left with curved sashes (2/2,6/6,2/2), original console brackets, panelled outer pilasters rising to dentilled entablature surmounted by a cast-iron balustrade. Two windows to right of bowed bay. Four uniformly arranged openings to first floor; French doors left of centre to first floor, remaining three are windows. 3/3 sliding sash gabled dormer window to left with leaded roof and slated cheek. The right is abutted by a double height rendered wall enclosing the rear yard.

Setting:

Well maintained mature landscaped grounds to the south and east. Modern entrance with modern squared masonry retaining wall to the south east running parallel to the main road. Modern pillars supporting original relocated gates and pedestrian gates. Sweeping inclining driveway to gravel forecourt addressing the principal elevation. Rear yard accessed by elliptical arch; enclosed by brick and rendered walls and two storey outbuildings to the north east (HB17/01/015F); pitched natural slate roof; rough-cut rubble masonry walling laid to coursed with brick surrounds to openings; brick chimneys; cast-iron rainwater goods; largely replacement windows; partially modified to modern accommodation. A central segmental-arched coach entrance leads into rear cobbled courtyard; two-storey gabled natural slate, red brick stable block to the northwest; largely altered including WW II squash court. Single-storey mono-pitched natural slate red brick stable block to the south east; replacement doors; fixed multi paned lights, chimney left of centre; simple cast-iron water pump adjacent. Enclosed to the north east by a rubble masonry wall with squared brick piers, granite caps; replacement timber sheeted gates. Terraced garden and conservatory (HB17/01/015B) to the south east. Small lean-to red brick shed with fixed multi pane lights, right of conservatory. WWII air raid shelter (HB17/01/015C) to the south.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling : Stucco render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Dunbarton House dates from c.1845 and is thought to be the work of Thomas Jackson who designed a number of houses for wealthy clients in the area. The house was built by Hugh Dunbar (1789-1847), proprietor of the local spinning mill, on a largely vacant plot on the outskirts of Gilford and overlooks the former Dunbar McMaster mill. ‘Dunbarton Ho[use] first appears, captioned, on the second edition OS map of 1858, set in extensive grounds with outbuildings to the rear. By the third edition of 1901-2, the outbuildings have been extended to form a courtyard to the rear of the house and a conservatory has also been added to the south east of the main house.

The history of Gilford in the nineteenth century is inextricably linked with the fortunes of the spinning mill, one of the largest in Ireland in the 1840s and the driver of economic growth and social development in the nineteenth century. Hugh Dunbar was the descendant of a linen family, his grandfather having leased a property at Huntley from the Whyte’s of Loughbrickland, where Hugh was manufacturing thread and his hand-loom weavers produced linen cloth. In 1834 the competition from mill-spun yarns, produced by the new wet-spinning process was such that Dunbar was compelled to start his own spinning mill or go out of business. Dunbar chose Gilford as the centre of his new enterprise and the spinning mill opened in 1839, Dunbar later forming a partnership with John Walsh McMaster of Armagh. (Logan; Rankin) The settlement at Gilford comprising the mill and surrounding housing built by Hugh Dunbar was known as ‘Dunbarton’ and is so captioned on the third edition OS map of 1901-2. The industrial village at ‘Dunbarton’ was one of a number established in Ireland in the early Victorian period, other early examples including Sion Mills and Bessbrook. (Kennedy)

The house has been attributed by Dean to Thomas Jackson on the basis of its stylistic resemblance to Huntly House, Milltown House and Belmont which all date from the 1830s and 40s (Dean). Hugh Dunbar died in 1847, shortly after completing his new mansion and in 1858 John Walsh McMaster bought out Dunbar’s surviving relatives and acquired both the mill and Dunbarton House which was his home from at least 1860. Dunbarton House is first shown, captioned, on the second edition OS map of 1858 and is a large mansion house in substantial grounds with a row of outbuildings to the rear and a formal garden to the south-east. The house is first listed in Griffith’s Valuation as the residence of John Walsh McMaster, valued at £67. Dimensions are given for a 2½ storey house with porch flanked by single storey bays. Eight outbuildings are noted and two gatehouses.

John Walsh McMaster died in 1872 and Dunbarton then passed to McMaster’s eldest son Hugh Dunbar McMaster who was resident in the 22-room mansion at the time of the 1901 census when he was 57. Hugh lived with his Indian-born wife and three daughters aged from 7 to 15. Dunbar McMaster also had at least two sons who had probably been sent away to school, most likely in England. The couple employed a Parisian governess and had a small staff comprising a cook and two housemaids. Interestingly, Dunbar McMaster, himself an Episcopalian, employed a servant from each of the major denominations, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic. In the year of the census, 1901, Dunbar, McMaster & Co was subsumed with the Barbours’ linen business into the Linen Thread Company Limited with production continuing at Gilford until the 1980s. (Rankin)

After Hugh Dunbar McMaster’s death in 1907, Dunbarton House lay vacant for a time and in 1915 it was converted into a hospital for wounded soldiers run by the Ulster Volunteer Force and staffed by the U.V.F’s Nursing Corps. By May 1915 the house was providing beds for 214 patients and in the autumn of 1916 an annex of 30 beds was opened in nearby Bannvale House. (Bowman; Rankin) An illuminated address of thanks, signed by Winston Churchill, was sent to Dunbarton House by the War Office. The last resident to be noted in Annual Revisions was John Archibald Dickie, in 1921 but the house later became the property of John D Barbour, a managing director of the Linen Thread Company, and then the Moodie family, Robert K Moodie succeeding Barbour as managing director of the mill. In the First General Revaluation of 1933/34 the house was revalued at £80 and it was noted that the house was rent free and leased from Dunbar McMaster. A plan and dimensions is given of the house which comprised three receptions, a cloakroom, kitchen, two pantries, a scullery, four bedrooms, two bathrooms with hot and cold water, three servants’ bedrooms and a servants’ bathroom also with hot and cold water. The house made use of the Dunbar McMaster mill’s electricity and water supply. During the Second World War the house was used as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers and an air raid shelter was constructed in the grounds by 297 Company of the Royal Engineers who were stationed in Gilford Castle demesne. The commanding officer of the Company was friendly with Mr Moodie, and his soldiers built the air-raid shelter at the house for the use of patients and staff, and also cleared out a former reservoir for the mill that was situated in the grounds , converting it into a concrete swimming pool. The pool, at the time one of only two in Northern Ireland suitable for hosting international events, was widely used during and for some time after the war, but has now gone. (Higgins)

The house was listed in 1977 and was at the time home to a veterinary surgeon, W. Wallace. The portico to the front facade, which would originally have been open, had already been filled with glazed screens and these have been retained to the present day. In 1994 renovation work was carried out which included repairs to the chimney stacks, a new balustrade and some window renovation. (HB file)

The house remains in private ownership and is in use today as a dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48E – Griffith’s Valuation (c.1861)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/M/3 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
8. 1901 census online
9. 1911 census online
10. HB file

Secondary Sources

1. Bowman, T “Carson’s Army: The Ulster Volunteer Force, 1910-22” Manchester University Press, 2007
2. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
3. Higgins, Beryl "Gilford During The Second World War"
4. Kennedy, L “An Economic History of Ulster 1820-190” Manchester University Press, 1985
5. Logan, R A “A Window on the Past, A History of Gilford County Down” Banbridge Chronicle, (n.d.)
6. 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
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A two-storey with attic, three bay early Victorian house built c.1845 possibly to the designs of Thomas Jackson. A good intact example of a large linen merchant’s house, which was later used as a WWII hospital before returning to a private residence. Its original wooded landscaped setting survives, along with the range of outbuildings and associated structures , including the conservatory (HB17/01/015B) WWII air-raid shelter (HB17/01/015C) and the gate lodges (HB17/01/015D & E). Much historic fabric and good quality detailing survives and it is a good example of the type, among others in this area.

General comments

Previously recorded as HB17/01/015