Conservatory

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An elongated single storey multi bay conservatory built c.1890; located to the west of the main house (HB/17/01/015A) abutting the walled yard and outbuildings.

Timber framed lean-to and hipped glazed roofing; single span rafters supported on timber wall-plates; each bay comprising four strips of lapped glazed sheets; high-level glazed casement vents. Tripartite glazed windows with masonry cills on smooth rendered plinth; central casement pivot hinge window to every other bay. Cast-iron rainwater goods throughout. Replacement uPVC double doors.

The principal elevation faces southeast and is symmetrically arranged; enlarged hipped roofed semi-octagonal bay flanked by matching six bay lean-to wings.

The left gable is glazed; single timber door with margin-paned upper glazed panel, to the left. (See surveyors notes)

The rear elevation comprises a smooth render double height wall which encloses the rear courtyard to the main house (HB/17/01/015A).

The right gable mirrors left gable.

Setting:

Immediately to the front of the conservatory is a small private garden enclosed on all sides; beyond which are extensive landscaped grounds. To the rear of the building complex are outbuildings and stables associated to the main house (HB/17/01/015A), all in close proximity.

Roofing: Glazed
Walling: Glazed
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The conservatory at Dunbarton House is first shown on the OS map edition dating from 1901-2. The structure is not listed in valuation records but field inspection suggests a late nineteenth century date. The conservatory was constructed as part of improvements carried out to Dunbarton House towards the end of the nineteenth century by Hugh Dunbar McMaster.

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) 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 into the Linen Thread Company Limited with production continuing at Gilford until the 1980s.

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 being proprietor 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.

The conservatory at Dunbarton House was listed in 1993, at which time the structure was in need of repair and the south west section had been demolished. The missing wing was replaced in 1994. (HB file)

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
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An elongated single storey multi bay conservatory built c.1890. Erected some time after the house (HB/17/01/015A), the conservatory forms an integral part of the group of ancillary structures and surrounding landscape. Surviving a good example of the type, it has largely remained unaltered, retaining its essential character and historic fabric, although some replacement detracts slightly from its integrity.