Bellfield

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey with attic detached house with U-shaped outbuildings to rear forming a central yard, built c. 1850 and located on an elevated mature site north of Lurgan Road in Lenaderg. Rectangular plan with projecting porch to front and two-storey return to rear.

Hipped natural slate roof with leaded ridgelines and rectangular chimneystacks having tall terracotta pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves with ornamented fascia and soffits with profiled brackets. Walling is smooth render on plinth with horizontal V-joints below first floor platband; full height pilasters to corners and flanking central bay. Windows are replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash with projecting sills; first floor window to centre at south is tripartite (2/2, 6/6, 2/2); ground floor windows to east and west are full-height multi-paned timber-casements.

The principal elevation faces south-east and is five openings wide. Central entrance porch is set on a three step pediment and comprises a 6/6 window to south with a four-panelled timber door in moulded architrave to each cheek.

The south-west elevation is three openings wide to each floor.

The north-west elevation is abutted at right by a two-storey pitch roofed return (lower). To centre is a pitch roofed dormer to attic with round-arched window and slated cheeks; multi-paned round-arched stairwell window with a 3/6 window directly below to ground floor. To left is a window to ground and first floor (directly over).
Return is abutted at north-west by an adjoining stable block at right-angles; left cheek is five windows wide to first floor (unequally spaced and of various sliding sash designs) and six openings wide at ground floor comprising timber sheeted door with multi-pane square-headed overlight to far left and fifth opening from left, remainder of openings are sliding sash windows of various designs; right cheek has five openings to each floor, multi-pane glazed timber door with multi-pane square-headed overlight to far left, remainder of openings are sliding sash windows of various designs.

The north-east elevation is three openings wide; abutted at right by wall enclosing rear yard.

Setting:

Set on an elevated site in substantial grounds north of the Lurgan Road. Accessed via a curved tree-lined avenue with landscaped garden to front; bounded to road by modern smooth rendered boundary wall with arrow-head railings and square gate piers. Two-storey former stable block and outbuilding enclose a yard to rear; abutted by an L-shaped red-brick former coach house (fully refurbished) and in use as a Day Spa. Modern building constructed to north-west of outbuildings.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Bellfield is a country house built c.1850 on the proceeds of the linen industry which in the early nineteenth century had rendered Banbridge and the surrounding area one of the most important inland manufacturing districts in Ireland. (Rankin) The house and outbuildings are first shown on the second edition OS map of 1860 captioned ‘Belle View’ on a former bleach green associated with Lenaderg House and Milltown.

Bellfield (also known as Belle View and Bellevue) was built c.1850 by John Smyth of Milltown for his cousins the Weirs, who were in business with the Smyths as Smyth, Weir & Co, linen merchants (Rankin; Valuation Records). Weir died in 1856 and the house passed to Robert Hayes and then to John Nicholson who leased the house from John Smyth. Nicholson died in 1862 and the house was bought outright from John Smyth by Anna Maria Mulligan for the sum of £1750. (Griffith’s Valuation) Griffith’s Valuation gives dimensions for the house, porch and return and outbuildings including a coach house, stables and a harness room. The valuation is £55.

The house, described as ‘large and commodious and beautifully situate’ with ‘very extensive’ out-offices, was advertised for sale or rent in the Belfast Newsletter 1869/70 and then passed to a succession of tenants, Henry H K Nicholson (1870) Alex J R Stuart (1871) and James Wallace (1874). The valuation was raised to £58 in 1874 and then reduced to £43 in 1875 when some of the outbuildings were removed from the valuation as ‘the present tenant has no use for offices’. The valuer also commented that the valuation was low and that the situation was ‘very beautiful’, the house and offices costing ‘above £4,000’. By 1884 the tenant was Thomas Dickson of the Hazelbank Weaving Co Ltd, who appears to have known the house as Bellefield and he eventually bought the house in 1913. (Annual Revisions; Rankin) Thomas Dickson retired to England after the First World War leaving the house and business to his son Norman who remained there until his death in 1975. (Rankin)

The 1901 census records the occupants of the first class, fifteen-room house as Thomas Dickson, linen manufacturer from Co Tyrone and his Scottish wife, Agnes who live with their son (10) and daughter (7) and a single domestic servant, a housemaid. By 1911 Thomas and Agnes’s three children had left home and the couple lived with their two domestic servants, a parlourmaid and a cook.

In 1933, now the property of Norman Dickson, the house was revalued at £60 and during the assessment a valuer commented that it was a ‘large old-fashioned type house (not modernised to any considerable extent)’. Electric light was supplied from ‘works’ and it was judged that the house would be difficult to let because of its extensive outbuildings. A plan and dimensions are given showing the house and return and porches to front and rear, outbuildings including a heated glass house. The accommodation comprised 6 bedrooms, 2 receptions, a billiard room, study, bathroom and WC, 2 pantries, a kitchen and scullery. Some of the outbuildings were occupied by the war department in 1941, as was common for the large houses in the area.

Inappropriate external window shutters were removed some time after listing in 1977. The house remains in use as a dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 Third Edition OS Map (?)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/2/9 – Annual Revisions (1930-5)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 – First General Revaluation (1936-57)
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/L/3 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. Belfast Newsletter 20th November 1862
10. Belfast Newsletter 4th August 1869
11. Belfast Newsletter 21st September 1870

Secondary Sources

1. 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
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Bellfield is a three-bay two-storey-with-attic detached house with U-shaped outbuildings to rear forming a central yard, built c. 1850. Well-proportioned, architectural detailing is largely intact with some restoration over the years. With well-preserved detailing, much of the original character has been retained and the setting is largely unspoiled. The outbuildings to rear and former coach-house, despite refurbishment, add to the character and historic interest of the site. The house is a fine example of the type and reflects the history of the linen industry in the area.