Bovenett House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An asymmetrical four-bay two-storey-with-attic early eighteenth century detached house, located to the west of Scarva Road in the centre of Loughbrickland. Rectangular plan with L-shaped two-storey projecting bay to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks with tall terracotta pots (that to south is a replacement) and three decorative pinnacles on plinths to front. Cast-iron ogee gutters on ovolo moulded eaves course with uPVC rainwater pipes. Walling is roughcast render on a smooth rendered plinth. Windows are replacement timber sliding sash (mainly 4/4) with exposed boxes and projecting sills; narrow 4/4 sidelight windows flanking entrance door.

The principal elevation faces north-east and is asymmetrically arranged, having six aligned windows to first and ground floor (windows to far left are more widely spaced). Timber raised-and-fielded six-panel door with brass door furniture slightly off-centre, flanked by sidelights and accessed via three granite steps.

The south-east gabled has a diminutive window to left at attic; 6/6 window to ground floor centre.

The rear (south-west) elevation is abutted to centre by the two-storey L-shaped projecting catslide bay. Window to ground and first floor left. To right, first floor has a paired 6/6 window and a 4/4 window; ground floor has a paired 6/6 window and a half-panelled timber door with side-light. The projecting bay has a 9/9 window and diminutive 2/2 window to recessed bay at left; right bay with 4/4 window to ground and first floor; all cheeks are blank.

The north-west gable has a diminutive window to right at attic.

Setting

East-facing onto to Scarva Street, bounded to street by roughcast rendered wall with stone caps. Tall roughcast-rendered gate piers with pointed caps supporting cast-iron latch gate. Lawned to front with water pump and paved pathway to entrance door. Wing wall to south with round-headed arch opening containing metal gate; elliptical-arch opening to south giving vehicular access to rear tarmacadamed yard. To far south is a walled garden, enclosed by a roughcast rendered wall and accessed via a round-arch opening from the central yard. To west is a linear range of single-storey smooth rendered slated outbuildings (abutting gable of neighbouring cottage (HB17/03/009). To far west is a two-storey rubble stone former coach house with red-brick dressings to a variety of openings (now boarded) including a carriage-arch entry with timber-sheeted door. Coach house bounded to road to north by rubble stone wall.

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

Historical information

Bovenett House dates from the early eighteenth century and may once have served as the market house for Loughbrickland which, in its early years, was a significant market and post town for the area. It has remained prominent in the village, often serving a public function, as manse, medical dispensary and police barracks and has in latter years become a dwelling.

It has been suggested that Bovenett House is one of the oldest buildings in the village and dates from the 17th century (Magennis) but the primary evidence does not tend to support such an early date. Valuation records and information supplied by the owner state that the lease for the land on which the house is built dates from 1704 and was purchased by Andrew Donaldson for a £10 yearly rent for 2000 years, under the terms of which he was required to plant an orchard and build a house of dimensions at least 40’ x 17’ for a tenant. The lease supports an early eighteenth century date for Bovenett House, which is not inconsistent with its present day appearance.

The earliest detailed map of Loughbrickland dates from 1819 and shows that in the early nineteenth century the building was part of a terrace that extended southwards from the building as it stands today and that it had a large return extending as far as the outbuildings to the rear. On the first edition of 1833 the building continues to be shown at the end of a terrace (possibly separated by a narrow entry), largely gone by the second edition of 1859.

The evidence for the building’s former usage as a market house is lacking, but the present-day layout of the town is suggestive of a widening of the street at the point where Bovenett House was built and some sources have seen this as a former market square with Bovenett House at the centre. (Magennis) The house was almost certainly built in front of the former line of the street, marked by the outbuildings to the rear and the neighbouring cottage, but this may merely have been an attempt to straighten the main road through the village, which in 1703 was tightly curved around the church.

Following Andrew Donaldson, subsequent owners of the leasehold were Thomas Fivey (1767), David Fivey, who appears to have lived in the house and Elizabeth Fivey (c.1820), relatives of the Fivey family of Union Lodge (now Lisnabrague Lodge). (Owner Information) The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 lists the tenant as Mr Greer and the valuation as £11, but the leaseholder was James Little from 1830. Dimensions are given for the house and return as well as three single-storey thatched outbuildings and one 2-storey slated outbuilding. Also listed are a yard, garden and pleasure garden.

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the occupier as John Carsewell who leases the property for £20 annually from James Little. The valuation is raised to £14.10s and the valuer notes that the house is ‘very old and expensive to keep in repair, offices not all in use and going to the bad’. Dimensions are given for the house and a series of thatched and slated outbuildings.

Sometime in the late 1860s the house temporarily became the village’s Presbyterian manse and was occupied by Rev Robert Crawford and then from 1870, until he moved to ‘Aghaderg Lodge’, Rev A C Buchanan. The building was re-roofed in 1870 and the valuation raised to £17.10s indicating further improvements at this time. Subsequent occupiers were John Valentine (n.d.) and Mrs Little (1890). The valuation was reduced to £10.10s in 1890 perhaps indicating a state of disrepair, and the next tenants were William Scott (1892) and Sefton Corry (1896). The house then became a doctor’s surgery and dispensary, Dr Francis Heron being noted as resident from 1898. The 1901 census reveals that Heron was a GP and Dispensary Medical Officer who lived with his wife and two young children. Also resident in the house was Heron’s brother an architectural draughtsman and a female domestic servant. The resident doctor from 1905 was James Henry Moag who lived with his sister and cousin, a chauffeur. Dr Moag was evicted temporarily from the building but returned in 1912. In 1914 the dispensary and doctor left the premises when a new doctor’s residence and dispensary was built at 49 Scarva Street. By 1918 the current house had been purchased by Joseph Sands and in 1929 became a constabulary barracks, at which time the valuation was raised to £21, probably reflecting improvements and alterations, although this change of use was very temporary.

By the early 1930s the house was again a domestic dwelling and a valuer’s survey at the time found that the accommodation comprised; five bedrooms, two receptions, a kitchen, scullery, pantry, bathroom with cold water only and WC. Water was obtained by pump from a well but there was electric light. Joseph Sands was a poultry dealer who had bought the house for £240 and used a former stable and loft at the rear for poultry plucking. Other outbuildings included an old piggery, then used as a boiler house, a byre and a garage. In common with other village buildings, the house had a plot of land attached to the lease which was sited outside the village area. The house was revalued at £20 and lowered to £18 in 1938 following an appeal. The house remained in the Sands family until at least 1957 and continues to be occupied as a dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/34/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/34/2 Second Edition OS map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/34/3 Third Edition OS Map 1902-3
4. PRONI OS/6/3/34/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/351 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55a Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/18A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 – First General Revaluation (1936-57)
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/N/1 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)

Secondary Sources

1. Knox, Alexander, M.D. “A History of the County of Down” Dublin: Hodges, Foster & Co, 1875
2. Linn, Captain R “A History of Banbridge” (edited by W S Kerr) Banbridge Chronicle Press, 1935
3. Magennis, P “Loughbrickland Historic Trail” 2008
4. Owner Information

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Bovenett House is an asymmetrical four-bay two-storey-with-attic, early Eighteenth century detached house in the centre of Loughbrickland. Architectural detailing is largely intact and much of its historic character has survived, although compromised by the modern exterior finish. Its historical significance arises from the fact that it is among the earliest buildings in the village and may once have served as the market house. Its size is of note and its importance is supported by the existence, at one time, of a yard, garden and pleasure garden, as well as its former use as a manse then a doctor’s surgery and dispensary in the 19th century before becoming a constabulary barracks in the 1920s. Its setting survives in the walled garden, former coach-house and single-storey outbuildings to rear.