Rockvale

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical two-storey four-bay eighteenth century house, originally single storey, located in a declivity on Old Mill Road, SE of Scarva village. Rectangular on plan with two storey flat roofed extension c.1950.

Pitched natural slate roof with cement verges; four yellow brick chimneystacks with moulded caps. Cast iron gutters on projecting eaves band. Walling is dry dashed with rendered V-channelled quoins over a cement rendered plinth to principal elevation; otherwise painted roughcast rendered. Windows are tripartite 6/6 sliding sashes flanked by fixed 4 pane windows to principal elevation; diminished in height 3/6 to first floor flanked by fixed 3 pane windows (except for central first floor window); slightly projecting rendered reveals and granite cills; moulded cill course to first floor. Plain 6/6 to gables; 4/4 sashes to rear elevation except where stated; 2/2 and timber casements to return. Entrance door having four raised bolection moulded panels and no door furniture; frame raised on stone plinth blocks; moulded cement architrave.

Symmetrical front elevation facing SE, five windows wide (3/6 to first floor centre).

SW gable with window to first floor left.

Rear elevation has irregular fenestration; abutted to right of centre by a flat roofed two-storey extension; to right of extension the first floor is blank, ground floor not viewed; immediately to left of extension are two windows to ground floor with two windows to first floor directly over with a further 6/6 window to ground floor far left.
The extension comprises two casement windows to ground floor with three windows to first floor (that to centre is a diminutive casement with raised cill); left cheek has a timber sheeted door; right cheek not viewed.

NE gable blank.

Setting

The house is prominently located gable to the road in a rural
setting with farmyard to rear enclosed by a variety of single and two-storey outbuildings, modernised and of little interest. Manicured front garden and tarmac forecourt accessed from the road by an alcove entrance comprising roughcast walls with saddleback coping; pair of wrought-iron gates supported on rendered piers having roughcast central panel; diamond pointed caps. Small wrought-iron gate accessing secondary garden at N.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Dry dash / roughcast
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

‘Rockvale’ is a pre-1834 formalised vernacular dwelling, originally single-storey and raised during the early nineteenth century. The house is associated with a corn mill that was later converted for the processing of flax fibres and remains on the site, although it was burnt down and rebuilt in the 1940s (IHR:03273:000:00).

The earliest verifiable reference to Rockvale occurs in 1828 when it is noted in the Belfast Newsletter that Captain Magill of Rockvale was toasted at a meeting of the Orange Society in the court-house at Ballymena (Belfast Newsletter). Earlier
references to ‘Rockvale’ going back to 1773 cannot be linked with certainty to the current building, other houses of that name being found in Ireland and in County Down. The building is not shown on Taylor and Skinner’s 1777 map of the Roads of Ireland but this may be because it was not substantial enough to be identified as a ‘gentleman’s seat’.

The house is shown on the first edition OS map (1834) captioned ‘Rockvale’ and comprises a rectangular house at right-angles to the road with outbuildings that together form three sides of a courtyard. A ‘corn mill’ and ‘kiln’ are captioned on the site to west of the main house. Further outbuildings have been added to the site over the years. The house is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as the home of William McGill (sic) and later (n.d.) William Ferguson. It is a house, offices and mill, valued at £13.17s. Dimensions are given for a corn mill, kiln and two-storey dwelling house. The two single-storey outbuildings are thatched at this stage.

William Ferguson, farmer, died in 1862 (Will of William Ferguson) and Griffith’s Valuation lists the occupier of the house as Denis Chambers. He leases the property, a house, offices, flax mill and over 40 acres of land from John T Reilly of nearby Scarva House and the buildings are valued at £23. The second edition OS map of 1860 shows that the former corn mill and kiln have now been converted for use as a flax mill. In 1889 it is noted that the buildings are ‘dilapidated’ and the valuation is reduced to £13.5s as a consequence.

Samuel and James Chambers, presumably sons of Denis, are listed as the occupiers from 1897 but the 1901 census records only Samuel Chambers and his immediate family as resident. Samuel, a 27-year-old farmer lived with his wife and two children of 2 and 10 months. By 1911 their family has expanded considerably and they now have six children between the ages of 2 and 12. A visitor, also present at the time of the 1901 census, is staying with the family and they now employ a domestic servant, a 17-year-old girl, Mary Greer. The house has eight rooms and extensive outbuildings and is categorised as second class, a broad division including most dwellings that fell between mansion and thatched single or two-room vernacular house. Samuel Chambers became the owner in fee of his farm in 1906 under land purchase legislation.

In 1934 the house was revalued at £9 for the house, £3 for agricultural outbuildings and £8 for the associated flax mill. The house comprised 4 bedrooms, 2 receptions, a kitchen and a scullery. The farm house was said to be in ‘rather poor condition’ at this time, as was the flax mill, which was only worked one month in the year. The mill ran by means of a water wheel and an oil engine which produced 20 HP, and contained 8 stocks and crimpers. A plan and dimensions are given of the house and outbuildings, showing a scullery extension to the rear of the house.

The mill was destroyed by fire and rebuilt by the Chambers family in 1946 with masonry and corrugated asbestos. It contained a scutching machine and one set of rollers with 5 stocks for tow scutching and obtained power from a 44HP Crossley oil engine. The mill worked for 3 months of the year, during the flax harvesting season. However, these were the final years of large-scale flax production in Ireland as man-made fibres became more popular and in recent times the mill, although still present, has been used as an agricultural outbuilding. The former corn kiln shown on the 1834 OS map is also still present to the west of the main house and outbuildings.

The house was listed in 1977 and in 1991 windows and a back door were renovated and the house was rewired. (HB file)
The house remains in use as a dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/33/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/33/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/33/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/33/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/351 Townland Valuatioin (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/22A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/S/6 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. PRONI Will of William Ferguson died 14th October 1862
10. Taylor and Skinner’s Map of the Roads of Ireland, 1777
11. Belfast Newsletter 15th April 1828
12. 1901 census online
13. 1911 census online
14. NIEA HB file

Secondary Sources

1. Baines, P “Flax and Linen” Shire Publications, 2003

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Rockvale is an four-bay two-storey house, pre-1834, set gable-to-road on Old Mill Road, Scarva. Originally single storey, the house was raised and altered in the nineteenth century and may have eighteenth century origins. This is a formalised vernacular dwelling and is a good example of the type, demonstrating historic change and in original condition.