Solitude

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey over basement with attic three-bay Victorian house c.1864; square plan form with rear abutments. Located off the Castlewellan Road at the end of a long straight driveway running parallel with adjacent former mill buildings.

Hipped natural slate roof with clay hip and ridge tiles; cast-iron ogee moulded rainwater goods; smooth rendered chimney stacks with moulded cornice; pitched roof dormer with timber barge boards and timber finial. Ruled-and-lined painted rendered walling; rusticated long-and-short quoins. 2/2 segmental-arched timber sliding sash windows with vertical glazing bars; painted masonry cills. Four raised-and-pointed panelled timber door with brass ironmongery; moulded timber surrounds; leaded coloured over and side lights with aprons set into segmental-arched opening flanked by modern wall mounted lamps; accessed by masonry steps with perron spanning over basement trench with solid masonry balustrade terminated with robust plain piers.

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged. Centrally positioned front door flanked by single windows to either side; three slightly diminished in height first floor windows directly over ground floor openings; single further diminished windows to the right and left bay at basement level; full width basement trench surmounted by replacement railing. Dormer window centrally positioned on roof pitch.

The left (east) elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Two-storey canted bay to the left bay comprising a central door at basement level flanked by narrow windows to the side cheeks; ground floor windows over. The right bay comprises two basement windows, narrow left window. Single ground floor uPVC replacement window. Two blank windows at first floor level.

The rear (south) elevation is asymmetrically arranged. The right bay comprises single windows all floors. Hipped shallow return left of centre comprised varying sized windows. Single first floor window to left bay. Single-storey lean-to abutment to basement level left bay, the left cheek further abutted by a single storey pitched roof outbuilding.

The right (west) elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Two enlarged uPVC windows at basement level. Three uniformly arranged windows at ground floor with blank windows directly over at first floor level.

Setting

The house is access by cement rendered piers with masonry caps; replacement railings and gates. The drive is lined with lawns either side; a further large lawn addressing the principal elevation. Small modern garage located east of the house with further garages to the rear. The River Bann bounds the site to the east. Rubble masonry wall to the south with two-storey red-brick terrace beyond. Three-storey rubble masonry former mill building to the north with associated mill race.

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

Historical information

Despite some secondary sources claiming a build date of c.1840, Solitude House does not appear to have been constructed until 1863-64. The house does not appear on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1860 and is depicted as a newly constructed building on a c.1864 town plan of Banbridge; further, Griffiths Valuation records that the property was still unfinished by c.1863.

The valuer noted that the dwelling was the property of a Mr. Samuel Hill who let the land from the Marquis of Downshire. The house was constructed on an island in the Bann River created by the cutting of a mill-race designed to supply a flow of water to the Clibborn Bleachworks to the south of the house. The Annual Revisions first valued the house in 1864 at £35; the Ulster Street Directories naming the site ‘Solitude.’ Hill continued to reside at Solitude House until his death in 1891; there was little change to the property during these years although the value of the site was reduced to £32 in 1884 for unknown reasons.

Samuel Hill, who was described as a Gentleman in his will, died on 31 December 1891 leaving sole possession of his property and effects of £452 16s. 5d. to his wife Katherine (PRONI Wills). Katherine continued to live at Solitude for another three decades finally vacating the house in 1919. The 1901 Census records that Katherine (45, Church of Ireland) resided at Solitude with her daughter Ethel (12); Katherine had three other children before her husband’s death. The Census Building Return described Solitude as a 1st class dwelling that possessed a large number of out offices including two stables, a cow house, piggery, boiling house, a barn and two stores; these outbuildings were located on the island to the rear of Solitude House, however they have since been replaced by a number of small modern garages. There was little change to the site by the 1911 Census, although the outbuilding return records that a laundry house had been added to Solitude’s list of out offices. Katherine Hill vacated the house by 1919 when a Ms. Mary Burnett came into possession, residing there until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

Both Rankin and Brett claim that Solitude House was constructed c.1840; Rankin records that the house was constructed for the Clibborn family, a Quaker family who operated a factory, a bleach green and a flour Mill in Banbridge on the southern side of the River Bann. The Clibborns established their business in Banbridge from as early as 1767 when their first factory opened; later in that century the industry which traded under the title Clibborn & Co. was operated by a Mr. James Clibborn. In the 1850’s Clibborn & Co. was owned by Edward C. Clibborn who continued to expand the business; in 1852 the company won first prize for producing diapers at London’s Great Exhibition, a new warehouse was constructed on the Castlewellan Road to the north side of Solitude House in the 1850s (HB17/07/032) and in the early 1850s Samuel Hill, a nephew of the family, was made a partner after which time the name of the company was changed to Clibborn, Hill & Co (Ulster Street Directory, 1852; Rankin, p. 52). All primary evidence suggests that Solitude House was constructed sometime after Samuel Hill was made a partner of Clibborn, Hill & Co.; the Ordnance Survey maps and valuation sources show that the house was only under construction c.1863 and was completed by 1864.

Situated on an island on the River Bann, Solitude House was accessed by a road bridge on its east side, and by a footbridge on its west that led to Bridge Street. However, the footbridge was washed away during flooding of the Bann in 1972 and the mill-race has been filled in and is now incorporated into a public park walk (Magennis; Rankin, p. 53). Solitude House was listed in 1977.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1918
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64/C – Griffith’s Valuation c. 1863
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/A – Annual Revisions 1864-1874
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/B – Annual Revisions 1874-1884
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/D – Annual Revisions 1885-1894
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/A – Annual Revisions 1899-1910
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/B – Annual Revisions 1911-1922
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/C – Annual Revisions 1921-1930
11. PRONI VAL/12/E/119/4 + 6 – Annual Revisions Banbridge Town Plan
12. PRONI Wills Catalogue (31 Dec 1891)
13. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
14. Ulster Street Directories (1843-1918)
15. First Survey Record – HB17/07/033 (1977)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Borough of Banbridge’
Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1969.
2. Magennis, P., ‘Banbridge: An illustrated history and companion’ Donaghadee: Cottage Publications, 1996.
3. 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
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-storey over basement with attic three-bay Victorian house c.1870. Much of its style, proportions and character have survived, with little alteration to its appearance and fabric. Its setting beside the mill complex(HB17/07/031A&B) survives and it is a good example of this type of large house in the original outskirts of the town.