Glebe House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey over basement rendered former Glebe House, built c.1820, with single-bay two-storey flat-roofed entrance projection and full-height rear central bow. Rectangular on plan facing north with yard to the east enclosed by an L-plan range of outbuildings and quadrant projection.

Hipped natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, two replacement rendered chimneystacks with clay pots and replacement metal guttering to rendered eaves course and plastic downpipes. Semi-conical natural slate roof to rear bow with lead ridges. Painted rough-cast render over rubblestone walling with painted rusticated quoins to front elevation and entrance projection only. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and uPVC windows, diminished to the first floor.

Symmetrical three-bay two-storey over concealed basement front elevation with central entrance bay projection. Elliptical-headed recess to ground floor of entrance bay with square-headed window opening as per above. To the west cheek of the entrance projection is a three-centred arched door opening having replacement hardwood panelled door and blind panel over, opening onto granite step (now flush with bitmac front area). Abutting the northeast corner of the house is a rendered quadrant wall obscured by a recently built single-storey rendered structure fronting onto the front area.

Two-storey over basement east side elevation has a single large square-headed window opening and a pair of lean-to extensions at basement level having natural slate roofs.

Symmetrical rear garden elevation has an exposed basement level and a central full-height bowed bay abutted by a later three-sided canted bay window, inserted c.1920. The canted bay has a flat concrete roof with uPVC patio door, Art Nouveau leaded overlight and 2/2 timber sash windows to either side. The bay opens onto flight of concrete steps bridging the basement area. Cobbles line the basement area with earth embankments to the rear and west side elevations.

Two-storey over basement west side elevation with a single window opening to each half-landing on the left.

Setting

Set on an elevated mature site and accessed via a long tree-lined bitmac drive on the east side of Banbridge Road. Small concrete paved yard to the east side elevation enclosed to the north by an elliptical-headed rubblestone arched screen having iron gates and applied timber sheeting. The yard is enclosed by an L-plan range of two-storey rubblestone outbuildings having pitched natural slate roofs, a flight of external stone steps to the north gable and a further flight of granite steps to the north elevation of the south range. The south range has two rendered chimneystacks, timber sheeted doors, an 8/4 early timber sash window and a 2/2 timber sash window to the north elevation and steel casement windows to the south elevation having granite sills. A modern bungalow has been built to the northwest of the house at the entrance to the front garden.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Rough-cast
Windows uPVC
RWG metal / plastic

Historical information

The glebe house for Drumballyroney parish was built in 1822 by the then rector Rev John Dubourdieu. Dubourdieu was the successor to Rev Tighe who is best remembered for sending Patrick Bronte, father of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, to Cambridge and thereby ‘enriching English literature for all time’. (Clergy of Down and Dromore)

Dubourdieu was vicar and then rector and vicar from 1821 until his death in 1839. He is remembered for two important publications, Statistical Surveys of Counties Down and Antrim. Born and educated in Dublin, he is described in OS Memoirs in 1834 as a ‘very old grey-headed peevish man and a haughty, half-civilised self-sufficient little bit of an Irish Frenchman’. Proud of the glebe house, he is quoted as saying to a visitor ‘This is a good house I have built myself; see what a fine view it has’. (Clergy of Down and Dromore) The house was built for a cost of £700, £300 of which was a grant from the Board of First Fruits and the remaining £400 a loan from the same body repayable by instalments. (OS Memoirs) Dubourdieu’s income was one third of the tithes which amounted to £160 a year, the remainder going to the Dean of Dromore. (OS Memoirs)

On the first edition OS map of 1833 the ‘Glebe Ho[use]’ is captioned and is shown as a rectangular structure with bow to the rear and a separate outbuilding to the west (now gone). The house is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as the home of Rev John Dubourdieu and valued at £13.3s. The glebe house measured 49.6x24.6x19 and had a basement storey in use as kitchens. There were two outbuildings, one of which was thatched (now gone).

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the occupier as Rev Christophilus Garstin, the next incumbent, and the lessor as the Trustees of the Honourable Robert Meade. The house and outbuildings are valued at £17 and the dimensions given suggest the house is unchanged since the Townland Valuation. Two outbuildings are also listed, one of two storeys and the other single-storey and these appear to have survived, together with a third outbuilding added before the third edition (1903). Rev Garstin died suddenly at the glebe in 1864.

The 1901 census lists Rev Robert Oswald and his wife in residence, together with seven of his children. The family employed a 50-year-old cook. Oswald was a regular correspondent to the Belfast Newsletter on economic and political themes of the day. (Belfast Newsletter) The parish was united to Drumgath on Oswald’s death in 1901 and the next vicar was Thomas Gibson George Collins who became Bishop of Meath in 1926. (Clergy of Down and Dromore)

In 1911 the house was home to Rev Isaac Harte, his wife and their two children who were taught by a live-in tutor from Norfolk. Also living at the house was their domestic servant. Interestingly, the twelve-room house was deemed to be only of the second class, most unusual for a rectory. Rev Harte was tragically killed in a motor accident in 1914. Subsequent incumbents were Thomas Bradley Brown and in 1919 William Alexander Scanlen, who then moved to Chantilly France to become a Chaplain. Next inhabitant was curate-in-charge Thomas Havelock Blackburn from 1922 to his death in 1932. (Clergy of Down and Dromore) Valuation records suggest that the glebe house was then transferred to private ownership. A double-height porch had been added to the front façade by 1921 when it appears in a plan included in valuer’s notes, but this feature may have been added some years earlier. The house remains in use as a domestic dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/41/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/41/2 Second Edition OS map 1853
3. PRONI OS/6/3/41/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/41/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/357A-B Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/59A Griffiths Valuation (1861)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57
9. 1901 census online
10. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. Day, A. And P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Vol. 12.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1992.
2. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996

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
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey over basement rendered former Glebe House, built c.1820, with single-bay two-storey flat-roofed entrance projection and full-height rear central bow. Rectangular on plan facing north with yard to the east enclosed by an L-plan range of outbuildings and quadrant projection. Despite the loss of its original fenestration, this former glebe house retains much of its original character and overall composition including a formal garden elevation. The projecting entrance bay appears to have been added during the late nineteenth or early twentieth-century in addition to the canted bay to the garden elevation. Much historic fabric and detailing survive, representing the development of the house. The outbuildings are also of good quality as is the setting with mature planting (although compromised by the modern dwelling close to the yard). The whole forms a good example of the glebe house type.

General comments

Townland to be checked