Lisnacreevey House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached asymmetrical four-bay two-storey with attic rendered house, built c.1820, with full-height canted bay window. U-shaped on plan facing east with southernmost bay added c.1850, and a pair of gabled rear projections added c.1860. Positioned on an elevated mature site on the south side of Lisnacroppin Road with front and rear driveways, large front garden and two ranges of outbuildings enclosing a yard to the rear (HB17/08/041B).

Pitched natural slate roof, hipped to the south with black clay ridge tiles and three rendered chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots. Hipped natural slate roof to the canted bay with rolled lead ridges. Replacement plastic rainwater goods to rendered eaves course throughout. Smooth cement rendered walling with recessed smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with granite sills and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows throughout.

Front elevation is four windows wide abutted by an off-centre full-height canted bay window and having granite flagstones lining the plinth. Elliptical-headed door opening with replacement tripartite timber doorcase, inserted c.1980, with webbed fanlight and tracery sidelights. Door opens onto granite platform with wrought-iron bootscraper to front gravel area.

South side elevation is four windows wide and abutted by late twentieth-century single-storey extensions. The top right window opening has a timber Wyatt window. To the left is a single-bay single-storey side entrance porch with hipped slate roof, replacement sash window and replacement timber panelled door opening onto short flight of granite steps.

Rear elevation comprises two full-height gabled projections to either end and a recessed rear elevation, two windows wide, forming a small rear patio with clay tiles. The recessed elevation has a stair hall window and an enlarged opening at ground floor level with replacement timber French doors. The southern projection has a diminutive window at first floor level with replacement 4/4 timber sash window and a further replacement 6/6 timber sash stair hall window. The north gabled projection is surmounted by a rendered chimneystacks and has a replacement timber Wyatt window at ground floor and two attic windows with replacement 4/4 timber sash windows.

North side elevation comprises a gable to the left with irregular fenestration and a single-bay section to the right. Largely replacement 6/6 timber sash windows and a later door opening with replacement timber French doors opening onto granite paved area.

Setting

Set on an elevated mature site mainly accessed from the north via short gravel driveway passing the rear elevation of the house and the first range of outbuildings (HB17/08/041B). The front avenue (recently reinstated) follows a curve to the north east through the front garden opening onto the road via pair of replacement iron gates supported on angled rendered piers with granite capstones and sweeping rendered walls.

Roof Natural slate
Walling render
Windows timber
RWG uPVC

Historical information

Lisnacreevy House pre-dates the earliest ordnance survey of 1833 but the original Georgian house has evolved with changing tastes and accommodation needs, and documentary and field evidence suggest that the south wing of the house was added c1850 with rear returns dating from c1865. A double-height canted bay which emphasises the asymmetry of the front façade, may also be a late Victorian addition.

The first edition OS map of 1833 shows a collection of around half a dozen buildings on the site. One of these has survived as the Georgian core of the current dwelling house and some of the outbuildings may also be survivals from this period, although the size and disposition of outbuildings has changed significantly by the time of the second edition (1853) and one of the outbuildings bears a datestone recording a rebuild in 1846. The Townland Valuation (1828-40) lists the house as the property of John Corbitt, with buildings valued at £11. The slated house measures 44x26.6x19 and there are five thatched outbuildings. John Corbitt died in 1839 (Belfast Newsletter) and the house was passed down through the family, with Robert Swan Corbitt noted as the occupier in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64).

The second edition OS map of 1853 captions ‘Lisnacreevy Ho[use]’. The house has been extended by a wing to the south and there are now only three outbuildings to the rear. R S Corbitt leased the house, which was valued at £15, from the Representatives of William Sharman Crawford, the local landowner. The rent was £50 per annum and the house was situated on a plot of over 73 acres. Measurements are given for the house and addition and four slated outbuildings, two of which are double-height. Robert Swan Corbitt was a prominent local citizen, appointed to the magistracy in 1872 and standing as Unionist candidate for Down in 1886. (Belfast Newsletter) He was also a keen huntsman and is noted as president of Rathfriland greyhound coursing club in 1887. The Iveagh and Newry Harriers frequently met at Lisnacreevy House. (Belfast Newsletter)

The first Annual Revision of the valuation in the mid 1860s gives the valuation as £22.15s. The third edition OS map of 1903 shows that the main house has been extended to the rear and the outbuildings have been extended and modified. In 1901 the residents were Robert Corbitt, magistrate, farmer, flax and corn-mill owner, his wife, two adult children, and two domestic servants, one a 14-year-old boy. The house was of the first class and had fifteen rooms. Corbitt became the owner in fee under land purchase legislation in 1910 and in 1911, the family’s domestic staff had been extended to include another general domestic and a saddler. The census reveals that only two of the couple’s five children had survived. Corbitt’s son John G Corbitt took over the farm in 1919, presumably on his father’s death. In the 1930s valuer’s notes show that the accommodation comprised two attic rooms, three receptions, a flush WC, boxroom, five bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, scullery and pantry. The building was thought to have a very good finish. A plan attached to the valuer’s notes shows that since the 1930s some of the structures surrounding the stableyard have been demolished, mostly to the western end of the yard.

The house passed out of the Corbitt family in 1938 when it was taken over by Archibald Creen (1938) and then Thomas Creen (1947). It remains in use as a domestic dwelling to this day.

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/3507B Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/49B Griffiths Valuation (1861)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/21First General Revaluation 1933-57
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/C/5 First General Revaluation 1933-57
10. Belfast Newsletter 23rd October 1872
11. Belfast Newsletter 7th July 1886
12. Belfast Newsletter 9th February 1887
13. Belfast Newsletter 7thJanuary 1888
14. 1901 census online
15. 1911 census online

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
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached asymmetrical four-bay two-storey with attic rendered house, built c.1820, with full-height canted bay window. U-shaped on plan facing east with southernmost bay added c.1850, and a pair of gabled rear projections added c.1860. The setting comprises mature planting with front and rear driveways, large front garden and two ranges of outbuildings enclosing a yard to the rear (HB17/08/041B). Extensively modified over the past two centuries, this house has been renovated during the late twentieth-century with the loss of some original fabric. However, its character survives with much historic fabric and detailing representing changes arising from the changing circumstances of the owners and changing tastes. It is of interest as a substantial farmhouse with fine outbuildings and a good example of the type.