Ballyward Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An early nineteenth century one-and-a-half storey three-bay dormered former hunting lodge, now in use as a house, set within an extensive parkland
setting with farm to rear, in Ballyward townland about 5 miles west of Castlewellan. L-shaped on plan with double-height projecting porch and long nineteenth century extension.

Hipped natural slate roof with angled clay ridge and hip tiles, leaded valleys and painted rendered chimneystacks to gables, central ridge, and returns; timber casement dormer to rear pitch. Cast iron rainwater goods on projecting rendered eaves course. Walling is white-painted ruled and lined rendered with quoins to main elevations, painted roughcast to remainder. Windows are a variety of timber sashes, 8/8 without horns to principal elevation, 6/6 to secondary elevations, with some 2/2 and twentieth century casements to returns. All are set within plain reveals with projecting cills. Cills are generally stone, white-painted to principal elevations, with a small number of concrete sills.

Principal elevation faces east, and is symmetrically arranged with two windows to each floor at either side of a double-height projecting entrance porch with hipped roof. Upper storey windows are set within gabled wall-head dormers. The porch is lit by a 6/6 window to either cheek; entrance comprises a four-panelled timber door (top panels round-headed) with beaded muntin and paired bronze knobs and knockers; flanked by sidelights with ornate cast-iron geometric glazing; all spanned by a cornice surmounted by a large highly ornate semi-circular cast-iron peacock-tail fanlight with simple archivolt.

South elevation is abutted at extreme left by a flat-roofed full-height abutment with castellated parapet. Remainder is two windows wide; upper storey windows are pointed-arched headed 9/6 sashes with interlocking glazing, set within shallow wall-head gablets and separated by a chimneystack; lower storey windows are 6/6 sashes. The abutment has an entrance door with four flat panels to right cheek and a stringcourse over; left cheek is blank. South face of the abutment has a pointed arched sash window to upper storey and a six-light fixed window to ground floor.

Rear elevation is abutted at centre and left side by returns; that to centre is longer and wider; both have hipped slate roofs. Exposed section to right has a 2/2 window to ground floor and a dormer to upper storey with 6/6 sash window; exposed section to centre between returns is lit by a 6-light window to each floor; vestiges of a dormer abut the left-hand return.

The central return is accessed at left end of the south courtyard elevation via a four-panelled timber door in finely dressed granite surround; right end abutting main house is lit by a Venetian window set within a shallow dormer to upper storey, with tripartite window beneath; there is a modern insertion and additional tripartite window to ground floor, and two additional windows to upper storey. Remainder of return has unpainted scratch-coat cement render; west end has a single 3/6 window; inner cheek has twentieth-century insertions to ground floor and contemporary glass brick insertion to left end; 6/6 sash in dormer to right end. The left return is lit by three windows to inner cheek and to end, all 2/2 sashes. The north elevation is included below.

The north elevation (north wing) is detailed as principal elevation, with quoins to left side only; irregular fenestration comprising two windows to each floor. Four-panelled timber door to right end, having early twentieth century bronze door furniture and surmounted by an inserted sandstone plaque bearing the letter ‘H’.

Setting

The house is set within extensive mature landscape setting c. 53ha, accessed from east via a winding tree-lined drive leading to gravel forecourt; though many specimens are mature, new planting from the 1950s has reinforced the stock. To the front of the house is enclosed paddock, accessed from the lane by a pair of wrought-iron gates on roughly dressed stone piers with moulded granite caps. To west is lawned terrace and a large formal garden laid divided into quarters by concrete paths, and enclosed on three sides by a high wall; brick to south- and north-west and rubble stone to south-east; it is accessed from the lawn by a small pedestrian iron gate. There is an additional walled enclosure attached to south, accessed via a square-headed opening with wrought-iron gate set in dressed granite surround. Between the two garden enclosures, at west side, is a one-and-a-half storey gardener’s house. To rear of the house is a courtyard (HB17/10/007B) enclosed by the return, and farm ranges, screened from the lawn by a rendered wall with round-headed opening. Views over Ballyward Lake (which has receded in size since the first O.S. Map), the high Mournes and surrounding countryside. The lake is natural.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Rendered
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Ballyward Lodge, a two-storey Georgian gentleman’s house in the townland of Ballyward, was originally constructed in the early-19th century. The property was first depicted on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1833 which records that the house (which had been captioned ‘Ballyward Lodge’) occupied the current layout, however it did not possess the two-storey north return at that time. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1836) described Ballyward Lodge as the only Gentleman’s Seat in the parish of Drumgooland and that the dwelling was constructed in 1811 by a Mr. William Beers. The current owner claims that the site possesses a history stretching back to the mid-18th century; however the Ordnance Survey Memoirs state that the current house dates from 1811. A plaque located on one of Ballyward’s outbuildings (HB17/10/007B) is inscribed with the date 1811 and although not a strong indicator of the date of the house, does suggest that some alteration to the site occurred in the early 19th-century.

By the 1830s the property had passed into the possession of Charles Beers Esq., the son of William and a local magistrate (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, p. 22). The estate, including Ballyward Lodge, its outbuildings and Gate Lodge (HB17/10/007C) were jointly valued at £31 3s. In the Townland Valuations; before deductions the dwelling was individually valued at £12 15s.

The two-storey return had been constructed to the north of Ballyward Lodge by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1859. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (c. 1862) noted that the estate had passed to a Mr. Francis C. Leslie who let the site, which had increased in total value to £45, from a Mr. John. S. Crawford (a landowner based in Crawfordsburn who owned 5,748 acres in the area). Francis Leslie resided at Ballyward Lodge until 1869 when he purchased Ballyward Lodge outright and leased the site out to a Mr. Frederick George Patterson who briefly resided at the site until 1884 when the Leslie family reoccupied the property.

There was little change to the site over the next three decades, however between 1891 and 1896 the value of the estate was reduced to £42 15s., although it is not known why this valuation decrease occurred as the valuer did not make a note concerning the reduction. John Leslie was not at Ballyward Lodge on the night of the 1901 Census, however the census building return described his dwelling as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 12 rooms and possessed a large number of out offices (see HB17/10/007B). By the 1911 Census it appears that Leslie had, once more, let Ballyward Lodge out to other tenants, as a Dr. Charles R. M. Pattison (30, Church of Ireland) and his wife Ethel (28) were residing at the site in that year.

By 1916 a Ms. Harriet Jane Barclay came into possession of Ballyward Lodge; in that year the value of the estate was split when the gate lodge and the stewards house were given individual valuations, reducing the value of the house and its other outbuildings to £34 15s. In 1927 the value of the site was reduced further to £30 when a Dr. John H. [McBurney] took possession of the site, remaining in his possession by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

The First Survey Record states that Ballyward Lodge was originally built as a hunting lodge for William Beers but was subsequently extended on two occasions (the plaque on the outbuilding that reads ‘1811’ may refer to either the construction of the current house or, if the current owners claim of an original c. 1750 dwelling is correct, a modification to the earlier structure in that year resulting in the current Georgian mansion). By 1969 the Leslie family had relinquished ownership of the site as a Mr. J. Higginson was recorded as owner.

In the mid-19th century there was a summer house in the parkland on a prominent rath, which is planted with beech. There is a cultivated walled garden to the south of the house. This has been converted from a traditional productive garden to an ornamental site, with a formal lay-out and many interesting plants. It was established from the 1950s. The outer walled garden, formally an orchard, is in grass. A pond, with an island on the north side of the road was possibly formerly a Decoy. It was cleared out in the 1970s. The ornamental garden to the south of the site includes numerous monuments and sculptures which were added by Higginson in the late-20th century (Parks and Gardens UK).

Ballyward House was listed in 1977. The house continues to be occupied.
References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/42/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/42/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/42/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1901-1902
4. PRONI OS/6/3/42/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1919-1920
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/359 – Townland Valuation c. 1830
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/51/C – Griffith’s Valuation c. 1862
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/5A – Annual Revisions 1864-1875
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/5B – Annual Revisions 1876-1889
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/5C – Annual Revisions 1888-1898
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/5D – Annual Revisions 1899-1908
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/5E – Annual Revisions 1909-1920
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/5F – Annual Revisions 1921-1929
13. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down I Vol. 3 (1836)
14. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)
15. Ulster Street Directories (1843-1918)
16. First Survey Record – HB17/10/007 (1969)
17. Ordnance Survey map – 239-10 (1976)
18. REGISTER OF PARKS, GARDENS AND DEMESNES OF SPECIAL HISTORIC INTEREST, NORTHERN IRELAND

Secondary Sources

1. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.

Online Resources

1. Parks and Gardens UK:
http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,262/tab,history/Itemid,292/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Ballyward Lodge is an early nineteenth-century house with later additions, located in an extensive tree-lined demesne. The house is unusually proportioned, characterised by an eclectic mix of classical and Gothic styles, and retaining a high proportion of original fabric. The principal elevation is dominated by a full-height porch with particularly large and ornate fanlight. The setting, with outbuildings (HB17/10/007B), gate lodge and gate piers (HB17/10/007C) and having landscaped gardens to south, is as originally intended and includes the decoy pond across the main road. Ballyward House is of considerable architectural and historic interest as an unusual and intact example of early nineteenth century gentleman's residence of modest scale.

General comments

This record has been amended with the suffix A, as part of a group. It was formerly recorded under HB17/10/007.