Parkmount

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey with attic, three-bay house predating 1830 with Victorian alterations; rectangular plan form with full height bowed bays and double-pile rear return. Located on the south side of Castlewellan Road west of Corbet Milltown.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles concealed behind eaves cornice and leaded blocking course; cast-iron rainwater goods; smooth chimneystacks with replacement capping. Stucco rendered walling with quoins; exposed squared coursed rubble masonry. 1/1 timber sliding sash with horns; curved sashes to bows; continuous moulded masonry cills to bowed bays; stucco moulded and red brick surrounds. Timber front door with six bolection moulded raised and fielded panels; brass ironmongery; decorative round headed cast-iron fan light over (original to Mount Panther HB18/11/048). All embraced by Corinthian portico with dentilled entablature.

The principal elevation faces south and is a symmetrical stucco moulded façade with double-height bowed bays three windows wide flanking the central entrance bay, all surmounted by a continuous dentilled parapet entablature.

The left gable is exposed rubble masonry/brick work with granite quoins, asymmetrically arranged with a ground floor door to the left and first floor window directly over.

The rear elevation comprises a full width double pile return. The right cheek has single ground and first floor windows to the right; single storey lean-to early 20th century block abutting the left with a first floor window over. The rear right gable comprises two ground and first floor windows (raised cill level ground floor right) with a single fixed paned attic window located in the gable head. The central flat-roofed bay comprises a ground floor window with raised cill at ground floor with a round-headed sliding sash window with spoked glazing bars directly over. The left gable comprises a single central first floor window with attic window over, the ground floor is abutted by single storey lean-to bay with door and window; offset to the right with portion comprising lattice lights. The left cheek is asymmetrical; comprising round-headed window over diminished in scale ground floor window to the left with ground and first floor windows to the right.

The right gable is exposed rubble masonry/brickwork, asymmetrically arranged with a ground and first floor window to the right.

Setting

Gated entrance with smooth rendered squared piers and walls; projected plinth and two-stage pyramidal caps. Tree lined driveway with timber fencing and open rural landscape beyond. The driveway leads to a gravel forecourt Immediately to the rear are painted rendered single and double height outbuildings with slated roofing. Two rear yards; the closest to the dwelling is enclosed by historic outbuildings; hipped slated roof, smooth rendered walling, metal framed glazing, timber sheeted half doors with strap-hinges, port-holes throughout at upper level; the yard is accessed via segmental arched opening. Second yard enclosed by rubble masonry walls with brick piers; partially rendered; replacement single storey stable block to the north. Lawns and rubble masonry garden wall to the south of the house; wooded landscape falls sharply to the River Bann.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Stucco render/squared rubble masonry
Windows: Timber sliding sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Parkmount House, a two-storey dwelling situated in the townland of Tullyconnaught, originally dates from the early 19th century. The house was constructed in two phases; the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1833 shows that the northern portion of the dwelling was the earliest built and at that time was depicted as an L-shaped building, was captioned ‘Parkmount’ and possessed a single outbuilding situated to the north-west of the house. The contemporary Townland Valuations (1830s) note that Parkmount House was occupied by a Mr. John Mulligan and was valued at £7 6s. John Mulligan had resided in the townland of Tullyconnaught as early as 1824 and was described as a Linen bleacher and merchant in Piggott’s Directory in that year. Mulligan possessed a bleach works situated across from the house on the southern side of the River Bann.

By 1859 the current southern façade of Parkmount House had been constructed and it can be seen on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in that year. The map also notes that a number of outbuildings, located to the north of the dwelling, had been constructed; the western outbuilding that is currently connected to the house by an extension, and the outbuilding to the far-north of the house, were constructed at this time. The rebuilding of the house and the erection of a number of outbuildings raised the value of Parkmount House to £35 in c. 1862, In that year Griffith’s Valuation noted that Parkmount was occupied by Gilbert Mulligan, John Mulligan’s son. Mulligan possessed an extensive linen business which consisted of a beetling mill and the original bleach works.

By the beginning of the Annual Revisions in 1864 the value of the site had been increased to £45, however it is not known why this valuation increase occurred. Gilbert Mulligan continued to reside at Parkmount House until his death in 1869 at which time his widow Martha took possession of the site. The property continued to be let by the Mulligan family until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929, however in 1872 occupation of the house and its linen factories passed to a Mr. John Simms. Simms was a local landowner and factory owner and took over operation of the sites linen factories; he vacated the property in 1889 when a Mr. Isaac Bell came into possession (Simms later resided at Moorlands where he died in 1911 – see HB17/07/038). Upon coming into possession of the site Parkmount was reduced in value to £30 after Bell appealed it original high rating.

The 1901 Census notes that Bell (36, a member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church – see below) was a farmer and resided at Parkmount with his large family; the Census Building Return described Parkmount as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 20 rooms and possessed a barn, a cow house, a dairy, a piggery, fowl house, boiling house and a barn amongst its out offices. These out offices were located in the outbuildings to the north of the dwelling; the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1902-03) notes that between 1859 and 1902-03 the extension linking the house to its western outbuilding and the rectangular outbuilding to the north-side of the house had been constructed. By 1916 the Annual Revisions noted that all of the houses outbuildings had been neglected and were only partially in use. Isaac Bell continued to reside at Parkmount House until 1925 when a Mrs. Sarah O’Hagan took over occupancy of the site residing there until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

The rear of Parkmount House may date from as early as the 19th century, Rankin states that it was probably ‘a rectangular two-storey plan house built of rubble masonry and having a chimney stack.’ The Mulligan family, who were of Irish descent, resided in Tullyconnaught from the early 18th-century; John Mulligan resided at Tullyconnaught from the early-19th century and established the bleaching factory at the site. Mulligan died in 1845, possession of Parkmount passing to his son Gilbert. It was Gilbert Mulligan who rebuilt the house between 1833 and 1859; the rebuild resulted in the current two-storey three-bay building incorporating elements of the original dwelling to its rear. Rankin states that Parkmount House continued to be occupied by textile manufacturers until quite recently in its history. In the mid-to-late 20th century it was home to Edward Lamont, director of the Ballymena linen company Samuel Lamont & Sons Ltd. (Rankin, pp 26-7).

On a separate note, Parkmount house is a significant building in the history of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Ireland as the location where the church’s covenant was signed. Isaac Bell who resided at Parkmount from 1889 until 1925 was a Seventh-Day Adventist and provided his dwelling for a meeting of a national congregation. The first congregation of the church in Ireland was called on 5th July 1891 with representatives from Banbridge, Tandragee, Clones, Coleraine and Belfast meeting at Parkmount House where the following covenant was signed: ‘We the undersigned, hereby associate ourselves together as a church, taking the name of Seventh-Day Adventists, and covenanting to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus’ (Irish Adventist Church Website).

Parkmount House was listed in 1977 and continues to be occupied.

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 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1902-1903
4. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/27 – Townland Valuation map 1833
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/366 – Townland Valuation c. 1830
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64A – Griffith’s Valuation c. 1862
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A – Annual Revisions 1864-1874
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6C – Annual Revisions 1874-1884
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6E – Annual Revisions 1885-1894
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6F – Annual Revisions 1895-1906
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6G – Annual Revisions 1906-1914
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6H – Annual Revisions 1915-1929
13. Piggott’s Directory (1824)
14. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
15. Ulster Street Directories (1843-1918)
16. First Survey Record – HB17/12/003 (1971)

Secondary Sources

1. Rankin, K., ‘The linen houses of the Bann Valley: The story of their families’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007).

Online Resources

1. Irish Adventist Church Website - http://irish.adventistchurch.ie/news_entries/10710

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A symmetrical house of two-storeys with attic and three bays, predating 1830 with Victorian alterations. Its historic character, style and proportions survive. Largely Victorian in appearance, the earlier sections and materials are clearly distinguishable, representing the development of the house. Much fabric and detailing survive and are of good quality. The outbuildings and walls add to its interest and the historic setting of wooded landscape survives. Associated with the Bann valley linen industry, the building also features in the history of the Seventh Day Adventists.