Sylvan Hill House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical one-and-a-half storey three-bay house, built c.1790, located on the Kilntown Road, north-west of Dromore. Rectangular on plan, extended to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with three roughcast chimneystacks having moulded stone caps; ogee cast-iron rainwater goods; decorative bargeboards to gables. Walling is roughcast rendered. Windows are replacement 6/6 timber sashes, all with painted masonry cills; those to principal elevation are set in later lugged cement architraves with profiled label moulding.

Symmetrical principal elevation facing south, three openings wide. Central elliptical-headed entrance comprising 6-panelled timber door with cast-iron door furniture including lion’s head knocker; geometrical fanlight and sidelights over timber apron panels; all set within a rendered surround with moulded archivolt and keyblock, accessed by two replacement granite steps.

West gable has two attic windows; former ground floor window to left side now forming a door leading to a modern conservatory, which abuts at ground floor.

Rear elevation is abutted by a two-storey flat roofed extension to left and right side, and a single-storey flat-roofed extension to centre. The exposed central section has a single uPVC window. Variety of modern windows to extensions; accessed at centre by a multi-paned glazed timber door with sidelights.

East gable has two timber casement windows to attic, and a modern timber glazed and panelled door to ground floor right.

Setting

The house is set slightly back from the road in a mature garden
setting, bounded by hedges and trees. Gravel forecourt accessed by a short curved drive to left; entrance is marked by modern rendered wall and steel gates. To rear is a two-storey rubble stone outbuilding with pitched natural slate roof; timber sheeted openings with voussoir rubble stone or brick heads, some openings also with brick jambs. It is abutted at left by a single storey brick outbuilding with barrelled corrugated metal roof supported on Belfast trusses, and tall rectangular chimney to left side. Flush timber windows (2/2 and six-light) without cills; timber lintels. Timber sheeted doors. The interior contains two rooms, that to left with a large open fireplace, that to right with stable stalls. The garden contains simple wrought iron gates, and a pair of ornate cast- and wrought-iron gates to front garden supported on cast-iron piers. Cow-tail handled cast-iron water pump to yard.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Roughcast
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Sylvan Hill, a one-and-a-half-storey Georgian house in the townland of Greenoge, was constructed in the late-18th century and was occupied by a Lieutenant Davis of the British Army in c. 1830. The Townland Valuation records that Lt. Davis resided at the house, which was valued at £9 14s. However during the period of the valuation (c. 1830), a Ms. Jane Walker came into possession of the site. The first edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1834) depicted the cottage as a rectangular building and showed that the outbuilding to its north-side had also been constructed by that time.

By 1858 there had been no change to the site on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps although the cottage was first captioned ‘Sylvan Hill’ on this map. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1861) recorded that Sylvan Hill continued to be occupied by Jane Walker, who leased the site from the Earl Clanwilliam, and that the house had been slightly increased in value to £10 10s. Jane Walker resided at Sylvan Hill until c. 1883 when a Mr. Robert Walker (likely her son) took possession of the site.

The census records that Robert Walker did not personally reside at Sylvan Hill; however his relative, Mary Walker, was recorded as occupant in 1901. Mary Walker (48, Unitarian) was employed as a farmer; the census building return described the house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 10 rooms and possessed a stable, cow house, a barn and a store amongst its out offices (most of which would have been located in the site’s northern outbuilding). By 1911 Mary lived at Sylvan Hill with her widowed sister Janie (62); the 1901 census building return appears to have been in error as the dwelling is described as a 2nd class dwelling consisting of only five rooms in 1911 (the number of rooms recorded in 1901 was too high and resulted in the incorrect 1st class rating of the building which should have been 2nd class).

Robert Walker was recorded as occupant of Sylvan Hill until 1918 when the house came into the possession of a Mr. Thomas Browne Wallace, a solicitor from Dromore. Wallace also came into possession of a number of other residences in the townland in the same year; although there is no confirming evidence, the properties were presumably acquired by Wallace’s Solicitors’ office as Wallace continued to be recorded as occupant until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 despite not residing there himself.

According to the Archaeological Survey of Co. Down, Sylvan Hill was erected in the late 18th century and in c. 1960 additions had been constructed to the rear of the house whilst cement labels had been installed in the entrance and windows of the front elevation (Archaeological Survey of Co. Down, p. 390). Further changes include the addition of the modern corrugated-iron outbuilding, erected to the north-west of the cottage in the late-20th century, sometime after the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1971. Sylvan Hill was listed in 1977 and since that time the only change to the site has been the erection of the modern conservatory that abuts the west gable of the single-storey house.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1916
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/20 – Townland Valuation map c. 1830
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/342 – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10A – Annual Revisions 1864 – 1878
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10B – Annual Revisions 1879 - 1891
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10C – Annual Revisions 1892 - 1898
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10E – Annual Revisions 1899 - 1908
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10F – Annual Revisions 1909 - 1930
13. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
14. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
15. First Survey Record – HB17/13/025 (1969)
16. Ordnance Survey Map – 183-15 (1971)

Secondary Sources

1. ‘An Archaeological Survey of Co Down’ Belfast: H.M.S.O., 1966.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Sylvan Hill House is a symmetrical one-and-a-half storey three-bay mid-Georgian villa. The house is characterised by modest elegant proportions, with an elliptical doorcase having original detailing of note. There is evidence of minor nineteenth- and mid-twentieth century remodelling, and these record the evolution of the house from its original single storey form. Its setting, including outbuildings to rear, with a Belfast truss roof to brick stable block, survives and it is a good example of this type of minor country house evolved from simple beginnings.