Ballytrim House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two storey, hipped roof, Regency gentleman’s residence of c.1815, renovated and refitted internally in the 1920s. Attached to the rear is an extensive complex of outbuildings. The property is set within extensive grounds to the S of Ballytrim Road, c.1.5 miles W of Killyleagh.

The front façade faces W and is symmetrical. To the centre of the ground floor is an impressive doorway with broad panelled door, flanked by Ionic columns which support an Adam-like entablature with over sailing cornice. Above this there is a large semicircular fanlight with elaborate ‘fan’ tracery. This doorway originally belonged to a Georgian residence in Dublin and was installed at Ballytrim in the 1920s. Its slightly large proportions are arguably out of keeping with the façade. Stone steps to doorway.

To the left and to the right of the doorway there is a single sash window with Georgian panes (6/6)- [most of the windows have similar panes]. To the first floor are three similar windows. The front façade is largely covered in ivy growth.

The N façade is much longer than that to the front, and is set on a slight slope (descending E to W). To the ground floor are five unevenly spaced sash windows, all as front but of slightly varying size. Between the 2nd and 3rd windows is a side doorway with modern glazed door. To the first floor there are five windows, much as ground floor. To the extreme left, there is a section of high walling which links to the E wing of the U-shaped outbuilding complex. This high wall contains a large elliptical headed vehicle entrance which leads into a courtyard.

The S elevation has a complex appearance and is three sections. To the left it is hipped roofed, to the centre flat roofed and to the right, hipped roofed but set further back. To the far left on the ground floor there is a recently constructed hipped roof PVC conservatory. To the first floor above this are two windows, as front. The central flat roofed section was raised in height during the 1920s. It has two windows to the ground floor and two to the first floor of varying size. The frame of each is generally of Georgian inspiration and much in keeping with the rest of the house; however, none of the frames appear to be sash. To its short E face this flat roofed section has a narrow six pane window to both floors. The recessed section to the right of the elevation has a sash window to the ground floor and two to the first floor, all as front.

The latter section abuts the long W wing of the U-shaped outbuilding complex set to the E of the main house. This wing of the complex has been integrated with the house itself (possibly in the 1920s). To its W façade the wing has three levels (though its height is the same as the rest of the building). To the left on the ground floor is a partly glazed door. To the right of this is a squat double sash window (6/3, 6/3). Directly above this is a similar window and to the uppermost floor is a single sash window (6/6). To the right of this the ground level rises and the wing is two level. To the upper floor at this end there are three sash windows (6/6, 9/9, 9/9). The lower half of the façade at this end is covered in ivy growth and a small timber ‘garden house’ has been placed against the façade.

The outbuilding complex itself is entered from the N, through a large elliptical headed archway (see above). This leads into a small courtyard. The E façade of the wing to the W has four doorways and a small six pane window. The door to the far right (which is partly glazed), leads into the main house. To the first floor are three unevenly spaced sash windows with vertical astragals (2/2). The N façade of the block to the S (the bottom of the ‘U’ as it were) has three stable doors to the ground floor, with a small nine pane window to left on the first floor, with a timber sheeted loft door to the right. The W façade of the E wing has three large vehicle openings (of various size) to the ground floor along with a pedestrian door. To the first floor there are four windows (with modern frames, but not out of keeping with the rest of the building) and a loft doorway.

To the S of the outbuilding complex is a large walled garden. A long single storey gabled green house abuts the S face of the S wing of the outbuildings. There is another lean-to green house which extends from this façade of the S wing (and leans-to the garden wall).

The façade of the house (and much of the outbuildings) is covered in rough cast, with large sections of this now smothered in ivy growth. All sections of the roof (apart from the flat area to the S) are covered in natural slate. The front (W) portion of the roof has an overhang. There are six chimney stacks, mostly in a sand coloured brick, with tall octagonal clay pots. Some of these stacks may have been rebuilt in c.1920s-30s. Cast iron rw goods.

A short distance to the N of the S (to the E of the main drive) is a collection of mid 19th century farm buildings known as ‘The Stump’. To the N side of this grouping is a two storey rubble-built block with a gabled roof. This building has been recently converted to a show room (for locally produced furniture) and offices and now has mainly modern window frames etc. To the S of this there is a three storey battlemented clock tower, with doorway to the S face and various pointed arch slit window openings (some of which appear to be modern insertions. A wall spans between the tower and the showroom / office block.

The entrance to the main drive (on the S side of Ballytrim Road) has a curving gate screen with octagonal piers with decorative (mushroom-like) finials and decorative (late 19th century looking) railings and gates.

Historical information

Ballytrim House was built by John Lowry, a Downpatrick notary, in c.1810-20*, on land acquired from the How family (who had held much of Ballytrim since the early 1600s). The house is shown on the OS map of 1834 and recorded, (as a relatively newly-built dwelling), in the contemporary valuation- along with the attached outbuildings (which included stables, a barn and a cow house). A description of Ballytrim written in 1835 refers to the ‘improvements Mr John Lowry has made there’ and the ‘house which he built, these some years past…surrounded by a handsome planting’. The planting was begun by Lowry in mid 1833.

The Lowry family remained at Ballytrim until 1874, when two years after the death of John’s son, Thomas Kennedy Lowry (the erstwhile Governor of Jamaica), the house and estate were sold at auction to William Pentland Ringland for £2,100. The description of the property given with the sale documents of November 1874 mention that the dwelling house contained ‘2 reception rooms and 6 bedrooms, besides 3 new bedrooms almost finished. There is a large and productive walled in garden attached to the house, well stocked with fruit trees. The offices are extensive and in good order. There is a long carriage drive and a handsome clock tower’. The clock tower at ‘The Stump’ to the north of the house was built between c.1834 and c.1859, and was possibly put there for the benefit of the estate workers.

The Ringlands sold Ballytrim in 1920 to Samuel King, of Lassara House near Crossgar, for £6,875. King does not appear to have lived at Ballytrim itself and, possibly due to mounting debts, was forced to sell the house and the estate in 1925, at the much reduced price of £2,500. The description of the building given at the time of the sale tells us that it contained ‘3 reception rooms, 8 bedrooms, bathroom (hot and cold running water), dressing room, lavatory, besides servant’s accommodation, kitchen, pantries, milkroom, coal cellar…[as well as] a large conservatory opening off the drawing room’. We are also told that ‘in the outside yard (enclosed) there are byres for 12 cows, 2 loose boxes, 3 stall stable, harness room, garage, hen house, workshop, boiling house, tool shed and oil house, piggeries and extensive lofts all slated and in good repair’. There was also a petrol driven pump for supplying water from the near by lake and at The Stump an ‘ornamental clock tower and two cottier houses producing 5/- per week’.

Thomas McClinton, the next owner of Ballytrim, made extensive changes to the house in the late 1920s, adding the main bathroom, altering the layout, building a new oak staircase (in a different position) and adding much Neo-Georgian detailing including the cornices, ceiling mouldings and the Adam-style fire places. A new entrance door was added, along with mahogany internal doors. Much (if not all) of the fittings and detailing was brought from Georgian residences in Dublin. Electricity was installed at this time also, with the power supplied by a bank of large batteries stored in the outbuildings.

McClinton died in 1960 and the house and roughly half of the estate was bought by the father of the present owner. The present owner himself (who came into possession of the house in 1980), added the present conservatory as well as effecting some minor changes to the internal layout.

The current owners stated that they believed that ‘The Stump’ to the north of Ballytrim House, and that the buildings predated the house itself. Map evidence suggests that the present buildings (including the clock tower) were built between c.1834 and c.1859.

*The earliest reference to John Lowry in Ballytrim dates from 1816.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/31/1 OS map, 1834, Down 31
2 PRONI VAL/1A/3/31 1st valuation map, c.1835, Down 31
3 PRONI VAL/1B/336 1st valuation, Killyleagh (Barony of Dufferin), 1835-38
4 PRONI D.365/3 Diary of Ainsworth Pilson [Pilson gives a brief description of Lowry’s Ballytrim estate.]
5 PRONI OS/6/3/31/2 OS map, 1859-60, Down 31
6 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s) valuation, Killyleagh, 1863
8 ‘Rental of part of the lands of Ballytrim’ (1874) [Landed Estates Court document describing the Ballytrim estate prior to its sale in November 1874 (in possession of current resident)]
9 PRONI OS/6/3/31/3 OS map, 1901, Down 31
10 PRONI OS/6/3/31/4 OS map, 1921, Down 31
11 Sale documents relating to the auction of the Ballytrim estate, February 1925

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large two storey, hipped roof, Regency gentleman’s residence of c.1815, with attached outbuilding complex. The property was extensively renovated and refitted in the 1920s in sympathetic Neo-Georgian fashion. The present front door (and surround) was added at this stage, with it and much of the other detailing believed to have come from Georgian residences in Dublin.