Rockville

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long, plain, two storey gabled house of possible 18th century construction, whose shorter (part single storey) wings were heightened c.1970, giving the property its current lengthy appearance. The building is set right on the S side of Rocks Chapel Road, roughly a mile S of Crossgar.

The front façade actually faces away from the road, in a roughly S direction. This façade is generally symmetrical. To the centre of the ground floor is the entrance which consists of a panelled and glazed door with thick jambs and a segmental fanlight. To the left of the door are three relatively small sash windows with vertical glazing bars, whilst to far left is a modern style single storey flat roofed bay. To the right of the doorway are three sash windows as before with a modern glazed door and enlarged window to far right.

To the first floor there are six sash windows with Georgian panes. To far left and far right (between the chimney stacks) are the sections which were raised up in c.1970. The section to the W was raised about 3ft with that to the E heightened by roughly 7-8ft. To both of these sections there is a large picture window, with a adjoining modern door to the window to the left.

To the W gable there is a large modern window to each floor. To the E gable there is a small single storey gabled section.

The rear façade (which, facing right onto the road could easily be mistaken for the front) is symmetrical. To the centre of the ground floor is a panelled timber door with segmental fanlight with ‘spiders’ web’ tracery. To the left and to the right are two widely spaced sash windows to left and right and five similar windows to the first floor. To the E is the single storey section attached to the E gable. This has a panelled door with segmental fanlight, with two segmental (‘eyebrow’-like) windows to the left (the façade of this single storey portion was remodelled recently by the owner). The E gable of the single storey section is set on the squint, and to the S, a short return section has been added.

The façade is finished in a dry dash. The gabled roof is covered is natural slate with four brick chimney stacks. Cast iron rw goods

To the immediate E of the property is a laneway flanked by tall square gate pillars in random rubble, both topped with pyramidal caps. The Laneway was widened recently and the E pillar has been shifted slightly further E. To the W of the W pillar there is a short section of high rubble walling with a segmental arched pedestrian gate (with simple wrought iron gate).

To the N side of Rocks Chapel Road, directly across from the house, there is another high rubble wall with vehicle and pedestrian gates similar to that to E of house. Behind this wall is a collection of rubble-built, two and single storey outbuildings, now disused. One of the outbuildings (to the NW) flanks the roadside and has now lost much of its roof. To the E of this (and set with its gable facing the vehicle gateway) lies another outbuilding. To its S gable this has a large elliptical archway with timber sheeted loft door above.

To the front (S) of the house (beyond the garden) is a gravel drive, beyond which is a small field bordered by a rubble wall (which is relatively high in places). Apparently this field was once used as a bleach green (used in connection with a pre 1835 bleach mill which once stood to the SW).

Historical information

‘Rockville’ is marked on the OS map of 1834 and recorded in the Kilmore parish valuation records of 1835 (with similar dimensions to today). The valuers state that they regarded the property as reasonably old (perhaps 30-50 years), but that it was in good condition, perhaps indicating possible renovation just prior to this (which would explain the general late Georgian internal detailing).

Thus it is possible that the property is of 18th century construction, a hypothesis which ties in with the fact that the present owner, (whilst undertaking renovations), uncovered the date ‘1751’ inscribed on an internal wall (though crucially he could not remember whether this was a ground or first floor wall- which would have answered the question of whether the building was two storey at this date). It also seems certain that when the house was built the road was to the south, (one can still discern its original alignment), and the building’s current awkward position in relation to the road was the result of a pre 1834 realignment.

In 1835 valuation returns record ‘Rockville’ as the property of a Daniel Bell and a Thomas Henry, both of who also owned the flour mill a short distance to the south-west (now completely ruinous and overgrown). The mill itself is recorded in the OS memoirs of 1836 as having a breast wheel of 17ft in diameter and ‘almost always a sufficiency of water’. Next to this mill there used to be a bleach mill with bleachers’ houses, but by 1835 this was disused and the houses ruined. According to E.R.R. Green’s ‘Industrial archaeology of Co Down’ there used to be a brass seal preserved at Rockville inscribed ‘Sl McAllister/Kilmor/Bleacher’. Unfortunately, Green gives no indication of the date of this plaque (which, moreover, does not appear to be possession of the present resident), but it appears to indicate that the said McAllister may have lived at Rockville some time prior to the 1830s.

By 1863 the Rockville was in the hands of a James Wright.

The house appears to have remained substantially in its pre 1834 form until c.1970, when the present owner raised the shorter single wings to E and W to the level of the main section of the house.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/30/1 OS map, 1834, Down 30
2 PRONI VAL/1A/3/30 1st valuation map, c.1835, Down 30
3 PRONI VAL/1B/330 1st valuation, Kilmore, 1835
4 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland vol.17: Parishes of County Down IV’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams
(QUB 1992), p.88
5 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
6 PRONI OS/6/3/30/2 OS map, 1859-60, Down 30
5 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s) valuation, Kilmore, 1863
7 PRONI OS/6/3/30/3 OS map, 1901, Down 30
8 PRONI OS/6/3/30/4 OS map, 1920, Down 30

Secondary sources
1 E.R.R. Green, ‘The industrial archaeology of County Down’ (Belfast HMSO 1963), p.30, 47

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Long, plain, two storey gabled house of possible 18th century construction, whose formerly shorter east and west wings (one of which was single storey) were heightened c.1970, giving the property its current lengthy appearance. To the south façade and west gable there are some enlarged window openings, (confined to the portions which were heightened) and the façade is now finished in a dry dash.

The house is set right onto the roadside, displaying a symmetrical façade to the road; however, the property is, (and apparently always was), entered from the opposite side to the south, with the present awkward position of the house resulting from a realignment of the road some time prior to 1834.