Beanstown Mission Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached linear range of single and two-storey rendered buildings, built c.1820, set on an east-west axis at Brown's Corner.

Central two-storey rendered house with projecting entrance porch abutted to the west by a single-storey former Mission Hall and abutted to the east by a single-bay single-storey accretion and a further single-storey former dwelling.

Pitched natural slate roof to the two-storey house with terracotta ridge tiles, two redbrick chimneystacks and cast-iron guttering to timber rafter feet. Corrugated asbestos sheeted roofs to the flanking single-storey structures with plastic rainwater goods. Painted cement rendered walling throughout. Square-headed window openings throughout with single-pane timber sash windows and masonry sills to the two-storey house, uPVC windows to the former hall and blocked up openings to the east range.

The two-storey house has a projecting entrance porch with blocking course to concrete roof and square-headed door opening having timber glazed door with early twentieth-century door furniture and opening directly onto the road.

The former mission hall has a pair of square-headed door openings with sheeted timber doors. The east range has a lean-to projecting entrance porch with hardwood glazed door.

Setting:
Rectangular on plan facing south fronting onto Pond Park Road with the eastern gable of the east range fronting onto the B101 at a junction known as Brown's Corner.

Roof Natural slate / Corrugated asbestos
RWG Cast-iron / plastic
Walling Cement render
Windows Timber sash / uPVC

Historical information

This range, consisting of a two-storey farmhouse abutted on both gables by single-storey buildings, first appears on the 1832-33 Ordnance Survey map for the townland of Aghalislone where it is depicted as a lengthy oblong building situated at ‘Brown’s corner’ off the Pond Park Road. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 showed little alteration to the site, although a square shaped outbuilding first appears to the rear of the range in this year.

None of the buildings along this range were recorded in the Townland Valuation of the 1830s, signifying a value of less than £3; however by Griffiths Valuation of 1861 the central house was occupied by a Mr. Thomas Fleming who let the property from the Marquis of Hertford. In 1861 the central house and its offices were valued at £2 15s; the value did not change until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929. In 1884 the house passed to a Mr. James Brown, a local farmer who occupied the property with his wife Eliza. The 1901 census building return tells us that the house originally possessed a thatched roof and contained between two and three inhabited rooms whilst the outbuilding at the rear of the building contained a cow house, a dairy and a Barn. Field inspection suggests that the central house was also originally a single-storey vernacular building which was raised a level sometime after 1901.

The single-storey building abutting the west gable of the current two-storey house has been used as the meeting place for members of a local Gospel mission since 1920. Since the early 1900s this small congregation had met in the living room of Ivy Hill Cottage, the home of a Mr. William Orr, originally a Presbyterian, who organised the first meetings. Orr later moved to a new property in Beanstown; however the farm he occupied was not large enough to hold the meetings. Kelly states that Orr gained permission to use one room of this single-storey building on Brown’s Corner, then used as a loom weaving shop, to hold the Sunday meetings. A Gospel Mission was first held here in 1921-22 resulting in an increase in numbers; over time this room became too small for the expanding congregation leading Orr to rent part of an adjoining room, taking down the dividing wall in the process and converting the hall into one large room. A later mission, led by the Faith Mission Pilgrims, was held in the hall in October 1923; this mission led to a revitalisation of the congregation who established a Prayer Union in that year. The congregation continued to meet at this location until the final service was held on 27 July 2008 after which the hall was closed; the building is currently scheduled for demolition to make way for an extensive reconstruction of the road, however at the time of writing this has not been carried out (Kelly, p. 189). The two-storey house and the building abutting its east gable have been unoccupied for some time and have fallen into a state of disrepair.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/64/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1832-33
2. PRONI OS/6/1/64/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/64/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901
4. PRONI OS/6/1/64/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1920-21
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/57 – Griffiths Valuation 1861
6. VAL/12/B/8/5A – Annual Revisions 1863-1879
7. VAL/12/B/8/5A – Annual Revisions 1880-1889
8. VAL/12/B/8/5A – Annual Revisions 1890-1900
9. VAL/12/B/8/5A – Annual Revisions 1900-1907
10. VAL/12/B/8/5A – Annual Revisions 1908-1929
11. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911

Secondary Sources
1. Kelly, D., ‘Lisburn’s rich church heritage: Churches and places of worship in the Lisburn city area’ Lisburn: Impression Print and Design, 2009.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Detached linear range of single and two-storey rendered buildings, built c.1820, set on an east-west axis at Brown's Corner. Originally a vernacular dwelling, this linear range of buildings was in religious community use for much of the twentieth-century and a focal point of the locality while retaining some of its vernacular charm and serving as a local landmark on this prominent road junction.