Gillbrook

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical detached three-bay two-storey with attic stone and brick house, built c.1850. Rectangular on plan facing north with single-storey T-plan wing attached to the west gable. Set on a corner site to the south of Mullaghcarton Road with the east gable fronting onto Cross Lane.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, redbrick chimneystacks rising from either gable end and cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to redbrick eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Squared uncoursed rubblestone walling with squared quoins and redbrick surrounds to all openings. Square-headed window openings with rendered reveals, painted masonry sills and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows.

Symmetrical north front elevation is five windows wide with central square-headed door opening comprising; moulded stepped architrave surround on plinth blocks and flat-panelled timber door with rectangular overlight. Door opens onto footpath to front garden.

East side elevation has a single window opening to the first floor and two diminutive window openings to the attic, all having uPVC windows. Redbrick chimney flues result in equal stone/brick ratio to walling. Rubblestone boundary wall encloses gable from Cross Lane.

South rear elevation is three windows wide, abutted by lean-to glazed conservatory and having three flat-roofed dormer insertions to the rear pitch. Replacement tripartite timber sash window to the ground floor and uPVC to the remainder including dormers.

West side elevation is abutted by single-storey wing with a door opening to the ground floor and two attic windows, as above. The L-plan former outbuilding has pitched natural slate roof, rubblestone walling and square-headed window openings with replacement timber sash windows to the connecting north section, steel casement windows to the west section and replacement timber sheeted doors opening onto the gravel rear access lane.

Setting:
Facing north on a corner site at a rural crossroads the site is enclosed by tall rubblestone wall to the east with iron sheeted gates on tall stone piers opening onto Cross Lane. To the north low rubblestone wall with stone coping enclosing front garden, opening onto Mullaghcarton Road via pedestrian iron gate on brick piers, to the west a vehicular opening with modern steel gates and gravel drive runs along the west elevation of the attached wing. House located north of a stone railway bridge crossing Cross Lane.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Squared uncoursed rubble
Windows Replacement timber sash

Historical information

Gillbrook house first appears on the second Ordnance Survey map for the Magheragall area (1857) where it is depicted as an oblong building situated at a crossroads west of Lisburn. The current west-extension is depicted on the map as a rectangular out office which extends from the front of the house to the back of the garden, however in 1857 the house and its stables were separate buildings.

In 1859 Griffith’s Valuation records that the Marquis of Hertford let the house to a Mr. George Gill. At that time the house and its sole office were valued at £14. Gill occupied the house until his death in 1860 when his son John Valentine Gill, came into possession (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 04/11/1860). At some time between 1863 and 1865 the value of the house was reduced to £11; however it is unclear why the house was devalued.

John Valentine Gill’s will tells us that he worked as a shopkeeper on the Newtownards Road in Belfast. His wife Mary Agnes (39) managed the farm at Gillbrook with their four children including a 16 year old son also named John Valentine. The house was recorded as a 1st class dwelling consisting of six rooms. In 1901 the current extension of the house was formerly used as a stable, as well as also accommodating a calf house, dairy, piggery, fowl house, a barn and a turf house. John Valentine Gill died in 1910 leaving effects of £181. 4s. 4d. and the house to his widow (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 13/12/1910). Mary Gill occupied the house until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1928.

Field inspection, based on style and materials supports a date of construction c.1850. A linking extension built to connect the west of the house to the former stables post dates the 1920 fourth edition Ordnance Survey map, but is shown on the current (1973 edition). The house was listed in 1988; by 1989 a sun room had been added to the property.

References:

Primary Sources
1. PRONI VAL/1/A/1/63 – Field Map c.1830
1. PRONI VAL/1/B/174 – Townland Valuation
2. PRONI OS/6/1/63/1 – First Edition OS Map 1832
3. PRONI OS/6/1/63/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1857
4. PRONI OS/6/1/63/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-1901
5. PRONI OS/6/1/63/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-1921
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/62 – Griffith’s Valuation 1859
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/13 A – Annual Revisions 1863-1865
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/13 B – Annual Revisions 1869-1881
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/13 C – Annual Revisions 1881-1894
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/13 D – Annual Revisions 1895-1908
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/13 E – Annual Revisions 1909-1928
12. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1860, 1910).

Secondary Sources
1. NIEA File – HB19/03/009.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached three-bay two-storey with attic stone and brick house, built c.1850. With its symmetrical front, exposed stone construction and modest proportions, the house exhibits the aspirations of the nineteenth-century rural holding. Set at an attractive rural crossroads the building's single-storey stone wing and attendant stone walls, give it visual appeal and character. Despite the addition of modern dormer windows to the rear, the building has many original features internally and externally and makes a contribution to the heritage of the area.