Shamrock Vale

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached four-bay single-storey over basement rendered house, built c.1830. U-shaped on plan facing west with sunken courtyard to north and two-storey elevation to south with pair of double-height bowed bays. Set to the east of Hillsborough Road within its own landscaped grounds accessed via a short winding avenue with a pair of single-storey brick and rendered outhouses to the north. Extensively renovated and remodelled c.1995.

Hipped natural slate roofs (re-roofed c.1980) with terracotta ridge tiles, curved roofs to the two bows having lead ridges and four rendered chimneystacks with four painted octagonal clay pots to each. Replacement moulded metal guttering on shaped iron brackets to rendered eaves course and replacement cast-iron downpipes. Painted ruled and lined cement rendered walling with rusticated rendered quoins and projecting rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with painted stone sills and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows.

West front elevation is single-storey, four bays wide with off-centre three-centred arched door opening containing replacement timber doorcase. Timber panelled door flanked by pair of sidelights with stepped lintel cornice and fanlight over. Door opens onto elevated granite platform with four granite steps to bitmac front area. Early wrought-iron bootscraper to one of the steps.

Symmetrical north side elevation with deeply recessed two-storey three-bay central section opening onto sunken paved courtyard. Large central square-headed window opening to the upper floor with leaded stained glass window depicting Robinson family crest, dated 1921. To the lower level is a square-headed door opening with replacement timber panelled door opening into the courtyard. Further door openings to the inner cheeks of the projections also have replacement timber panelled doors with sidelight opening into the courtyard, all three doors having new nosed granite steps. The courtyard is enclosed by tall rendered walls surmounted by replacement iron railing.

East rear elevation has an irregular arrangement of window openings with the lawn embanked to the basement level. A flight of concrete steps gives access to a square-headed door opening to the basement having replacement timber panelled and glazed timber door.

Two-storey south side elevation is four windows wide with the central two windows being recessed below deep overhanging eaves and either end bay having a double-height bow. Each bow has a replacement tripartite Wyatt type bowed timber sash window to the upper level with a narrower 6/6 bowed timber sash window to the lower level.

Setting
Pair of single-storey outhouses to the north with pyramidal natural slate roofs, formerly connected to the sunken courtyard. Set within well landscaped gardens, a winding bitmac avenue opens onto Hillsborough Road via pair of cement block piers and splayed walls.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Ruled and lined cement render
RWG Replacement cast-iron
Windows Replacement timber sash

Historical information

Shamrock Vale appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1833) located north of Hillsborough in the Townland of Magherageery. It is depicted on this map as a U-shaped building with north facing returns and two small out offices. The Townland Valuation (c. 1830s) recorded that a Lieutenant James Clarke had recently occupied the house but was replaced by a Mr. or Mrs. Saunders. The house was noted as a 1a- class dwelling measuring 54 ft by 17 ft and 10.6 ft high. The house was valued at £5. 5s. 2d; the addition of six office buildings raised the total value to £19. 18s. 5d.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that Lieutenant Clarke resided at Shamrock Vale as late as 1837 and describes him as a philanthropic character who provided land for the erection Blaris Schoolhouse in 1828 and greatly contributed towards its construction and running costs. An earlier memoir dated 1833 described Shamrock Vale as a ‘very handsome dwelling ... recently built [and] one of the most beautiful cottages in the north.’

Lieut. Clarke was replaced as occupant c.1837 by a Ms. Mary Anne Saunders who resided at Shamrock Vale until her death in 1896. In 1861 Griffith’s Valuation recorded the value of the house and its offices at £24; the two out office buildings had been extended between 1833 and the second edition Ordnance Survey map in 1858 which may explain this rise in value. The valuer observed that Saunders bought the lease of the house and its 97 acres of land for £1,000 from the Marquis of Downshire, who was recorded as the landlord until 1902.

Mary Anne Saunder’s will tells us that she left a vast sum of £12,538. 18s. 3d. to her son Richard B. Saunders (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 01/06/1896). Richard Saunders occupied the house until 1902 when a Mr. Frank Robertson occupied the house. Robertson bought the house in 1902 but from that year it fell vacant and was not reoccupied until 1909 when Alexander Calwell, a retired Admiral briefly came into possession before his death later that year (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 25/12/1905). In 1911 the house came into the possession of a Mr. Thomas Lecky. The 1911 census tells us that Lecky a 38 year old Draper lived at Shamrock Vale with his wife Helen Lecky (29) and their four children. The youngest daughter was born on the day of the census (15th April 1901); a midwife also being recorded as an occupant of the house on that date. The census recorded Shamrock Vale as a 2nd class house consisting of nine inhabited rooms and possessing a number of out offices including a stable, coach house, harness room, cow house, calf house, piggery, fowl house, barn and a turf house. A number of these office buildings were built after 1858 as the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey (1920) shows up to five small out offices situated north of the house. Thomas Lecky bought the house in 1911 and lived at Shamrock Vale until 1917 when he let the house to a Mr. Thomas J. Thorton. In 1924 William Robertson became the last occupant recorded in the Annual Revisions which ended in 1930.

Brett states that the Robertson family continued to reside at Shamrock Vale at the time of his writing in 2002. Brett tells us that at some point the houses old painted doorcase had been replaced by a new mahogany entrance (Brett, p. 208). The house was listed in 1978, the listers simply describing it as ‘single-storey Georgian style house with basement. Roof hipped and slated. Walls rendered and pointed. Decorative arched doorway (NIEA File). Field research conducted at the site supports a build date of c.1830; a number of original redbrick out office still exist to the north of the house. The interior of the house has been renovated resulting in few original features remaining; a stained glass window dated 1921 and installed by W & J Robinson exists at the head of the interior staircase. Although it has lost many of its original features, Shamrock Vale is a notable as one of a number of former gentlemen’s seat situated along the road north of Hillsborough including Eglantine House (HB19/04/002) and Wellington Lodge (HB19/04/003).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI VAL/1/B/344 A-B – Townland Valuations 1834
2. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/14 – Field Map 1834
3. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
4. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858
5. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-1903
6. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16A – Annual Revisions 1863-1879
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16B – Annual Revisions 1880-1888
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16C – Annual Revisions 1889-1905
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16D – Annual Revisions 1906-1914
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16E – Annual Revisions 1915-1929
13. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1896, 1905)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of North County Down’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002.
2. NIEA File – HB19/04/004.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A four-bay single-storey over basement early nineteenth-century rendered house with a symmetrical two-storey south side elevation with full-height bows, set to the east of Hillsborough Road. Despite being extensively renovated c.1995, resulting in loss of original fabric to the interior and exterior and changes to the internal layout, floors and ceiling heights, this former villa-style residence retains its overall composition and external character. Situated wthin its original landscaped grounds, with orignal outbuildings to the north, the house is of considerable interest as one of a number of former gentlemen’s houses in the Hillsborough area.

General comments

Criteria R also pplies.