Ravarnet House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey pebble-dash rendered house, dated 1879, extended and refurbished c.1920, incorporating an earlier three-bay two-storey house to the front, built c.1820. Located on the north side of Carnbane Road on an extensive landscaped site at a lower level to the road.

Hipped natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles (rolled lead ridges to the hips), serveral rendered chimneystacks with decorative terracotta pots and gabled wall-head dormers to the west pitch. Ogee-moulded metal guttering to overhanging eaves supported on shaped modillions and metal downpipes. Dry-dash rendered walling with smooth rendered corners and continuous smooth render plat band between floor levels. Square-headed window openings with stone sills, rendered reveals and timber sash windows.

Front north elevation is three windows wide with a two-storey gabled entrance bay having terracotta finial. Tripartite timber sash windows to the entrance bay with horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows and margin lights to the remainder. To the west cheek of the entrance bay is a square-headed door opening with moulded cement render surround, panelled timber door with stop-chamfers and decorative handle having canopy over supported on pair of brackets.

East side elevation is eight windows wide with horizontally-glazed timber sash windows, some timber casement windows and two replacement timber glazed doors. Abutting this elevation to the south end is a flat-roofed rear entrance porch.

South rear elevation comprises a pair of two-storey gables, one set back from the other and abutted by a timber-framed conservatory and a screen wall. 6/6 timber sash windows to the re-entrant angle.

West garden elevation is abutted by a two-storey central three-sided canted bay and a two-storey square-plan gabled bay, fully glazed to the ground floor. All fenestration to this elevation is multi-pane timber sash windows with three round-headed door openings to the south end having timber French doors.

Setting:
Set within its own large landscaped site having a two-storey outbuilding enclosing gravel yard to east, lawn to west and north and enclosed to the south by a tall rendered wall to Carnbane Road. Winding gravel drive opens onto Carnbane Road to the southwest via pair of decorative iron gates on dry-dash rendered piers and wall.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Ogee-moulded metal
Walling Dry-dash render
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

'Ravarnette House' appears captioned on the first edition Ordnance Survey map in 1833 as an oblong building situated north-east of Hillsborough. Two small out offices appear next to the house. The Townland Valuation (1830s) records the occupant of the house as James Henderson. A corn mill and flax mill are listed as part of the premises, and are depicted on the map as two oblong out offices to the east of the house. The entire site including the dwelling was worth £26. 8s. the house itself being valued at £11. 2s. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs for the region (1833-38) also mention the Corn Mill and Flax mill, but do not make reference to Ravarnette House.

During the period of Griffith’s Valuation (1861) Henry Hart resided at the property which was now described as a house, offices and flour mill stores, let by the Marquis of Downshire and the value greatly increased to £50. The contemporary second edition Ordnance Survey map for the area (1858) shows no alteration to the property since 1833 although the site was then captioned as ‘Agnes Vale.’ It is unclear why the value of the house increased so much between 1833 and 1861. According to secondary sources the house was extensively extended and refaced in 1879, there is a datestone on the house, obscured by creeper, but according to the current owner it bears the date 1879.

In 1871 the flour mill was converted into a scutch mill and in 1874 a weaving factory was added to the site. From 1871 the dwelling and its out offices were allocated separate valuation records. The ‘Ravarnette Weaving Factory’ was valued at £50. whilst the mill store was worth £18. The value of Ravarnette house itself was £26. In 1873 the entire site was occupied by a Mr. John Sinton and in 1889, after the rebuilding work was carried out, the house value was increased to £32. while the weaving factory saw its worth increase to £75 with the addition of a new boiling house and the incorporation of the scutch mill into its value. John Sinton occupied Ravarnette house until his son Edwin A. Sinton came into possession in 1907 and bought the house from the Marquis of Downshire in 1913. In 1915 the Annual Revisions changed the description of the weaving factory to ‘offices, weaving mill, saw mill and store’ which greatly increased the value from £75 to £230. In 1921 the value of the house was increased to £60.

In 1901 the Census records that Edwin A. Sinton (28), a Linen Manufacturer and Quaker, lived in Ravarnette house with his widowed mother (64) and his sister Helena. Recorded in the census as a 1st class house including 12 rooms, it’s out offices included a stable, coach house, harness room, cow house, 2 calf houses, a pig house, fowl house, a boiling house and a barn, which were located in a smaller out office between the house and the factory. By 1911 the Census return tells us that Edwin Sinton was not only the landholder of Ravarnette House but also of all the properties in the entire Townland. Sinton, now married to his wife Olivia since 1903, greatly increased his holdings at Ravarnette to over 25 out offices including a number of stables, cow houses, calf houses, piggery’s, fowl houses and sheds. Sinton also possessed a forge, a laundry and a ‘Motor House’ at this time.

Rankin states that the original house was built in 1789 and was later greatly extended and refaced in 1879. He records that James Henderson was a linen draper and a bleacher who was also known locally as an accomplished poet. Henry Hart purchased the site in 1854 and installed looms allowing the occupation of linen weaving to develop in the village of Ravarnet. Robert Hart, the son of Henry and Ann Hart, was raised at Ravarnette and later worked in the British Foreign Office in China (Rankin, pp 35-37). Robert Hart retired to Canada and named the house he built there Ravarnette Lodge (Bell) In 1873 John Sinton took over the site and established the Ravarnette Weaving Co., Ltd, which was operated by Edwin Sinton. The factory was closed in 1920 as a result of the slump in the textile industry after the First World War. Rankin states that the Sintons left Ravarnette house in the late 1920s, although this is not recorded in the Annual Revisions (Rankin).

Ravarnette House was listed in December 1992 (NIEA File). Field research has found that houses’ former farmhouse (recorded in the census) has since been converted into a garage whilst the factory buildings have been taken down, the area reused in the construction of a residential area. A good example of the effects of the rise and fall of the textile industry in Ireland Ravarnette house expanded with the success of the industry but its factories fell into disuse after the sudden slump in the market.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/14 – Townland Valuation Map 1830
2. PRONI VAL/1/B/339 – Townland Valuation
3. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
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/6/1/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/43 – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16 A – Annual Revisions 1863-1879
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16 B – Annual Revisions 1880-1888
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16 C – Annual Revisions 1889-1905
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16 D – Annual Revisions 1906-1914
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/16 E – Annual Revisions 1915-1929

Secondary Sources

1. Bell, S., ‘Hart of Lisburn’ Lisburn: Lisburn Historical Press, 1985 (pamphlet).
2. Rankin, K., ‘The linen houses of the Lagan Valley: the story of their families’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.
3. NIEA File – HB19/04/025.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached three-bay two-storey pebble-dash rendered house, dated 1879, extended and refurbished c.1915, incorporating an earlier three-bay two-storey house to the front. Located on the north side of Carnbane Road on an extensive landscaped site, at a lower level to the road. This former linen merchant's house underwent a large scale extension and refurbishment during the late nineteenth-century and now presents a late nineteenth-century front elevation and an interesting Arts & Crafts interior. Occupying an extensive site in a much suburbanised area, the house retains considerable character, which is enhanced by the mature setting, entrance gates and walling.