Roden House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1850, on the site of an earlier house, with redbrick two-storey rear block built c.1890. Rectangular on plan facing north with screen wall and lean-to wing to east, and L-plan range of two-storey outbuildings behind gated entrance to west. Street-fronted on the south side of Park Street with large rear walled garden.

Double-pile natural slate roofs with a central valley, black clay ridge tiles, parged cement verges and four rendered redbrick profiled chimneystacks rising from each gable with clay pots. Cast-iron guttering to convex moulded eaves courses returning to the gables and cast-iron downpipes. Ruled and lined cement rendered walling to the front and side elevations, redbrick to the rear elevation laid in English garden wall bond. Square-headed window openings with original 2/2 timber sash windows (some cylinder glass) and stone sills.

Symmetrical two-storey front north elevation five windows wide with continuous painted stone sill course to the first floor and moulded architrave surrounds to the ground floor windows. Central three-centred arched door opening comprising; raised and fielded timber panelled door with brass furniture flanked by pair of plain sidelights over raised and fielded panels flanked by slender pilasters with Greek key incision supporting lintel cornice and textured glazed fanlight having central glazing bar with moulded archivolt over. Door opens onto single granite step to the street with cobbled front area enclosed by granite bollards supporting iron chains. Tall rendered screen wall with terracotta coping, flush to the façade continues east with lean-to wing behind.

M-profile east side elevation abutted by lean-to extension to the front block having ruled and lined cement rendered wall, the rear block set back slightly from the front. Round-headed stairhall window opening to the front block with 2/2 timber sash window and incorporated plain fanlight.

Later rear redbrick block is narrower than the front block with a single-storey three-sided canted bay having stone cornice to the lead-lined parapet wall and continuous stone sill course. The left ground floor bay has been enlarged c.1990, with concrete lintel and pair of glazed hardwood French doors opening onto concrete-paved steps to the garden.

The west elevation comprises two gables, that to the rear stepped back behind the front block with a lean-to rubble stone wing to the ground floor having natural slate roof, providing rear access and opening into a courtyard. Slender window openings are positioned to the right of both gables with 2/2 timber sash windows, while the lean-to has an early 8/4 timber sash window and a glazed timber door with four-pane window and redbrick surrounds. The front block has a further lean-to glazed conservatory/porch.

Setting
Fronting directly onto the street, terminating the north end of Park Lane, a rubble stone screen wall to the west opens into a paved courtyard via a pair of replacement timber sheeted gates on tall redbrick piers. The yard is enclosed to the west by a single-storey rubble stone outbuilding with natural slate roof and four redbrick carriage arches, three having vertically-sheeted double timber doors. The south end of the yard is enclosed by a two-storey rubble stone former coach house, now converted into a self-contained unit, with a single redbrick carriage arch (as above), a further square-headed garage opening, hipped artificial slate roof and enlarged window openings with uPVC windows. Large rear walled garden with rubble stone walling.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Windows Timber sash
Walling Cement render / redbrick

Historical information

An 1803 plan of Hillsborough shows a building across from the intersection of Park Lane and Park Street in the current location of Roden House. There seems to have been little change to the site up until the period of the first Ordnance Survey in 1834 when a large house, a small out-building and adjoined garden are shown. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1834-37) state that the building was a 2 storey dwelling house, built of stone, slated and whitewashed. Both the memoirs and the Townland Valuations for the area (1834) record that the house was occupied in 1834 by Captain E. Jenkins of the Hillsborough police, and that it was valued at £11.4s.

The valuation of the house increased between 1834 and Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) when it was listed at £25. The current occupant of the house believes that at this time the original house was demolished and the present building was erected; this is supported by field inspection. The current building presents no evidence of early nineteenth century fabric. By Griffith’s Valuation the occupant is listed as Mark Wardhaugh, a Civil Engineer and agent of the Marquis of Downshire who contracted and also carried out work on Lord Downshire’s land. Wardhaugh, an Englishman born in Gateshead, England occupied the house until 1883. He died on 22nd November 1887 (Graveyard Inscriptions, p. 94). A red brick pile extension at the rear of the building dates stylistically to the late 19th century, however there is no valuation change to support this.

The Annual Valuations show that William J Henry occupied the house in 1883 and lived there until 1893 when Joseph Stevenson, a Belfast Linen Merchant, briefly occupied the building. The Boyd family came into possession of the house in 1903 and it became the family home. Henry J Boyd worked in the Town Dispensary located on Lisburn street and was also a Justice of the Peace. The Boyd family were quite wealthy, buying a number of gardens along their side of Park Street between 1903 and 1927. A deed plan in the Downshire Estate papers shows that in 1921 Dr William Boyd purchased a plot of land on Park Street for the fee of £220 from Lord Downshire. When the 1901 Census was collected there were numerous out-offices and farm-steadings returned for Roden House including a stable, a coach house, a cow house, a dairy, a fowl house and one shed. By 1911 Henry J Boyd had considerably increased his holdings, his return consisting of two stables, two coach houses, two cow houses, a piggery and three stores.

The Annual Revisions record that in 1913 his son William S. Boyd followed in his father’s footsteps and gained his qualification as a Doctor and that after the death of his father on 29th March 1925 and mother Annie in 1926 (Graveyard Inscriptions, p. 56) William came into possession of Roden House in 1927. A memorial Lych Gate to Henry Boyd was erected on the path to Hillsborough Cemetery by public subscription in recognition of his 40 years of work in Hillsborough dispensary (Kelly, p. 56).

It is likely that William Boyd continued to work in the town dispensary. Roden House was the childhood home of his son Arthur Stanley Boyd who was born in 1920 and followed in the family tradition. Arthur Boyd’s obituary in the British Medical Journal states that he received his M.D. in 1947 and ‘then went into partnership with his father in a long-established family practice in his home town of Hillsborough where he continued as a very busy general practitioner until a few days before his death [1971]’ (British Medical Journal, p. 474). In recognition of his services to Hillsborough, a memorial garden commemorating Arthur Stanley Boyd was erected in Main Street.

Roden house continues to be occupied by a descendant of the Boyd Family.

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 D671/M/8/25 – Hillsborough Map c.1800
4. PRONI D671/M/8/57/1 – Hillsborough Illustrated Map 1803
5. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
6. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858
7. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-1903
8. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
9. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation 1856-64
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14A – Annual Revisions 1864-1879
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14B – Annual Revisions 1880-1889
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14C – Annual Revisions 1890-1908
13. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14D – Annual Revisions 1909-1928
14. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14E – Annual Revisions 1928-1930
15. PRONI D671/D/8/8/324 – Copy Conveyance Deed Plan 1921

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of Mid Down: Hillsborough, Dromore, Dromara, Ballynahinch, the Spa, Drumaness and Saintfield’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1974.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of North County Down’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002.
3. ‘Obituary Notices’ British Medical Journal, 1971.
4. ‘Gravestone Inscriptions: Vol. 18 Co. Down’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1979.
5. 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
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

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-storey symmetrical rendered house, built c.1850, on the site of an earlier house, with later red brick rear block, built c.1890. Located on the south side of Park Street facing onto Park Lane with a large rear garden and range of outbuildings. With its intact windows and decorative doorcase, Roden House is a good example of a Victorian townhouse, further enhanced by the later red brick elevation to its sloping landscaped grounds. The historic associations with the Boyd family and the Town Dispensary, commemorated by the Lych Gate (19/05/004) on the grounds of St. Malachy’s Church, give the house added interest.

General comments

Criteria R and S also apply.