Duneight House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical detached two-storey stucco-fronted house, built c.1830, facing southeast fronting an earlier two-storey rendered farmhouse, built c.1750 now serving as a rear return and extended c.1860, extensively refurbished c.1900 with front entrance porch added. Set within its own grounds perpendicular to Green Road on its south side with range of rendered outbuildings to the south and west.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, behind parapet wall with moulded cornice and pair of rendered chimneystacks with cement coping to either gable end. Lead valley behind front parapet wall, cast-iron guttering to rear and return with cast-iron downpipes. Ruled and lined cement rendered walling, rough-cast render to the side and rear elevations with rusticated render quoins and moulded render plinth course. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills, render surrounds and timber sash windows.

Symmetrical three-bay two-storey front elevation abutted by flat-roofed square-plan front entrance porch. Banded rustication to the ground floor and a continuous sill band to the first floor. Moulded architrave surrounds to window openings with Greek key frieze and dentilated cornice over, flanked by scrolled foliate console brackets to the ground floor opes all fenestrated with horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows with ogee horns. Flat felt-covered roof to the front porch with engaged panelled corner piers supporting plain entablature having a large fixed multi-pane timber window to the front and a flat-panelled timber door to the north cheek with brass door furniture. Door opens onto nosed stone platform to front bitmac area.

South gable has a single off-centre window opening, detailed as per first floor of front elevation.

Rear elevation is abutted by two-storey return to the north end with the L-plan returning to enclose a former rear yard, now filled with a lean-to extension abutting the remainder of the rear elevation and a modern lean-to glazed conservatory joining the extension to the return. A central round-headed stairhall window with single-pane timber sash window having coloured margin lights. Further window opening has a shaped render surround and horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash window. The L-plan return has 8/8 timber sash windows with shaped render surrounds and masonry sills with hipped natural slate roof and a rebuilt redbrick chimneystack with octagonal clay pots rising from the rear elevation.

North gable detailed as per south gable continuing a further three bays wide to the two-storey elevation of the return having 6/6 timber sash windows with shaped render surrounds and painted masonry sills.

Setting:
Set within its own grounds perpendicular to Green Road on its south side with a large front and side lawn enclosed to the road by rubblestone wall and pair of curved entrance screens having wrought-iron gates on rendered piers. The west entrance gates give rear access to a small paved yard via bitmac drive with a single rendered outbuilding. The outbuilding has pitched natural slate roof with steel casement windows and a sheeted door to the loft at the north gable. A further two-storey L-plan range of outbuildings is located to the west having hipped natural slate roof with steel casement windows and rough-cast rendered walling.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Ruled and lined render / rough-cast render
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

In 1833 the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map depicts an L-shaped building on the current site of Duneight House although it is not named until the second edition in 1858. Duneight House incorporates two dwellings, a two-storey house positioned north-west to south-east which was erected pre-1833 (Brett would suggest a mid-18th century build date, p. 191), and a later dwelling which was constructed c. 1830 and abutted the west gable of the earlier dwelling. The map also depicts two large out buildings located to the west of the house which are recorded as ‘Bleach Mills.’ By 1858 the Bleach Mills are confirmed to be situated in the largest outbuilding on the site and over the later editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (1833-1920) this mill was continually enlarged until the fourth edition map in 1920 when it was recorded as a ‘Flax Mill.’

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs for the region mentions, but does not describe Duneight House, instead providing details of the Bleach Mill. It records that Duneight House and the Mills were owned by the Marquis of Downshire, the tenant in 1837 being a Mr. William Hunter. The Mill was ‘erected in 1833; water wheel 26 feet diameter, breadth five feet, breast wheel, three feet fall of water, machinery wood and iron, three pairs of beetles.’ The Townland Valuation of 1834 records that William Hunter was the caretaker of Duneight which he maintained for the Marquis of Downshire. Duneight House was recorded as a two-storey 1A class building (‘Cut Stone’) measuring 78 by 28 ft, and valued at £10 13s. 10d. The large number of out offices at Duneight included a stable, the Bleach Mill, a furnace house, a wash and boiling house and engine house and a drying loft; the total valuation of the site came to £42 18s. 7d.

Griffith’s Valuation records that Duneight House was increased in value to £13 in 1861 by which time the return to the rear of the earlier 18th century dwelling had been constructed; field inspection suggests that the Victorian features, including the windows of the larger house, were added during the same period. In 1861 the house came into the ownership of a Mr. Robert Morrow who let the dwelling to the Rev. Phineas Whiteside; the Rev. Whiteside was Minister at Legacurry Presbyterian Church and resided at Duneight until his death on 7th September 1865 (Kelly, p. 161). With Whiteside’s death the house fell vacant until 1876 when it was occupied by a William J. Henry and then by William D. Jameson in 1883. The house fell vacant again until 1886 when it was briefly occupied by a Mr. Andrew Kidd and then by Andrew John Morrow who bought the property outright in 1890.

The 1901 Census records that Andrew John Morrow (43) was a Presbyterian farmer and rate collector who lived in Duneight with his wife Jane Morrow and their three children. The Census Building Return described the house as a first class dwelling, which consisted of nine rooms. The out offices, aside from the Bleach Mill, included a stable, coach house, cow house, and a dairy. The Annual Revisions record that Andrew Morrow rebuilt the house c. 1900 after it was damaged by fire, at which time the Edwardian features of the house including the entrance porch were presumably constructed. Morrow let the house to an Andrew W. Watson c. 1910, but by 1920 the property was occupied by ‘Flax Society Limited.’ Flax Society Ltd. was dissolved in 1924 due to the slump in the market after the Great War and the house came into possession of a Mr Isaac Logan who resided at Duneight until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

Rankin suggests that Alexander Hunter of Dunmurry built a Beetling mill at Duneight in 1833 for the Marquis of Downshire and in 1836 he left Duneight to his newly married son William Steen Hunter who became an esteemed linen merchant and bleacher (Rankin, p. 170). Green states that there was also a dilapidated corn mill at the site, the Townland Revisions note a corn kiln in the area but it is not clear whether this was attached to the Duneight estate. Green also states that in 1845 the bleach mill was advertised for sale stated to ‘be capable of bleaching 25,000 pieces a year’ (Green, p. 26). Rankin, however, records that Duneight was not sold until 1862 when it came into the possession of the Rev. Phineas Whiteside. He suggests that the sale was due to the increasing competition amongst large Linen merchants within the Lagan Valley (Rankin, p. 170).

Duneight House was listed in 1985, the listers described it as a’ three-bay symmetrical front with plaster classical detailing ... a re-modelling of an earlier house.’ In 1996 Brett stated that only the rear part of the house was currently habitable due to re-roofing and renovation work aimed at eradicating dry rot (Brett, p. 191). The current owner repaired the lime render - 2011/12 (NIEA File).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14A – Annual Revisions 1864-1879
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14B – Annual Revisions 1880-1889
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14C – Annual Revisions 1890-1908
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14D – Annual Revisions 1909-1928
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14E – Annual Revisions 1928-1930
11. Ordnance Survey Memoirs
12. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911

Secondary Sources

1. Green, E. R. R. ‘The industrial archaeology of County Down’ Belfast, 1963.
2. Kelly, D., ‘Lisburn’s rich church heritage: Churches and places of worship in the Lisburn city area’ Lisburn: Impression Print and Design, 2009.
3. Rankin, K., ‘The linen houses of the Lagan Valley’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Symmetrical detached two-storey stucco-fronted house, built c.1830 with earlier L-plan farmhouse forming rear return, built c.1750, originally owned by the Marquis of Downshire. The principal elevation of this dwelling exhibits a late Victorian formal type house while incorporating a much earlier house in the rear return. With its elegant proportions and decorative Greek-style detailing to the front elevation, it is a good example of a Mill manager'ss house, which has been developed during 18th and 19th centuries, with the assocaited bleaching mill site. Retaining its rural setting and some orignal outbuildings, gatescreens and restored mill buildings nearby, it make a positive contribution to the heritage of the Lisburn area.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - age, S - Authenticity and T - Historic importance also apply.