Denmoy

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached five-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1870, incorporating fabric from the 1820s, with front entrance porch and two rear projections. Set on its own extensive mature site to the northwest of Ballylesson Road with a pair of two-storey outbuildings to the rear forming an enclosed yard and further derelict redbrick outhouses to the north.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and pair of yellowbrick chimneystacks. Cast-iron moulded guttering to timber fascia on exposed timber rafter feet and cast-iron downpipes. Replacement timber bargeboard to either gable end with sheeted eaves on carved timber brackets. Painted rough-cast render over redbrick walling laid in English garden wall bond with projecting render plinth course. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and double glazed timber sash windows.

Front elevation is five windows wide with a central flat-roofed entrance porch. Replacement double glazed timber sash windows and original tripartite sash windows to the ground floor at either end. The entrance porch has plain rendered walling with moulded cornice and flat felt roof with plastic guttering and a square-headed door opening with replacement timber panelled and glazed door and a timber sash window to either cheek. Door opens onto sandstone step with a decorative cast-iron doorbell embedded into the wall.

West gable has a part exposed redbrick wall (formerly abutted by lean-to) and a single square-headed door opening with replacement timber glazed door opening onto red clay tiled area.

Rear elevation has a central lean-to double-height projection with curved corners and a further two-storey projection to the west end with catslide roof and single-storey projection to the re-entrant angle housing a rear entrance porch. Mostly replacement double glazed timber sash windows and a replacement timber glazed door to the rear porch.

The east gable has round-headed window openings, two to the ground floor and one to the first floor with original single glazed timber sash windows with partly exposed sash boxes.

Setting:
Set on its own extensive mature site to the northwest of Ballylesson Road accessed via short curved gravel drive to the east enclosed to the road by a low rubblestone wall. Rear cobblelock paved yard enclosed to the west by a pair of two-storey redbrick and rubblestone outbuildings with pitched natural slate roofs. The outbuilding set perpendicular ot the rear of the house, built c.1860, has been converted into a modern studio with sheeted timber walls to the interior and an original closed-string timber winder stair. The other outbuilding retains original sheeted timber stalls and cobbles. Abutting the east gable of the parallel outbuilding is a single-storey rubblestone outhouse and a further roofless redbrick outhouse containing cast-iron panels or stalls.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Rough-cast render over redbrick
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

Denmoy House, a two-storey house in the townland of Ballylessan was constructed c. 1870 incorporating fabric from an earlier single-storey dwelling which first appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map.’ The early house is depicted as an L-shaped building on the modern Ballylesson Road; at that time the two-storey outbuilding, as well as a small square outbuilding, at the rear of the house had been constructed. By the second edition in 1858 the layout of the site had altered with the construction of the two-storey extension which joined the original two buildings together from the rear of the house’s south-west gable; by this date the small square outbuilding had been demolished. Griffith’s Valuation records that this house was valued at £7 and was occupied by a Ms. Mary Orr in 1861; Orr let the house from a Mr. Charles Dunlop who resided in Edenderry House to the north of Ballylessan.

The 1861 Ulster Town’s Directory records that a Dr. Gawin [sic] Orr came into possession of the property in that year and in later editions of the Directory it is recorded that Orr operated a Dispensary in the area. During field inspection the current owner claimed that c. 1870, during Gawin’s occupation, the house was rebuilt with the addition of a second-storey. The third edition of the Ordnance Survey map for 1901-02 shows little change to the site apart from the construction of a small outbuilding to the north-west of the house; significantly, the property is recorded as ‘Dispensary’ and it is clear that Orr operated his practice from his dwelling. The 1901 Census records that Dr. Gawin Orr (61) resided at this property with his two sisters Margaret (67) and Jane (63); the Census Building Return describes the site as a 1st class private dwelling which consisted of 11 rooms and possessed a number of out offices housed in the outbuildings to the rear of the house including a stable, coach house, dairy, and a barn. The census also records that the dispensary was situated in a separate building to the house. There was little change to the site by the later census of 1911 although the dispensary was not recorded and Dr. Orr was described as retired; the Irish Builder tells us that in early 1912 construction of a new dispensary and dwelling for the local medical officer was completed by the Lisburn Board of Guardians and this can be seen on the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1920-21) located to the north-east of the former site (Irish Builder: 54, 20 Jan 1912). The Orr family had resided at this address since at least 1861 (a Mr. William Orr was recorded as a Freeholder for the Townland of Ballylesson as early as 1788 although a connection to the later Orr’s cannot be verified), however by 1922 both of Dr. Gawin’s sisters had died leaving Dr. Orr to reside at the house alone for a time until his own death in 1925 at which time he left effects of $4,207 1d. to a Mr. Charles James McKisack, a director of a Belfast based Linen Company (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 18 May 1925).

The property was recorded in 1970 as part of the First Survey of Historic Buildings by which time it had been renamed ‘Denmoy House.’ The current Ordnance Survey map of 1973 shows that no discernible alteration to the site had taken place since the map of 1920-21. The current owners came into possession of the site in the 1980s and converted the south-west extension into a modern garage and office; the outbuilding range to the rear of the house, which contains original stable stalls, is in a lesser state of preservation whilst a small outbuilding to the east of the house has fallen into a ruinous state.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/9/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/9/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/9/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
4. PRONI OS/6/3/9/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1920-21
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/25A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
6. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1925)
7. Ulster Town’s Directory (1861, 1877, 1880, 1901, 1907, 1908, 1910)
8. Irish Builder: 54, 20 Jan 1912
9. Ordnance Survey map 166-1 (1973)
10. First Survey Record (1970)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached five-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1870, possibly incorporating fabric from the 1820s. A well proportioned mid-Victorian house on a mature site retaining a wealth of original internal and external detailing. Outbuildings to the rear add to its interest, as does its use as a dispensary during the second half of the nineteenth century.

General comments

This record was completed without access to original source material held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.