160 Ballylesson Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached two-storey rendered house, built c.1860 with gable-ended rear return and possibly incorporating fabric of an earlier house. Rectangular on plan facing northwest and located on an elevated on the south side of Ballylesson Road.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and three yellowbrick chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots. Plastic rainwater goods on timber fascia. Rough-cast rendered walling. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes.

Front elevation is four windows wide with a central segmental-headed door opening having replacement timber panelled door and replacement timber surround with possibly original webbed timber fanlight. Door opens onto stone step to elevated front garden.

East gable has a single window opening to each floor.

Rear elevation is abutted by an off-centre gable-ended two-storey return surmounted by a yellowbrick chimneystacks, having replacement 2/2 timber sash windows. Replacement 6/6 timber sash windows to the rear elevation openings and two door openings having replacement glazed timber doors with a modern decorative timber door surround to the principal rear entrance.

West gable has a pair of window openings to the first floor with 6/6 timber sash windows and a segmental-headed window opening to the ground floor with replacement tripartite timber sash window.

Setting:
Set on an elevated site along the southeast side of Ballylesson Road with a converted rubblestone former outbuilding to the rear with replacement low pitched slate roof. Short gravel drive opens onto Ballylesson Road to the south via pair of modern steel gates.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Plastic
Walling Rough-cast render
Windows Replacement timber sash

Historical information

No. 160 Ballylesson Road, a two-storey detached dwelling was constructed c. 1860; however an earlier building occupied the site first appearing on the first edition Ordnance Survey map for the townland of Ballylessan in 1834. The map depicts the dwelling as an oblong building possessing a rear return at that time. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation indicates that the current house was ‘unfinished’ in 1861, but was valued at £2 10s; the valuer records that the house was let by Robert Batt (of Purdysburn House) to a Mr. William Moore, whilst Moore let two smaller houses, valued at 10s each and located to the east of his property, to lodgers. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map records that the house possessed its two-storey rear return and that the single-storey outbuilding to the rear of the house had been constructed by 1858.

William Moore resided at the house until his death prior to 1901 by which time his son Samuel Walter Moore had come into possession of the property which had been renamed ‘Forthill Dairy’ on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1901-02) which also shows that an additional outbuilding had been constructed to the south-west and one to the south-east of the house. The 1901 Census records that Moore (56), a dairy farmer occupied Forthill with his wife Mary (45) and their infant daughter Bertha, employing a small number of domestic and farm servants. The Census Building Return described the house as a 1st class dwelling which consisted of 10 rooms, however the out office return for that year was missing. The 1911 Census indicates that Forthill possessed a large number of out offices including four cow houses and a dairy house used for Moore’s business, as well as three stables, a piggery, a boiling house and a barn. Samuel Moore continued to occupy Forthill until his death in 1922 at which time he left the house and effects of £212 5s. 10d. to his married daughter Bertha Carmichael (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 15 October 1922). It is not known whether Bertha Carmichael took over her father’s business, however the property continued to be recorded at Forthill Dairy until the sixth edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1938.

Field inspection finds that No. 160 Ballylesson Road is now primarily utilised as a private dwelling. The house was purchased by the current owner’s family in the 1970s; the rear outbuilding, formerly used as a barn, was converted into a garage during the 1980s. The remainder of the original dairy outbuildings had been taken down by the 1973 Ordnance Survey map, although a corrugated iron shed to the south-west of the house may be one of the outbuildings added by the third edition of the maps in 1901-02.

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 OS/6/3/9/6 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1920-31
6. PRONI OS/6/3/9/7 – Sixth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/25A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911
9. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1922)
10. Ordnance Survey map 166-1 (1973)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached two-storey rendered house, built c.1860 with gable-ended rear return. A mid-nineteenth-century house which retains some of its external composition, however much of the original fabric and detailing is replacement. Despite the loss of original details the house has a prominent roadside location and adds to the character of Ballylesson Road. Although of interest it is not considered of special interest and does not meet the criteria for listing.

General comments

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