Sir Samuel Kelly Memorial Eventide Home

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A large two-storey four-bay former house, now in use as a residential home, built c.1920 in the Scots-Baronial style and located south of Bangor Road, Holywood. U-shaped double-fronted block facing gardens to west with additional gabled projections to east entrance front creating an H-shaped footprint; entrance front is flanked by later gabled wings, that to right having been further extended to rear; the whole is abutted by a V-shaped modern residential extension to north (of no interest).

Pitched natural slate roof with raised and moulded sandstone verges, kneelers and ball finials to some gables; ashlar chimneystacks to ridgeline (some removed); large stepped sandstone chimneystack rising from wall to west. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on ovolo-moulded sandstone eaves; decorative cast-iron hoppers having crenellated caps and fleur-de-lys motif. Walling is roughcast render with sandstone dressings. Windows are a variety of replacement timber-framed casements in lugged ashlar sandstone mullioned and transom surrounds; two-storey canted bays to west and single-storey canted bay to south, all with crenellated parapets.

The entrance elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged with central entrance bay flanked by projecting gables which enclose a single-storey sandstone portico of chamfered sandstone columns forming three Tudor-arched openings topped by a pierced parapet –it is now enclosed by a glazed walling and fronted by a modern canopy; two windows over. The original entrance door is located to the inner cheek of the right projecting gable, comprising Gothic-headed twelve-panelled timber door in sandstone chamfered reveal having carved corner panels; chamfered semi-engaged columns surmounted by plain entablature with crenulated frieze. The right gable has two windows to each floor (those to right side are narrower); the left gable has a large multi-paned stairwell window stepped at sill level with oculus under at left. Apart from the entrance, the inner cheeks are blank. The flanking outer gables project still further and both have a window to each floor. The elevation is extended to north by a more recent two-storey extension (of little interest).

The south elevation is abutted by the south gabled wing; it has a further gabled breakfront to south with a modified ground floor window; west elevation has a window to right at first floor and fire exit to ground floor. The exposed section to left has a wide transom and mullioned window to first floor over a bowed bay with crenellated parapet.

The west (garden) elevation is symmetrically arranged with central entrance bay flanked by full-height gabled bays, each with two-storey ashlar sandstone canted bays with crenellated parapet (windows have been modified to include doors). The central bay is fronted by a projecting sandstone porch to ground floor with three (recently glazed) openings having square dividing columns surmounted by plain entablature and balustrade (stepped to centre). The central first floor window is set in an ashlar sandstone surround extending upwards to form a shouldered chimneystack immediately above.

The north elevation is abutted by a series of later accretions including the recent substantial extension, which are of little or no interest.

Setting

Set on a large mature site south of Bangor Road on the edge of Ballymenoch Park, accessed via a long tarmacadam driveway with car-park to north and east. To north is a modern single-storey dwelling. Bound to road by tall rubble stone wall having modern pebbledash square gate piers and timber fence to northeast.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: roughcast
Windows: timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

‘Ballymenoch House’ is first shown, captioned, on the fourth edition OS map of 1919-31, situated in a spacious demesne to the north of Holywood. The present house dates from 1923-4 but several earlier structures are known to have occupied the site, ‘Ballymenagh House’, as it is captioned on the first edition OS map of 1834, having played a prominent role in the local area and beyond for several centuries.

There may have been a house on the site from as early as 1611 when the Plantation Commissioners reported that Sir James Hamilton was ‘preparing to build a house at Hollywood’. A branch of the Hamilton family is said to have lived in the house up until the end of the eighteenth century. It subsequently became the residence of the Holmes family who appear to have rebuilt or remodelled the building and it is the Georgian mansion they constructed which is depicted in an illustration of 1832 in Proctor’s ‘Belfast Scenery’. (Auld, p.25) In 1802 the estate was acquired by Cunningham Greg (1762-1830), a successful Belfast merchant with interests in sugar refining, wine distribution and banking. (Auld, p.25; Chambers, p.26)

On the death of Cunningham Greg, the house passed to his son Thomas Greg, who is listed as occupier in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) Greg owned a great deal of property in Belfast and was a traveller and collector, bringing back from Thebes the mummy of Takabuti which continues to be a star exhibit at the Ulster Museum. (www.umni.com)The Townland Valuation lists the house, offices, steward and porter’s house at a value of £82. (Townland Valuation, Benn, p.182) However, by the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64), the house had risen enormously in value to £200, suggesting that it had been rebuilt since the earlier valuation, and indeed the second edition OS map of 1858 shows a building much increased in size from the first edition. From 1864 Thomas Greg and later, his representatives, let the house to Mary Gordon. (Annual Revisions, Letting Agreement) Mrs Gordon was followed in 1890 by Sir Daniel Dixon (1844-1907), timber merchant, shipowner and Lord Mayor of Belfast, who may have purchased the house outright, valuation records are unclear on this point. There is an increase in valuation at the time that Dixon takes over the house which perhaps indicates some additions or improvements and the third edition map of 1900-02 shows a house of a slightly altered plan form, now captioned, for the first time, ‘Ballymenoch House’ (Dictionary of Irish Biography, Annual Revisions) Sir Daniel Dixon lived in the house until his death in 1907 and it was occupied by his widow for some years afterwards. (1911 census)

In July 1914 Ballymenoch House was gutted by fire following an arson attack by the Women’s Social and Political Union, a militant ‘suffragette’ organisation originally founded in England by the Pankhurst sisters, Emmeline and Christabel, in 1903.(Rosen, p.241) A branch of the WSPU was established in Belfast in September 1913, following an unfulfilled pledge by unionists to grant votes for women. When attempts to persuade Edward Carson, the unionist leader, to make good on his pledge failed, a campaign of arson was initiated focusing mainly on unionist-owned property but also including some public buildings, such as Lisburn Cathedral. Ballymenoch was among eleven buildings to be attacked, ostensibly because of its association with the Dixons, a well-known unionist family, although the family’s most prominent member, Sir Daniel Dixon, had died some years previously. (Urquhart, p.282-4)

Curiously, the destruction of the property is not noted in Valuation Records, the house merely dropping slightly in value in 1918 because of the separating out of a chauffeur’s house and gate lodge from the valuation. This may indicate that the damage was not as severe as has been indicated in some secondary sources. However the house briefly passed to Nathaniel Tughan, a solicitor of Belfast and Dublin, before being purchased by Sir Samuel Kelly and it is suggestive that on purchasing the site in the early 1920s Kelly set about rebuilding the house. (Belfast and Ulster Directory) That this was a rebuild and not a remodel is clear from the OS maps which show the new building on the fourth edition of 1919-31. Although the new house is close to the site of the old, it has an entirely different orientation.

In January 1923 the Irish Builder invited tenders for ‘the erection of a residence at Ballymenoch, Holywood, Co Down for Sir Samuel Kelly, JP, CBE, according to plans and specifications prepared by Messrs Blackwood & Jury, architects, Belfast.” A fireplace in the house bears the monogram SK and the year 1924, suggesting a likely completion date for the building.

According to Auld, Sir Samuel was a ship-owner and coal importer and an exuberant supporter of many Holywood organisations, including the yacht club. (Auld, p.26) After Sir Samuel Kelly’s death, Ballymenoch House was donated to the Salvation Army and became the Salvation Army Sir Samuel Kelly Eventide Home, providing accommodation for 40 elderly men and women, including frail older people and older people with dementia. In 1953 the twenty-one acres of pleasure gardens became a public park. (www1.salvationarmy.org.uk; Auld, p.26)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/1/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/1/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
4. PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
5. PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
6. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/1 – Townland Valuation Map (1828-40)
7. PRONI VAL/1/B/318 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
9. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/18B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/11A-C – Annual Revisions (1888-1930)
12. Irish Builder, Vol 65, 13th January 1923, p.28
13. Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1907
14. 1901 census online
15. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. Auld, C. ”Forgotten Houses of Holywood, Co Down” Holywood: Con Auld, 2002
2. Benn, G “A History of the Town of Belfast; Volume 2” Belfast, 1877, reprinted by Blackstaff Press, 2008
3. Chambers, G “Divided Loyalties in the Business Community in Belfast in 1798” in Familia 1994, Vol 2, No 10
4. McGuire, J and Quinn, J, eds “Dictionary of Irish Biography” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Royal Irish Academy, 2009
5. Rosen, A “Rise Up Women, the Militant Campaign of the Women’s Social and Political Union” London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1974
6. Urquhart, Diane “ ‘An articulate and definite cry for political freedom’: the Ulster suffrage movement” Women’s History Review, 11: 2, 273-292
7. www1.salvationarmy.org.uk
8. www.umni.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A much-modified two-storey four-bay former house in a loose Scots-Baronial style, built c.1920. The original house is one of a series of dwellings to have occupied the site and has been converted into a residential home, since which time substantial alterations have been made and extensions added, compromising the original design and proportions. Although significant in the locale, extensive alterations have compromised its architectural and historic interest.