The Rectory

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered former Rectory, built c.1820. Rectangular on plan facing south with a single-storey wing projecting from either side elevation and terminating in a gabled pavilion block (east pavilion rebuilt c.1990). Set on an elevated landscaped site to the west of Ballyregan Road and to the north of Upper Newtownards Road. Extensively renovated c.1990 and converted to a residential home by D.W. Boyd & Company, with much of its curtilage developed with single and two-storey units.

Hipped natural slate roof with concrete ridge tiles and pair of rebuilt rendered chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots. Replacement cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and cast-iron downpipes. Dry-dash cement rendered walling with painted projecting plinth course and painted continuous sill course to first floor. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows.

Symmetrical three-bay two-storey front elevation with central round-headed door opening with Doric doorcase. Doorcase comprises a flush panelled replacement timber door flanked by pair of engaged timber Doric columns to lintel cornice and spoked fanlight over. Door opens onto concrete paved front area.

West side elevation is two windows wide and abutted by single-storey single-bay wing with single-pitched roof and terminated by a single-bay single-storey gabled pavillion block, all detailed as principal block. Pavilion block has a single round-headed window opening with replacement 6/6 timber sash window and a simple pediment while the roof is hipped to the rear with a tall rendered chimneystack.

Rear elevation is abutted by two-storey return connecting the principal block to the modern H-plan development to the rear.

East side elevation as per west elevation, but rebuilt c.1990.

Setting:
Set on an elevated landscaped site to the west of Ballyregan Road and to the north of Upper Newtownards Road, accessed via bitmac driveway opening onto Ballyregan Road to the east. The house is enclosed to the rear and sides by an H-plan residential development with further single-storey units within the grounds and landscaped gardens to the front accessed via flight of concrete steps and garden pavillion, erected c.1990.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement metal/cast-iron
Walling Dry-dash cement render
Windows Replacement timber sash

Historical information

The rectory to Dundonald Church of Ireland was built in 1819 and is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834, captioned ‘Glebe Ho[use]’. The plan form was similar to that of today with a rectangular central house flanked by two single-storey pavilions. During the nineteenth century the rectory lay outside the village of Dundonald on land that was largely rural and agricultural, dotted here and there with farmhouses and gentlemen’s residences. It is only in the latter stages of the twentieth century that suburban development has reached out as far as Dundonald and has engulfed much of the glebe land on which the rectory once stood. Dundonald parish is an ancient one, the parish being mentioned in the 1306 taxation. The old church of Dundonald dates from 1771 and was dedicated to St Elizabeth of Hungary. (Clergy of Down and Dromore; OS maps)

According to the parish history the rectory was built in 1819 at a cost of £830. A gift of £300 and a loan of £500 was granted by the Board of First Fruits for its construction, leaving the rector Rev Dillon out of pocket. Vestry minutes of the period record that ‘erecting offices and all other improvements’ amounted to ‘nearly £400 sterling, at the sole expense of the incumbent.’ (Lewis; Carr, quoted in Brett; Parish History)

The Townland Valuation (1824-40) finds the Rev Roger Moore Dillon in residence, rector from 1810 to 1851. The house was of cut stone, more than 20 years old and ‘well circumstanced’. Dimensions are given for a two-storey house with single and one and a half-storey additions and a back porch. Outbuildings include a ‘gig and car house’, potato house and piggery and the total valuation is £22.10s.

Next to occupy the house was the Rev Andrew Cleland (1851-1880) who is listed in Griffith’s Valuation as the freeholder of the property. The house sits in over 12 acres of land and is valued at £36, later reduced to £35. Occupants henceforth change with the incumbency of the parish. Rev Arthur Thomas Farrell, son of architect William Farrell was resident from 1883 and Rev Robert White from 1892. Tyrone-born Reverend White was resident at the time of the 1901 and 1911 censuses and lived in the house with his wife and several adult children. Of the couple’s ten children, only seven survived to adulthood, demonstrating that the better-off were not immune to high rates of infant and child mortality. White’s eldest son Robert Haldane White later became Rector of Holy Trinity in Belfast. His eldest daughter Agnes Romilly White (1872-1945) was the writer of two novels informed by her experiences of life as a rector’s daughter in what was then a village near the city, ‘Gape Row’ (1934) and ‘Mrs Murphy Buries the Hatchet’ (1936). White had a ‘sensitive pastoral awareness of poverty and bereavement as well as of...human comedy’. (Foster)

Subsequent rectors were Joseph Grundy Burton (1914), Rev John Beresford Cotter (1927) and Reverend Thomas Herbert Frizelle from 1951, builder of the present church in Dundonald which was completed in 1966. The rectory and grounds have been redeveloped in recent years and the house now forms the core of ‘St Elizabeth’s Court’, which provides sheltered housing under the company name Church of Ireland Housing Association (NI) Ltd. The redevelopment was designed by D W Boyd & Co of the Ormeau Road. A new rectory has been built on glebe land, just to the south of St Elizabeth’s Court.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/5/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/5/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/5/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/5/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-20
5. PRONI OS/6/3/5/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-9
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/317 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/17 – Griffith’s Valuation (1860-1)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/8A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/8 – First General Revaluation (1936-1957
10.PRONI VAL/4/B/3/21- Second General Revaluation (1956-1972)

Secondary Sources

1. “A Brief History of Dundonald Parish” in 1961 Year Book St Elizabeth’s Parish Church, Dundonald
2. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
3. Foster, J W “The Cambridge Companion to the Irish Novel” Cambridge University Press, 2006
4. Lewis, Samuel. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered former Rectory, built c.1820. Rectangular on plan facing south with a single-storey wing projecting from either side elevation and terminating in a gabled pavilion block (east pavillion rebuilt c.1990). Set on an elevated landscaped site to the west of Ballyregan Road and to the north of Upper Newtownards Road. A well proportioned and detailed former rectory built in a Palladian manner with side pavilions, which has group value with the Cleland memorial (HB25.05.002) constructed in memory of Rev Andrew Cleland (1851-1880) who was a rector of this parish and lived here. Despite the extension to the rear and the addition of other development on the site which detracts from the original building's character and its setting, this remains an important building in the local area.