Charleville

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey with attic, five-bay large Victorian dwelling built c.1890. Square plan with modern single storey extension to the rear (c.2010). Located on the north side of Manse Road, between Rock Road and Church Road, approximately 2 miles south east of Belfast.

Hipped natural slate roof with leaded hips. Over-hanging eaves with timber sheeted soffits and moulded timber fascia boards. Ogee moulded cast-iron rainwater goods. Tall chimneystacks with moulded plaster cornice and clay pots. Ruled-and-lined painted render with projected plinth. Replacement double-glazed 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with horns (original frames at first floor); moulded surrounds; masonry cills. Timber door with four bolection moulded panels; side and square-headed over lights embraces with fluted Corinthian columns (replacement cast-iron capitals c.2005) and dentilled entablature; brass ironmongery.

The front elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged. The front door is centrally located and linked by two ground floor windows. Five first floor windows directly over ground floor openings.

The left elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Paired ground floor windows to the right with a single diminutive window centrally located below landing window. Single first floor window located to the left over single storey flat roofed modern extension, which replaced former single storey pantry, scullery etc. (of no interest)

The rear elevation faces east and is asymmetrically arranged. Uniformly arrange ground and first floor windows to the centre and right bays. Two glazed doors to the left with a single first floor window over.

The right elevation is symmetrical comprising a uniform arrange of ground and first floor windows four bays wide.

Setting:

The house is screened from the road running parallel to the south by planting. The entrance gate comprising robust piers surmounted by moulded concave pyramidal capping with curved walls (largely repaired) and wrought-iron-gates restored c.2005. North of the house is an enclosed yard comprising a two-storey brick coach house and stable block surviving from the earlier 18th century dwelling; beyond this are later corrugated metal agricultural units. Well maintained gardens to the east instated c.1960; modern single-storey summer house and walled garden to the north-east (possibly the earliest structure on the site, used as a former animal pound.)

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling : Ruled-and-lined render
Windows : 1/1 timber sliding sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The current dwelling was built c1890, replacing a late eighteenth century house on the site. (Brett; Valuation Records)

The original house on the plot was built by the great-great-great grandfather of Charles Brett, solicitor, architectural historian and author of numerous significant publications on the built heritage of Northern Ireland. (Brett) Charles Brett’s ancestor, also Charles, was a wine merchant who built a summer home on the site in 1790 and it is he who gave the name Charleville to the property. The lease is recorded in Lord Downshire’s 1801 rental book for Castlereagh, the yearly rent being £15.18s.6d for over 16 acres of land. The Bretts lived in considerable style in the house, which accommodated an upright piano by Stodart and a Broadwood grand. Family letters record wallpaper brought from France, ‘the most beautiful room paper I ever saw, it is a view of the Isle of Elba, representing on one sea side, shipping, and docks on the other, old castles, planting and people…when you are sitting in it you almost think that you are in the open air.’ A family story recounts that Charles Brett’s son Wills was hidden under a hedge by a nursemaid in 1798 to protect him from the United Irishmen. Edward Bunting, harp music collector and organist, was a visitor as were his protégés the Irish harpers. After his retirement in 1827 Charles Brett lived at the house all year round and died there in 1829. The house then became the home of his son, now the Rev Wills Hill Brett who was impropriate curate of Greyabbey from 1822 to 1843. (Brett; Clergy of Down and Dromore)

A house is shown on the plot on the first edition map of 1834 and is captioned ‘Charleville’ on the second edition of 1858 but this is an earlier structure with a U-shaped plan form unlike the present building. The farmhouse is located next to the course of the stream that feeds the Castlereagh glen and is stated in the Townland Valuation to be a ‘house, offices and thrashing mill’ valued at £19.7s and occupied by the ‘Rev Mr Britt’. The house was a substantial concern, comprising a house of 1 1/2 storeys with a porch and substantial returns. The outbuildings included a coach house, piggery, an overground wine cellar, a dairy, cow house and wash house.

The house was sold shortly after the valuation and by Griffith’s Valuation of 1860 was the residence of David McConnell. We learn that it was let from the Marquess of Downshire. ‘Charleville’ was valued at £25 for buildings and was situated in over 19 acres of land. The valuer commented that the farm was ‘a very neat concern, but too close to road – house stone finished and painted’. By 1860 the ‘thrashing mill’ was no longer in evidence.

In 1880 the house was taken over by Eliza Miller and in 1890 by John Robb Junior who appears to have rebuilt the house the same year, as evidenced by a rise in valuation to £48 which is reduced to £40 on appeal. The new house is two-storey and roughly square on plan and is first shown on the OS map edition of 1901-2.

John Robb lists his profession in census returns as ‘General Merchant’ and then ‘Draper’. The company he headed, John Robb & Co, is listed in street directories as wholesale and retail woollen drapers, silk mercers and general warehousemen with premises in Castle Place and shops of varying designations, ‘Magazine of Fashions’, ‘Economic Drapery’, ‘North Street Drapery House’ and ‘Northern Boot and Shoe Shop’. The Robbs also ran a ‘Young Men’s residence’ in Telfair Street, perhaps a lodging house for their shop workers. In 1880 John Robb lived in King Street, Belfast but by 1890 he had moved out of the dirt and bustle of the city to Charleville. Others of his family seem to have followed his example – Charles Robb lived at Ballyhackamore House in Dundela Avenue and F G Robb, barrister-at-law, but also connected to the family firm, lived at Lisnabreeny House. (Street Directories, census 1901, 1911)

John Robb was the head of a large family, in 1901 living at Charleville with his wife and six young children. The family had a small staff of three, a housemaid, cook and nurse. ‘Charleville’ is noted to have 11 windows to the front façade and 18 rooms making it a house of the first class. Fourteen outbuildings are also noted including stables, coach houses, piggeries, a cow house, harness room, fowl house, boiling house, turf house and laundry. By 1911 the Robbs have added a seventh child to their brood, but some of the older children are away from home at the time of the census. A reduced domestic staff of two assists the family.

In 1913 John Robb became the owner in fee of the property and by 1923 it had been taken over by Henry Walker, John Robb dying in 1926. Thomas Morrow followed in 1926 and in 1928 a motor house was added to the property bringing the valuation to £48. The house continues in use as a domestic dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/9/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/9/2 Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/9/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/9/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21
5. PRONI OS/6/3/9/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1920-31
6. PRONI OS/6/3/9/7 Seventh Edition OS Map 1938
7. PRONI VAL/1/B/321 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/18D Griffiths Valuation (1861)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
10. 1901 census online
11. 1911 census online
12. Street Directory 1880
13. Street Directory 1907

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
2. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey five-bay large Victorian dwelling built c.1890. Having replaced an earlier 18th century dwelling, the proportions and character reflect those of an earlier period. The setting adds to the character of the building but the modern single storey extension and some other alterations detract from the buildings overall architectural and historic interest.