Moat House, Old Holywood Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT4 2HL

Moat House is a well-proportioned and handsomely detailed two-storey mid-Victorian red-brick mansion, built in 1863–64 for Thomas Valentine, managing director of the Northern Spinning and Weaving Co., to designs by the architect William J. Barre. It stands on a level site to the west of the Old Holywood Road in the townland of Ballymaghan, east Belfast, and currently contains ten self-contained apartments.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

This is not the first house on the site. A previous dwelling, recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 as an irregular-shaped building captioned "Moat House", was constructed within a circular fort or mound — a Norman motte — believed to date from the 13th century, giving the property its name. The Archaeological Survey of County Down records that this mound in the townland of Ballymaghan may have been the Norman motte and bailey castle of "Ballymichgan", which was in King Henry III's possession in 1221. Archaeological traces of an ancient church have been found within the mound, along with a coffin lid dating from the 13th century. The site continued to be used as a graveyard until a relatively recent date, and medieval coinage has also been unearthed from the mound. The house lies to the north of two recorded sites of archaeological interest: DOW 00502, a motte, and DOW 00503, a medieval graveyard.

The townland remained predominantly rural in character during the mid-19th century. By the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1858), the Circular Road had been laid out but few buildings had been developed in the area. With the rapid expansion of Belfast's industries and population in the latter half of the 19th century, a number of new suburbs were established for the city's politicians, merchants and professionals in the eastern townlands of Ballyhackamore, Strandtown and Ballymisert.

The original house had been built prior to 1834 and was leased to a Mr John L. Bell by Thomas McClure, a local magistrate and landowner who resided at Belmont House. Griffith's Valuation of 1860 noted that the original house possessed a gate lodge on the Old Holywood Road and was valued at £25. Bell had vacated the site by 1863, when the house and its land were leased for a period of 10,000 years by McClure to Thomas Valentine. Valentine had the former house demolished and contracted William J. Barre to construct a new residence to the north-east of the original dwelling. Upon its completion, the new house was valued at £220 by the Annual Revisions, and the Belfast Revaluation of 1900 records that the total cost of construction was £5,083.

William Joseph Barre (c.1826–1867) was born in Newry and became one of Belfast's most prolific, if short-lived, architects. He moved to Belfast after winning the competition to design the Ulster Hall in 1859 and went on to design some of the city's most impressive Victorian edifices, including Belmont Presbyterian Church (1860–61), University Road Methodist Church (1864–65), the Provincial Bank on Royal Avenue (1864–69), Bryson House on Bedford Street (1865–67), and the Albert Memorial Clock Tower (1865–69). Barre died in 1867 having made a brief but lasting mark upon the architectural landscape of Belfast. Paul Larmour described Moat House as "Barre's most colourful house, in glowing red brick with sandstone dressings and blue stone bands … bold shapes and vigorous detail especially to the chimneys and a very fine series of large sandstone capitals to the entrance loggia."

Valentine continued to reside at Moat House until 1889, when the house passed to Wesley Watson, a local linen manufacturer and partner in McCrum, Watson & Co. At the turn of the 20th century it passed to Sir Robert McConnell, a local magistrate and manager of R. J. McConnell & Co., auctioneers, valuers and estate agents. The 1901 census described Moat House as a first-class dwelling comprising 25 rooms with extensive outbuildings including two stables, two coach houses, a cow house, a boiling house and a laundry. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–02 records that the house also possessed a walled garden to the south-east, now replaced by a housing development.

By 1910, McConnell had vacated the property and Frank Workman, managing director of Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd. — the second largest shipbuilder in Belfast — was recorded as occupant. The Workman family continued to reside at Moat House until 1930. The family suffered extreme economic difficulties as a result of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, and Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd. was heavily hit by the subsequent international depression. In 1930 Workman & Clark announced the closure of the shipyard (which did not finally close until 1935), and the same year saw the first auction of Moat House. The auction leaflet of 1930 described the building as containing "stately hall, drawing room, dining room, morning room, library and billiard room, new conservatory communicating with residence … there is most commodious stabling." A second auction was carried out in 1937, after which ownership passed to Captain David C. Lindsay, who converted the former private dwelling into six residential flats in 1938. The building was further subdivided into ten apartments in the 1960s, at which time Moat House's grounds were sold off for the construction of the housing developments of Motelands and Finchley Park. The house was listed in 1986. A renovation carried out around 1989 included the restoration of the roof. A more extensive refurbishment was undertaken in 2009, involving the restoration of all sliding sash windows, installation of cast-iron rainwater goods, restoration of the chimneys, repointing of brickwork and stonework, replacement of interior fireplaces, demolition of outhouses, and construction of both single- and two-storey extensions.

EXTERIOR

The house is built of red brick in Flemish bond with sandstone and blue brick detailing throughout. The roof is of natural slate with a mix of hipped and pitched forms: the main house has interlocking ridge tiles, the two-storey wing to the east has rolled lead hips and crested ridge tiles, and the double-height bay carries a decorative finial. The tall red-brick shouldered chimney stacks have sandstone detailing, an overhanging cornice with projecting headers, and plain terracotta pots to the east, south and west. Ogee gutters are supported via a projecting stone cornice on scrolled brackets and discharge to cast-metal downpipes. A decorative timber fascia with applied nailhead detail runs to the north gable.

The principal elevation faces north. To the east end of this elevation sits a single-storey wing added in 2009, with a hipped natural slate roof, red-brick walls and three segmental-arched window openings containing 1/1-pane timber sliding sash windows. This abuts a two-storey three-bay section (original) with a sandstone plinth, three segmental-arched window openings with 2/2-pane timber sliding sash windows to both ground and first floor, a continuous moulded stone cill course to each floor that turns the corner, canted brickwork at the corner from cill to eaves, and a sandstone course below impost level to the arched windows on each floor. This in turn abuts a two-storey two-bay section with matching details, attached to a two-storey section with a gabled end to the east, a gable to the north and a hipped roof to the west; windows here are sliding sash with 1/1 panes and ovolo moulded bricks to the reveals.

The outstanding feature of the north elevation is the sandstone porte-cochère at the west end. This has three round-arched arcaded openings with foliated capitals to square-section columns, the outer two columns being significantly larger than the central one. The arcade has moulded detail with blocked sandstone above rising to an acanthus leaf cornice, with an open stone parapet punctuated by arches and circular indents, topped with a corniced coping. Within the porte-cochère, pilasters stand at either end with square-section columns to the centre, and a single step leads to a recessed tiled porch with two blind arches to the west and a round-arched opening to the east containing a timber panelled entrance door with fanlight over. To the east of the porte-cochère, three segmental-arched windows to the ground floor are divided by engaged columns with foliated capitals to the shafts, and two segmental-arched window openings sit above at first floor level. Above the porte-cochère, a tripartite window features three round-arched openings divided by paired engaged Corinthian columns, with a continuous sandstone hood moulding with embossed stops. At the apex of the gable is a quatrefoil window with a sandstone surround. The gable carries a decorated bargeboard resting on a sandstone kneeler supported by two sandstone brackets.

The east elevation begins at the north end with a projecting single-storey wing built in 2009, with rendered walls, a corbelled brick cornice and a hipped natural slate roof. Beyond this the building steps back to a two-storey eight-bay section — of which three bays to the south were added later — with segmental-arched window openings, 2/2-pane timber sliding sash windows and brick dentilled eaves. At the end of the original building is a glazed oriel window spanning three bays, with cast-iron circular posts and leaded-light windows with an arched central light. Below this oriel is a multi-paned glazed double door flanked by two window openings.

The south elevation begins with a two-storey two-bay return (added later) featuring two segmental-arched windows to first floor level, a hipped roof and dentilled detail to the corbelled brick eaves. This steps back to a two-storey rendered section with two square-headed casement windows to the first floor and a square-headed opening forming a recessed porch to a timber door at ground floor level, next to a tripartite square-headed window with timber sliding sash windows. The rendered section abuts a two-storey six-bay block (original) with a single-storey hipped return added later to the ground floor east. To the ground floor of the original block is a canted bay window in sandstone with engaged Corinthian columns and anthemion and floriate mouldings to the cornice of the parapet roof. There is a continuous moulded stone cill course to ground and first floor with an upper string course and stone bands at impost level. Above the canted bay, two round-arched window openings to the first floor have hood mouldings with embossed stops, and a quatrefoil window in a stone surround sits at the apex of the gable, which carries decorated bargeboards. To the west, two segmental-arched window openings serve both ground and first floor levels — the lower west opening formerly served as a door, retaining its nosed stone steps and plinth wall. The cornice throughout this elevation is supported on stone brackets, and all windows have 1/1-pane timber sliding sash windows.

The west elevation of the single-storey return has a hipped roof, a square-headed door opening with glazed sidelights and a timber glazed door, and two segmental-arched window openings to the south with 2/2-pane timber sliding sash windows. The main west elevation features a double-height round bay window with four window openings to both ground and first floor levels; the windows diminish in size at the upper floor. Two segmental-arched window openings sit to the north of the bay window. A two-storey three-bay recessed section follows, with three round-arched window openings to both ground and first floor levels; the eaves level carries an ogee gutter on a projecting stone cornice with sandstone brackets. The north elevation of the projecting section has a sandstone niche with a moulded architrave at ground floor level, a continuous stone cill, an elongated corbel table with sandstone brackets and brick arches, sandstone bands as elsewhere and a quatrefoil window opening with a sandstone surround, surrounded by decorative blue brick in a pointed Gothic arch flush with the wall. The wall rises in two angled stages to a large sandstone coping. A single-storey wing added in 2009 to the west has an entrance door screen with sidelights, fanlight and a panelled timber entrance door to its west elevation.

INTERIOR

Despite some modification to the original plan layout, numerous beautifully crafted details survive inside the building and any new insertions have been sensitively integrated.

SETTING

The original setting of Moat House has been somewhat diminished by the development of small residential bungalows to the north, built in the 1980s, and a new access road runs across the length of the north elevation. Notwithstanding these changes, the house retains its architectural quality with good proportions and impressive style. Its connection with Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd., the second largest shipbuilding firm in Northern Ireland, makes it a unique part of the story of east Belfast's development and growth.