Brookhill Demesne Garden Features, 88 Ballinderry Road, Ballyellough, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 2QX

Brookhill Demesne Garden Features, 88 Ballinderry Road, Ballyellough

These are the surviving historic garden and estate structures of Brookhill Demesne, whose main house has since been demolished. The group comprises a walled garden, a semi-circular pleasure garden, a Tudor Revival tower, gates, outbuildings, a gardener's cottage, paved areas, and an ornamental pond. Most of the structures date from between 1830 and 1870, though certain elements — most notably portions of the garden walling — may have origins in the 17th century. Together they form a significant and unusually characterful collection of estate buildings representing three centuries of development at Brookhill, and they retain much of their idiosyncratic architectural detailing, including a Tudor Revival tower and a chinoiserie slate roof over the northeast farmyard gate.

The estate lies on the north side of the Ballinderry Road, approximately two and a half miles south-east of Upper Ballinderry. It was originally a small demesne centred on a Jacobethan-style house, with extensive agricultural outbuildings to the rear, a large lawn to the front, and an enclosed walled garden adjacent to the main road. To the east is a heavily wooded area through which the current entrance passes, where the gate lodge stands at the threshold.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The site has an exceptionally long and eventful history. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837, Brookhill House was constructed around 1641 to 1649, replacing an earlier 17th-century fortified dwelling built during the Plantation of Ulster. W. S. Corken records that this stone bawn was constructed in 1611 by Sir Foulke Conway, though the site had previously been occupied by the Elizabethan colonel Sir Francis Brook, after whom Brookhill takes its name. In 1631, George Rawdon came into possession of the property and was resident there during the 1641 Rebellion and the Confederate Wars of the 1640s and 1650s. During the 1641 Rebellion, Brookhill was seized by the rebellion's leader, Sir Phelim O'Neill, who later set fire to the property as he retreated from his defeat at Lisburn.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs note that the remains of this 17th-century castle stood opposite the house then occupied by a Mr Watson, and formed part of his garden, with several yards of the original parapet wall — described as being built of stone and lime, standing seven and a half feet high and two and a half feet thick — still visible and known locally as the Castle Wall. The current north-west garden wall is the earliest surviving section of walling on the site and may represent a remnant of this early castle wall, being the only section that corresponds to the dimensions described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs.

The house was rebuilt between 1641 and 1649 and was later occupied by a Mr James Watson around 1740, at which time the Jacobethan dwelling was enlarged or modified. The Brookhill estate was let by the Marquis of Hertford to James Watson around 1740. An 1806 letter to the Marquis of Hertford reports that the lease had proved very beneficial to the Watson family, who had built up a great and expanding estate over nearly forty years. Written as the lease approached expiration, the letter records Hertford's agent urging him to reassume control of the estate for his own Irish residence. The agent noted that Watson had laid out considerable sums improving Brookhill house and gardens, though he had done so at his own risk, perhaps with a view to embarrassing Hertford with claims for compensation. Hertford did not repossess the house, and the Watson family continued to occupy Brookhill until around 1870, when possession of the estate passed to a Mr William T. B. Lyons.

The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1832) shows that the pleasure garden south-west of Brookhill House had already been enclosed by that date, with the earliest gate (Gate 05, giving access from the house to the gardens through the north-west wall) and a one-and-a-half-storey lean-to gardener's cottage at the east corner of the walls already in place. The walling of this pleasure garden was likely constructed during the occupations of James Watson and his son John Watson, who resided at Brookhill until 1856. By the second edition of the Ordnance Survey (1857), the garden had been extensively landscaped, with an extra gateway added to the south-east wall (Gate 06), and a gate lodge constructed to the south entrance of the estate — though this was later replaced around 1870 by the current surviving gate lodge. A second gate lodge, visible on the 1857 map at the south-east corner of the garden walls, had been removed by the time of the third edition in 1900. According to Dean, this lodge was not of long standing and was taken down when William Lyons took over possession around 1870.

When Lyons assumed the estate it was valued at £150; this was reduced to £120 in 1886, following complaints that the valuation was too high despite the improvements that had recently been made to the estate walls. Lyons' works are thought to have included the possible rebuilding of the south-west section of the garden wall, the installation of a new gateway at the western entrance (Gate 03), and an additional opening in the north-west wall (Gate 04).

The enclosed pleasure garden continued in use until the mid-to-late 20th century, when a private dwelling was constructed within the garden walls and an additional entrance was created (Gate 01). The 1971 Ordnance Survey map shows this dwelling in the south-east half of the gardens. Subsequently a second dwelling was built in the north-west half, along with another gateway (Gate 02). Both dwellings and the boundary walls enclosing them are now in separate ownership. By 1994, Brookhill House had been abandoned and had fallen into a state of dilapidation; the main house has since been mostly demolished, and a replacement dwelling for the current owner has been erected on its site. The remaining historic structures around it are those described here.

GATES AND TOWER

Gate 07, built around 1850, abuts the north-east corner of the adjoining outbuilding. It is constructed of squared basalt with limestone dressings, with a moulded segmental arch flanked by chamfered piers rising to dentilled cornice level, and a console bracket. Above the basalt and limestone frieze sits a chinoiserie slate roof with lead dressing — a highly distinctive and unusual feature that survives in good condition.

Adjoining this gate is a two-storey outbuilding of coursed basalt with red-brick window and door surrounds and red-brick quoins, under a natural slate roof. The north section of this outbuilding has been modified with dash render and some 20th-century metal windows.

The tower, also built around 1850, abuts the left side of the south-east gable of this outbuilding. It is of three-stage square plan. The lower stage is rendered brick, with round-headed arched openings on the north-east and south-east faces. The second stage is constructed of squared basalt with limestone long-and-short quoins rising to cornice level with a frieze. The third stage is octagonal and has partially deteriorated at the upper level; the remaining sandstone base features chamfered round-headed arched niches to each facet over a plinth. The cupola that originally crowned the tower has been removed — an illustration of Brookhill House (of unknown date) shows the tower once topped with a cupola, and a similar ornate domed feature adorned the roof of the main house itself. Despite this loss, the tower remains in a good state of repair, though its original purpose is unknown.

Between Gate 07 and the tower, along the south-west wall of the adjoining outbuilding, there is an original raised paved area containing a circular ornamental pond with dwarf rubble stone walling and a masonry coping.

Gate 08, at the former east entrance, dates from around 1870 and is inserted into an earlier rubble stone wall of around 1850. It has a compound Tudor-arched opening with red-brick surrounds, embraced by a plain crow-stepped gable surmounted by a small replacement apex finial. It is currently fitted with a modern timber sheeted door. This gate does not appear on the Ordnance Survey maps until the third edition of 1900 to 1901, though it may possibly date from an earlier period.

Gate 03, to the west of the former walled gardens (which lie to the south-west of the demesne, parallel to the main road), is a gate screen to the secondary avenue leading to the former mansion. Built around 1870, it has a compound pointed-arched pedestrian entrance to the right-hand side. The construction is squared basalt with red-brick detailing, under a pitched slate coping. The gates themselves have been removed.

NORTH-EAST OUTBUILDING

To the north of Gate 07 and the tower, and aligned north-east, stands a two-storey outbuilding with hipped gables and a linear lean-to single-storey abutment to the south-east elevation. It is constructed of coursed basalt and random rubble with red-brick window and door surrounds. A large segmental-arched opening with a red-brick surround faces the south-east elevation. The roof is corrugated metal, and the building retains timber roof trusses internally. The north-east outbuildings as a group were constructed between 1832 and 1857 under John Watson and continue to be used as farm buildings.

SMALL WALLED PLEASURE GARDEN (SEMI-CIRCULAR)

Directly to the south of the modern house, following the original circular contours of the site, is a small raised semi-circular pleasure garden — one of the gardens belonging to the former Jacobethan-style mansion. The walling consists of red-brick and yellow-brick piers with masonry pyramidal caps and ornamental geometric masonry infill panels, with masonry copings on a splayed base of basalt drystone walling.

GARDENER'S COTTAGE

South of the demesne, situated along the north-east wall of the former main pleasure gardens, is a small one-and-a-half-storey lean-to gardener's cottage. The walled gardens with which it is associated are now in separate ownership. The cottage predates 1830 and is constructed of rubble masonry with brick surrounds. The north-east elevation has a central door flanked by window openings, with blank side elevations. The south-west elevation forms part of the internal face of the walled garden and presents a brick facade with a rubble upper section, a central door, and two first-floor openings.

SETTING

The former walled gardens to the south-east of the demesne, adjacent to the main road, now enclose two modern dwellings accessed directly from the road and in separate ownership. Beyond the walls is the mature woodland that leads up to the new house with its gardens to the front. The historic agricultural buildings to the rear, which form the agricultural setting, are primarily asymmetrical two-storey structures under pitched natural slate roofs, built of coursed basalt with red-brick surrounds to openings, dating from around 1830 to 1855. These buildings extend to the north and some have 20th-century alterations. Beyond the agricultural structures lies open rural landscape. The gate lodge, built around 1870 to replace an earlier lodge, stands at the east entrance.