52 Plantation Road, Lisburn, Co Antrim, BT27 5PH

52 Plantation Road, Lisburn, County Antrim

This is a mid- to late-18th-century three-storey former linen mill owner's house, situated in the area known as The Plantation to the east of Lisburn, beside the M1 motorway. The house is listed together with its gate screen, and shares its setting with the attached two-storey No. 50 next door. It is almost certainly the house constructed for John Barbour, a native of Paisley in Scotland, who came to Lisburn in 1784 and established a linen thread manufacturing business on this site. One of his sons, William, went on to build the listed thread factory at nearby Hilden, which became one of the largest and most significant linen businesses in Northern Ireland. No. 52 therefore represents a direct and tangible link to the origins of the world-famous Barbour Threads enterprise, making it a significant part of the linen heritage of the Lagan Valley and the wider country.

Architectural Character and Exterior

The main house is one room deep, with a narrower and lower three-storey return attached to it. The front elevation faces almost due south and is arranged symmetrically in three bays over three storeys, with a central door and stepped quoins to the corners. The ground floor has had a painted timber sun room added in the late 20th century, along with two earlier canted bay windows. The two upper floors each have three windows: a narrower central window lighting a landing, and wider windows to either side. The front elevation is finished in smooth render; all other elevations and the return are roughcast rendered.

The east elevation features a large projecting chimney breast that has been cut short at roof level, where a yellow clay brick chimney stack was erected, probably in the late 19th century. The only original opening on this side of the main house is a door — now sealed — with two solid panels at the bottom and glazed panels above. The rear elevation has a shallow-pitched single-storey lean-to extension, with a largely blank wall above it except for a small replacement window at the top floor level.

The roof of the main block is double-pitched, with yellow clay brick chimney stacks at each gable. The return is a single room wide, also with a double-pitched roof to match the main block. The east elevation of the return has a fixed-light window and a glazed double door at ground floor level, with painted timber replacement windows on each of the floors above. The end gable of the return has an external staircase rising to the first floor, and the remainder of that gable is covered in ivy. The west elevation has one window at ground floor level and two windows on each of the upper floors, all of which are replacements.

Windows throughout the building are generally replacement painted timber units with top-opening or fixed lights. The roof is covered in natural Bangor blue slates.

Interior

The house contains a rare and robust 18th-century staircase, notable for its noticeably low form and thick handrail. It also retains significant original joinery in the form of six-panelled doors with lugged architraves from the same period, and at least one fireplace with a simple moulded surround. These interior features are considered of high quality and survival, and contribute substantially to the significance of the building.

The detailing to the uppermost floor of the three-storey section and the return differs from the rest of the house, which suggests that both sections may be later additions — possibly made by Barbour himself after he acquired or built the main structure.

Historical Development

The question of exactly when the house was built is not entirely settled. Various secondary sources state that John Barbour constructed the complex in or shortly after 1784, but a house marked "Plantation" appears in the area on Taylor's and Skinner's map of 1777, and the internal detailing — particularly the lugged architraves, door panel arrangement, low staircase with thick handrail, and moulded fireplace surround — points to an early- to mid-18th-century date for at least part of the building. A Hertford estate map of 1726 shows no dwelling on the site, though the cartographer does not appear to have been interested in depicting buildings in any case. At that date the plot was known as "The Plantation" and the leaseholders were recorded as Henry and William Close, who are also noted on a rent roll of 1728. The lack of documentary evidence for the decades immediately following makes it impossible to say whether the Closes undertook any building work, but it is possible that a dwelling existed on the site before 1784, and that Barbour simply acquired it, possibly extending it thereafter.

By the first Ordnance Survey mapping of 1834, Nos. 50 and 52 Plantation Road were shown as part of a larger, roughly U-shaped complex marked "Old Thread Manufactory." In the first valuation of January 1834 the complex was divided into three ownerships. The majority of the buildings were held by Eliza Barbour, rated at £20-6-0 and described as a "Thread factory, unoccupied, not in use and going to ruin." This former factory, which appears to have included some buildings on the opposite side of the road, comprised an artificers' house (22½ft × 19½ × 18), another artificers' house (40 × 17 × 16½), a factory office (71 × 20 × 30), a further factory office (68 × 20 × 18), a house-factory (50 × 20 × 15), factory offices (46 × 19 × 9), and a house occupied by a William Campbell (21½ × 16 × 9). No. 52 itself was not part of this complex by that stage. It was in the possession of a William Kelsey, who appears to have been related to a Rev. Alexander Henderson who held No. 50. No. 52 was rated at £14-1-0 and described by the valuers as "too much for the present proprietor." The house measured 37½ × 20½ × 24, with a return of 24½ × 19 × 23, and three outbuildings measuring 50 × 17 × 6½, 20½ × 26½ × 15, and 55½ × 20 × 15.

Barbour himself is said to have lived in No. 52, with the attached two-storey No. 50 serving as the residence of the mill manager — a dwelling he may also have added to the complex. By the early 1800s over one hundred people are believed to have been employed at the works, with many living in small dwellings in and around the site. John Barbour died in 1823, and thread production at The Plantation was continued for a short time by his son, also named John. Another son, William, established his own thread mill at Hilden; when John died around 1830–31, William purchased the plant and transferred all operations to the Hilden works. It was probably at this point that Nos. 50 and 52 were sold off to Henderson and Kelsey respectively.

Sometime between 1834 and 1861 the whole complex was acquired by Kelsey, possibly before 1846, when he is noted in Slater's directory as running a corn mill — presumably making use of some of the former factory buildings. By the 1861 valuation, Kelsey also owned the thirteen other houses within The Plantation area, most of them former mill-workers' dwellings erected by the Barbours, situated in a row to the south of the main house fronting onto the road. It is probable that Kelsey used No. 50 for a time to house members of his large family of 24 children.

William Kelsey died around 1869–70 and his Plantation properties passed to Henderson Kelsey, who was probably responsible for adding the canted bay windows to the main house at No. 52. In 1886 the former manager's house (No. 50) was leased to an Alice McHarg; in 1891 this passed to John Higginson, and in 1893 to Hugh Smith. In that same year, Kelsey acquired the freehold of the entire grouping from the Hertford estate. Henderson Kelsey died around 1911–12 and the property passed to Thomas Kelsey, who was still living in No. 52 until at least 1930. The lease of No. 50 passed to Samuel Smith around 1908, and then to another Hugh Smith in 1918. According to local historian Mavis Heaney, William Henderson Kelsey inherited both houses in 1948. By this time the former factory and mill structures were in use as farm buildings, and No. 52 had taken on the name "Plantation Farm," while No. 50 — where William installed two of his aunts, Miss Louise and Miss Margaret Kelsey — was known as "The Laurels."

In 1954, Hillsborough Rural District Council acquired the row of former mill-workers' houses close to the roadside and demolished them to make way for the Andrews Park development. Many of the former factory structures to the north of Nos. 50 and 52 — including the remains of a horse or ox-walk known locally as the "old bull-ring" — survived until the 1990s, when they were cleared away for the Plantation Mews development. Nos. 50, 52, and No. 74 Plantation Road (which also has connections with the Barbour linen business) are now the only historic houses remaining in the vicinity.

Setting and Boundaries

The house is set back from Plantation Road behind a tall random rubble stone wall that incorporates a now-blocked vehicular entrance, of which one rendered gate pier survives. This wall may originally have served as the main access for both Nos. 50 and 52. No. 52 is now accessed through a pair of unusual ornate wrought iron gates supported on square wrought iron openwork posts, with simple iron railings to either side set into a dwarf rendered wall with painted stone coping. Behind this boundary and to the side and rear of the house are mainly grassed gardens. A rendered and slated 20th-century double garage stands to the rear.

Condition and Alterations

Some inappropriate works have been carried out, including the replacement of the original windows and the addition of the sun room. However, all such changes are considered reversible, and the main fabric of the house remains intact. The earlier Ordnance Survey maps show that an extensive industrial complex once stood to the north of the house; this has been entirely demolished and replaced by late-20th-century housing.