Killaire House

Photo Credit: http://www.stonedatabase.com/

KILLAIRE HOUSE, Carnalea, Bangor, County Down, is a multi-bay, two-storey, sandstone and ashlar house, built ca 1870 to the designs of James Hamilton.

It is located on the southern shore of Belfast Lough, at the end of Killaire Road, Carnalea.

Killaire sits in mature ground, with a driveway to south-east, accessed via ornate sandstone gate piers and iron gates.

The original coach house and gate lodge have been converted into private homes.

The house is surrounded by lawn to the front.

Photo Credit: http://www.stonedatabase.com/

A stone retaining wall to the west and north affords a low ornamental balustrade, adorned with free-standing stone urns.

The grounds to the rear have mature trees.

Development of this area of the coast, to the west of Bangor, County Down, commenced following the construction of the Belfast-to-Bangor railway in 1865.

Open fields are shown on maps of 1858; by 1901, however, several substantial houses had appeared, including Killaire House.

The railway station at Carnalea opened in 1877.

J A Henderson, Mayor of Belfast, 1873-4

In 1871 Killaire was the residence of James Alexander Henderson, of Norwood Tower, Strandtown, Belfast, who leased it from Richard Rose-Cleland of Rathgael.

Henderson was Mayor of Belfast when he was building Killaire House, and was a magistrate for Belfast and County Down.

As Mayor, he was instrumental in Belfast Corporation's purchase of the Gasworks (for £432,000).

He also owned Norwood Tower in Strandtown, where he died in 1883.

Killaire subsequently passed to other members of the Henderson family.

Management of the Belfast Newsletter passed to his eldest son, (Sir) James Henderson.

Sir James Henderson, Lord Mayor of Belfast, 1898

Following the death of James Alexander Henderson, Killaire was let temporarily (ca 1888) to Samuel Davidson of the Sirocco Engineering Works, who later moved to Seacourt, but was otherwise occupied by the Hendersons until the 1920s at least.

In 1900 Sir Trevor Henderson, joint manager of the Newsletter with his brother, lived at Killaire.

During this time the house comprised eighteen rooms and twelve outbuildings, including a stable, coach-house, harness-room, cow-house, calf-house, dairy, boiling-house, turf-house, potato-house, shed, store and laundry.

Alexander Mackay Henderson (1850-1904), a younger son of James Alexander Henderson, was the head of the household and lived with his wife and son, who worked as a clerk.

They had three staff: cook, housemaid and "general man."

Henderson's monogram can be seen in the frosted glass of the inner door.

By 1906 his widow, Susan M Henderson, was the occupant.

Her son, Raymond Leslie Mackay Henderson, resided with her and continued the family business as proprietor of the Belfast Newsletter.

A niece lived with them at the time, and the staff was reduced merely to a 65 year-old cook.

Killaire, though considerably renovated, retains many of its original features today.

First published in January, 2019.

Henderson of Norwood Tower

THE HENDERSONS OWNED 52 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY DOWN

JAMES HENDERSON (1766-1834), of Castlereagh, County Down, married Amelia Magill, and was father of

JAMES HENDERSON (1797-1853), of Newry, County Down, Proprietor, Newry Telegraph, who wedded Ann Peacock, and had issue,

JAMES ALEXANDER, his heir;
William;
George, b 1814;
Henry, b 1820;
Isabella; two other daughters.

Mr Henderson was succeeded by his eldest son,

JAMES ALEXANDER HENDERSON JP (1823-83), of Norwood Tower, Strandtown, Belfast, Mayor of Belfast, 1873-4, Proprietor, Belfast Newsletter, who wedded Agnes, daughter of Alexander Mackay, Junior, of Mountcollyer Park, Belfast, Joint Proprietor of the Belfast Newsletter, and had issue,

JAMES, of whom presently;
Alexander Mackay, b 1850; Major, RIR;
William, 1852-75;
Trevor (Sir), KBE, of Norwood Tower (1862-1930);
Charles Westbourne (1865-1935);
Jane; Anne; Agnes; Catherine Mackay; Florence Elizabeth.

Mr Henderson was succeeded by his eldest son,

SIR JAMES HENDERSON JP DL (1848-1914), of Oakley House, Windsor Park, Belfast, who married Martha Pollock and had issue,

David, b 1881;
James, b 1889;
OSCAR, of whom hereafter;
George York, MC (1893-1917), k/a;
Richard Lilburn, b 1895;
Mary Agnes Florence Elizabeth, b 1899.

Sir James, Lord Mayor of Belfast, 1898, and the first High Sheriff of the city, was credited with the building of the new City Hall.

He was born at Mountcollyer Park, Belfast, the home of his grandfather, Alexander Mackay; took a law degree at Trinity College, Dublin; was called to the Irish Bar, 1872; editor of the Newry Telegraph, 1873-83. 

He became managing proprietor of the Belfast News-Letter and Belfast Weekly News; was appointed President of the Master Printers’ Federation of Great Britain and Ireland; was made a Freeman of the City of Belfast in 1912; and was knighted by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at Viceregal Lodge, Phoenix Park, Dublin, in January, 1899.

Sir James's younger son,

COMMANDER OSCAR HENDERSON DSO CVO CBE RN (1891-1969), married, in 1920, Alicia Mary Henry.

Commander Henderson served in a destroyer during the 1st World War and he was second-in-command of HMS Iris at the famous Battle of Zeebrugge, in April 1918, when a British force blocked the Mole by sinking a ship across the entrance.

Commander Henderson assumed command when the Captain was killed, and he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his part in this epic He became Comptroller and Private Secretary to the 3rd Duke of Abercorn, 1st Governor of Northern Ireland, and was awarded a CVO and CBE for his services. 

Norwood Tower (Image: Mrs Primrose Henderson)

During the 19th century, the Hendersons lived at Norwood Tower, Strandtown, County Down, a large mansion in its own grounds.

This rambling Tudor-Revival mansion had two gate-lodges, each about a quarter of a mile apart.

The first lodge was a little beyond the entrance to Clonaver House, the Hendersons' former dower house, which was sold to James Girdwood; while the second lodge was almost opposite the entrance to Ardvarna House.

The gate lodges were both battlemented; while the house, set in a landscaped park, was dominated by a lofty, castellated tower.

The grounds of fifty-two acres extended to the top of Circular Road and Sydenham Avenue. 

It was assumed that Norwood Tower or its dower house, Clonaver, would pass to Oscar Henderson when (Mary Agnes) Florence Elizabeth Henderson, his aunt, died.

She decided, however, to bequeath the estate, together with a majority holding in Belfast News Letter shares, to the Musgrave (baronets) side of the family. 

Drawing by the Rev J McConnell Auld

This was a bitter blow to Oscar and his family.

They could do nothing about the property, but they did succeed in buying back the News-Letter shares. 

Commander Henderson and his wife Alicia had two sons,

1. Captain Oscar William James (Bill) Henderson OBE DL (1924-2010); educated at Brackenber House School and Bradfield; married, in 1949, Rachel Primrose Forrest, daughter of Colonel John Forrest CMG, of Belfast, in 1949, and had issue, three daughters.

2. Robert Brumwell (Brum) Henderson CBE DL (1929-2005); educated, like his brother, at Brackenber House School, Belfast, and Bradfield; took his degree at Trinity College Dublin.

Commander Henderson's first wife was Joy Duncan whom he married in 1952.

Brum Henderson became a career journalist in the Belfast News Letter from 1951-59; was appointed general manager of Ulster Television in 1959; managing director, 1961; and Chairman, 1983-92.

He was appointed CBE in 1979 and received an honorary doctorate of Literature at the Ulster University, 1982.

Brum published a number of books, including Midnight Oil (1961), A Television First (1977) and Amusing (1984). He was a director of ITN from 1964-66; a Deputy Lieutenant of Belfast; a director of Reuters and of the Press Association; and gave many years of service to the Newspaper Society.

A golfer of distinction, he was once runner-up in the Irish Open Championship. They had two daughters. 

Brum married, secondly, in 1970, Patricia Ann, daughter of Matthew Davison, of Belfast.

They lived at Ballynahinch, County Down.

Illustration of gate lodge courtesy of the Rev McConnell Auld.    First published in March, 2011.

Norwood Tower Painting

I visited Mrs Primrose Henderson in 2011.

Her late husband was Captain Oscar William James (Bill) Henderson OBE DL.

The Hendersons once owned the Belfast Newsletter newspaper.

Brum Henderson, CBE, ran Ulster Television for many years.

Mrs Henderson generously gave me permission to photograph the family's 1864 oil-painting of the old family home, Norwood Tower, Strandtown, Belfast.

Norwood Tower, which stood between Circular Road and Sydenham Avenue in east Belfast, was their home until 1934.

West Lodge ca 1845 (Drawing by the Rev J McC Auld)

The grounds extended to about fifty acres.

On the large, ten-acre field to the east of the former mansion, Norwood Park and Norwood Gardens were built.

Mrs Henderson recalled, as a girl, riding her pony across a track through the grounds to the stables and house itself (presumably in the 1930s).

Primrose Henderson's mother was Gundreda Forrest (née Ewart), daughter of Sir William Quartus Ewart Bt.

Miss Florence Henderson bequeathed Norwood Tower to a distant cousin and baronet, Sir Christopher Musgrave, rather than her nephew Oscar Henderson.

The Musgraves resided at Norwood for 20 years.

(Image: Timothy Ferres, 2011) Click to enlarge

The painting is dated March, 1864, and entitled NORWOOD TOWER, Seat of J A Henderson, Esq; painted by Hugh Fraser, ex-Professor of Painting of the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin.

(Image: Timothy Ferres, 2011) Click to enlarge

This painting, together with another one of Norwood Tower, was discovered by the Rt Hon Terence O'Neill DL MP [the Lord O'Neill of the Maine] in the auction rooms of Messrs Robert Stirling, Antrim, in the autumn of 1957. 

They were given as a present by him to Captain OWJ Henderson MP, with the instructions that he was to keep one of them and the other was to be given to his brother, Mr RB Henderson.

It would seem likely that these paintings were sold by Musgrave when he came into possession of Norwood Tower on the death of Miss Florence Henderson, great-aunt of Bill and Brum Henderson. 

At the time when Sir Christopher inherited Norwood Tower, it was known that he sold as many of the Henderson family's possessions as possible; and it is indeed surprising that, over twenty years later, these two paintings should be discovered in Antrim by Captain O'Neill and returned to the Henderson family.

Norwood Tower was sold and demolished in ... 1955 and the site is now part of suburbia; and, at the present time, August 1958, only the gate lodge remains standing; and this will, itself, be shortly demolished.

First published in May, 2011.

Norwood Pictures

Norwood Tower (Image: Mrs Primrose Henderson, 2011)

A READER HAS SENT ME SOME PHOTOGRAPHS OF NORWOOD TOWER, STRANDTOWN, BELFAST, FORMER HOME OF THE HENDERSONS, PROPRIETORS OF THE NEWS-LETTER NEWSPAPER

"One of them (below) has a photograph of both my aunts, Peggy and Mary, and Mary does not want her photo to go on the Internet so you cannot put that one on the site ..."

"Sadly it is the best one of the two, as it shows the full door the other one, with the single lady in it, you can use; however I have no idea who she is, it shows a little of what is in the hallway through the door."

"I do have some information of the layout of the houses Riversdale [Co Fermanagh] and Norwood Tower from my aunt and will write it up for you ..."

"Norwood was powered by gas so had gas cookers and lights." 

 

"I do have a photograph of a woman standing at the front door which seems quite ornate with iron railings around it I will scan it and send later."

"I also have a photograph of my aunt sitting in front of a lion statue in the garden of Norwood Tower (above); she said that she didn't want it to go on the Internet however I have attached it for you to see."

"The lady with her was Mrs Lutton or Litton and she rented part of the servants' quarters in Norwood Tower."

"Mary said that another couple rented a different part of the house seemed to be outside of the main house but part of the surrounding building and the rent of those went to the upkeep of the house."

The photograph above shows a glass-house at Norwood Tower.

First published in May, 2011.

Norwood Tower Chart

Click to Enlarge

A map dated 1938 showing Norwood Tower in its grounds, with two gate lodges, extensive outbuildings, greenhouses, walled garden, pond, walks and paddocks.

Norwood Tower was probably one of the largest private homes in east Belfast.

The grounds comprised about 50 acres.

Circular Road can be seen to the north of the mansion.

Is the smaller building below Norwood Tower a summer-house?

Or a gardener's lodge?

A path runs down to it from the front garden.

The main drive to the west now forms part of Norwood Court; while the drive to the east is now Norwood Drive.

 Norwood Tower (Image: Mrs Primrose Henderson, 2011)

Norwood Tower was the residence of the Hendersons, proprietors of the Belfast Newsletter newspaper.

Norwood Tower was demolished for housing development ca 1954.

Ardnagreena House is just outside the picture; its gate lodge remains, though the Victorian villa was demolished in the 1990s.

Ardvarna House and its gate lodge were demolished after the 2nd World War.

First published in May, 2011.

Sir James Henderson

A reader from New Zealand sent two photographs of Sir James Henderson (1848-1914) and his family.

Sir James served the office of Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1898, and was the first High Sheriff of the city.

He has been credited with the establishment of the City Hall, which stands in Donegall Square today.

Sir James Henderson (Image: Belfast City Hall)

James Henderson was born at Mountcollyer Park, Belfast, the home of his grandfather, Alexander Mackay.

Henderson read Law at Trinity College Dublin and was called to the Irish Bar in 1872.

He went on to become editor of the Newry Telegraph in 1873, retaining that position until 1883.

He became managing proprietor of the Belfast News Letter and Belfast Weekly News, and was appointed President of the Master Printers Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.

Sir James married Martha Pollock and they had five sons.

He was appointed a Freeman of the City of Belfast in 1912, and he received a knighthood from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the 5th Earl Cadogan, at Viceregal Lodge, Phoenix Park, Dublin, in 1899.

Sir James lived at Oakley House, Windsor Park, Belfast.

The photograph above shows Martha Lady Henderson and her five sons.

It is believed that the eldest son died in the 1st World War, though little is known of the others. 

Any information would be welcome.   

The photographs had been sent out to New Zealand as the reader's grandfather emigrated there in 1881.

The Henderson family graves can be seen at Belfast City Cemetery.

First published in February, 2011.  Henderson arms courtesy of the NLI.

The Musgrave Connection

  Norwood Tower © 2011 Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland

It was assumed in 1934 that Norwood Tower, Strandtown, Belfast, or its dower house, Clonaver, would pass to Oscar Henderson when Miss Florence Elizabeth Henderson, his aunt, died.

However, she bequeathed both, together with a majority holding in Belfast News Letter shares, to Sir Christopher Musgrave, Bart, OBE, a distant cousin.

This was a bitter blow to Oscar, a distinguished naval officer, and his family.

They could do nothing about the houses, though they did succeed in buying back the News-Letter shares.

Commander Oscar Henderson DSO CVO CBE RN (1891-1969) served in a destroyer during the 1st World War. He was second in command of HMS Iris at the famous Battle of Zeebrugge, in 1918, when a British force blocked the Mole by sinking a ship across the entrance.

Commander Henderson took command when the ship's captain was killed. He was awarded the DSO for his part in this epic.

He became Comptroller and Private Secretary to the 3rd Duke of Abercorn, 1st Governor of Northern Ireland; and was awarded a CVO and CBE for his services. 

Commander Henderson was the father of Bill and Brum Henderson.

Since the James Henderson (b 1797) was Maria Barker's (née Henderson) father; and the aforesaid James Henderson was Florence Elizabeth Henderson's grandfather; it seems reasonable to conclude that James Henderson was Sir Christopher Musgrave's great-grandfather.

Therefore, Sir Christopher Musgrave was Florence Elizabeth Henderson's first cousin twice removed.

Miss Henderson bequeathed Norwood Tower to Sir Christopher Musgrave, whose grandmother was Maria Henderson:

Henderson, Florence Elizabeth of Norwood Tower Strandtown Belfast spinster died 24 March 1934 Probate Belfast 22 February to sir Christopher Norman Musgrave baronet and John Johnson solicitor. Effects £11027 11s [£615,000 in today's money].

Maria Barker (née Henderson) was, therefore, Florence Elizabeth Henderson's aunt, since James Henderson (Maria's father) was Florence's grandfather.

Maria Henderson (1839-1905) was the tenth child of James Henderson (1797-1863) and Anne Peacock, and she was born on the 26th December, 1839.

Maria lived with her brother, James Alexander Henderson, at Norwood Tower and she taught his younger children (most likely including Florence, the youngest).

This was where she met her future husband, Frank Const Barker. 

Frank Barker was one of James Alexander Henderson's business friends. All the Barker family used the middle name Const after a Mr Const of Piccadilly, London. Mr Const was a wealthy business friend of Frank's father, Richard Barker, and when he died he left the family a large sum of money.

Maria Henderson and Frank Barker were married on the 15th September, 1862, and lived at Sorrento House, Dalkey, County Dublin.

They had eight children, of whom their third child was Kathleen Const Barker who married James Musgrave and had four children.

The first child was (Sir) Christopher Norman Musgrave, later 6th Baronet (1892-1956).

First published in May, 2011.

Norwood Tower Appeal

I'm seeking photographs of Norwood Tower.

If any readers can help, or are in contact with the Hendersons or Musgraves, that could be useful.

I gather that a few members of the Musgrave family, including the present Baronet, live in Syros, Greece.