Windmill Farm

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical five-bay two-storey with attic rendered house with four-bay rear return, built c.1870. T-shaped on plan facing south-east with central projecting flat roofed front entrance porch, bay windows to both gable elevations and lean-to projection to the rear. Set within an extensive farm to the north-west of Mullenan Road accessed via long bitmac tree-lined driveway with a stone former windmill located to the northeast of the house (HB01/12/011B).

Pitched slate roofs, artificial slate to the front block, natural slate to the return. Roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles with symmetrically-placed rendered chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots rising from cross walls to hallway. UPVC guttering to overhanging sheeted eaves supported on decorative timber brackets and uPVC downpipes. Dry-dash lime chip rendered walling with painted rendered soldier quoins, plinth course and window surrounds. Square-headed window openings (round-arched timber casements to attic level on gable walls) with painted masonry sills and replacement double-glazed timber sliding sash windows with margin lights unless otherwise noted. Elliptical-arched window openings to bay windows and porch have replacement timber casement windows.

Symmetrical two-storey front (south-east) elevation is five windows wide with a central square-plan flat-roofed entrance porch with elliptical-arched window openings and a square-headed door opening to the right cheek. Original diamond-four-panelled timber door with brass furniture flanked by panelled pilasters and foliate scrolled console brackets supporting stepped lintel cornice.

Symmetrical south-west gabled elevation is two-and-a-half storeys with a single window to first and attic levels and a flat roofed three-sided canted bay window with elliptical-arched openings to the ground floor comprising replacement timber double doors with single-pane overlight to south-west face flanked by a single window to each canted face.

Symmetrical north-east gabled elevation is two-and-a-half storeys with a single window to first and attic levels and a flat roofed three-sided canted bay window to the ground floor with elliptical-arched window openings to each face.

Rear (north-west) elevation is abutted by a four-bay two-storey with attic return to the left and a lean-to projection to the right; exposed section is blank.
The lean-to has a corrugated metal roof and original rough-cast lime rendered walling with partially exposed red brick window surrounds. North-west face has two windows, south-west face is blank, south ease face is abutted by the main block while the north-east face is abutted by the rear return.
The north-west face of the rear return is symmetrical and has a window to each floor (that to ground floor is a round-arched four-pane timber casement). South-west face is abutted by the lean-to to far right and a small single-storey slate roofed lean-to to far left; exposed section has a round-arched fixed four-pane timber window to ground floor between the two lean-to extensions and a window to first floor far left. The small lean-to has a single window to the south-west face and a six-panelled timber door to the south-east face. The north-east face of the return is four windows wide to first floor and has a pitched roofed sunroom extension (built c.2010) to ground floor far right and two windows to left directly below first floor openings.

Setting:
Set well back on the northwest side of Mullenan Road at a lower level than the road within an extensive farm. Replacement steel gates hung on original cast-iron posts open onto straight bitmac driveway passing an enclosed front garden and opening into a rear yard lined with two-storey rubblestone outbuildings and a rubblestone former windmill (HB01/12/011B).

Materials:
Roof Natural / artificial slate
RWG UPVC
Walling Dry-dash lime chip render
Windows Replacement timber sliding sash and casement

Historical information

Windmill Farm, a two-storey five-bay Victorian farmhouse located in the townland of Ballougry, was constructed in c. 1870; the adjoining schist windmill was erected in 1874 (see HB01/12/011B for windmill’s history). The first edition Ordnance Survey map (1830) records that a farm has stood on the current site since at least the early-19th century. The map depicted a small rectangular-shaped dwelling to the south-west of two long outbuildings (which were located on the site of Windmill Farm’s courtyard). This dwelling and its outbuildings continued to be depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853. It is not known if any of these outbuildings have survived, however the current ranges to the north and east side of the farm’s courtyard (including the building attached to the windmill) may date from this period. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1857) records that the site was leased by Robert L. Moore of Mullennan House (HB01/12/014A-D) to a Mr. Joseph McPherson. The site was valued at £11 and 10 shillings under Griffith’s Valuation, however this was reduced to £7 and 10 shillings in c. 1860 by the Annual Revisions.

There was little further change to the site until c. 1870 when the current farmhouse was erected. The Annual Revisions first recorded the two-storey five-bay farmhouse in 1870 when its value was set at £16. The total rateable value of the farm was raised to £24 and 10 shillings following the construction of the adjoining windmill in 1874. The valuer noted that the windmill was erected for farm use however, field inspection of the site carried out as part of the Second Survey suggests that the windmill only operated for a brief period of time before being retired in the early-20th century. The construction of the house and windmill was accompanied by the reconfiguration of Windmill Farm’s outbuildings and the creation of the courtyard to the northwest of the house. The new farmhouse was depicted along its current layout on the third edition Ordnance Survey Map (1904).

The McPherson family continued to reside at Windmill farm until 1901 when the farm passed to Alexander Roulston, a local farmer who remained at the site until the 1920s. The 1911 Census records that Roulston lived at Windmill Farm alone (aside from servants) and described the farmhouse as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 12 inhabited rooms. The site possessed extensive out offices which included a stable, five cow houses, a dairy, two piggeries, a barn, forge and boiling house. Alexander Roulston had married before his death in 1925 when the farm briefly passed to his widow before being acquired by the Robinson family who remained at the site from 1927 until at least the 1960s (PRONI Wills).

The windmill at Windmill Farm was listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that the farmhouse underwent a renovation in c. 1988 which included the replacement of rotten doors and windows (NIEA HB Records). Calley, writing in 2013, described the farmhouse in the following terms: ‘Well-kept creeper-clad gabled roofed five-bay L-shaped farmhouse. It has a central enclosed porch with a round-headed window. Other window bays are square-headed and retain their glazing bars. [The windmill] greatly adds to the local landscape as does the simple iron gates and tree-lined avenue’ (Calley, p. 242). Field inspection of the site, carried out as part of the Second Survey, has found that a modern conservatory was added to the east elevation in c. 2010.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1830)
2. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
3. PRONI OS/6/5/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1904)
4. PRONI OS/6/5/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1924-25)
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16A – Griffith’s Valuation (1857)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/10A-10G – Annual Revisions (1860-1929)
7. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1943)
8. Census of Ireland (1831; 1901; 1911)
9. PRONI Wills Catalogue (14 May 1925; 16 Feb 1962)
10. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
11. First Survey Record – HB01/12/011 (1972)
12. NIEA HB Records – HB01/12/011

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
2. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.

Online Resources
1. Natural Stone Database - http://www. stonedatabase.com//buildings.cfm?bk=2086

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical five-bay two-storey with attic rendered house with four-bay return, built c.1874. T-shaped on plan facing south with central front entrance porch, bay windows to both gable elevations and a lean-to projection to the rear. Detailing remains largely intact throughout. The house retains much of its original character and is a good example of a building of its type. The complex of outbuildings to the rear of the house and the associated windmill (HB01/12/011B) adds significantly to its setting, interest and group value.

General comments

This record was previously HB01/12/011which has been split and is now recorded as HB01/12/011 A & B.