Ballyarnett Farm

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A large two storey red brick villa, multi-gabled red rosemary tiled roofs, tall Tudoresque brick chimneys, shallow canted and rectangular bays. Some gables treated with red hung tiles, others in black and white timber and plaster in an Arts and Crafts style of around the end of the 19th century.

The main entrance and west facade consists of a gabled two storey projection with a longer two storey block at right angles to it. The gabled portion has a ground floor shallow rectangular bay with pitched leaded roof and centrally above a transom and mullioned window springing from the leadwork with the head terminating against the bottom course of hanging wall tiles on the gable.

The porch nestles within the angle of the two blocks, built in red brick with glass roof and may well have been rebuilt. The entrance door is in the flanking wall. Next to the south a floor to ceiling window with French doors and then another shallow rectangular but smaller bay window. The bay is a relatively recent construction as the space was originally occupied by a projecting chimney, remnants of which appear at first floor.

The south facade which fronts onto Beragh Hill Road is five bays long expressed by large gables at either end and three gabled dormers in between. The west bay has a two storey shallow canted bay with tile hanging in the gable while the east bay has a shallow rectangular bay and the bay expressed with heavy black timber in herringbone pattern with white plaster infill. Ground floor windows are tall two light and single light with transom. These are repeated at first floor but not so tall, making a lively composition, though it is partially obscured with wall creeper. The east gable chimney projects and ends in a flurry of tall moulded stacks. This would have echoed that at the west end now removed.

The east facade is the reverse of the west with the exception that there is a narrow additional gable suggesting the double pile of the plan arrangement. There is a secondary entrance in the additional gable. The windows are more or less a repeat of the other elevations. Again there is much ivy. The north or rear facade is a jumble of the return ends, a small rear court or yard enclosed by them and a small lean-to utility block. A large chimney dominates the side wall of the projecting block of the west front. These chimneys were a dominant feature of the design and it is unfortunate that one is lost.

Roofs are in Rosemary tiles with a diagonal pattern on shorter lengths of roof. On the west and south there are eaves overhangs, elsewhere the tiles form the verges.

Ballyarnett enjoys an elevated site overlooking the former Ballyarnett racecourse but as the house is close to the Beragh Hill Road the garden extends to the north and to the west along the main avenue approach where it terminates with double wrought iron gates set between brick piers with curved wall sweeping in from the road verge. The garden has some handsome mature trees. Across the Beragh Hill Road is a walled garden.

Historical information

Ballyarnett belongs to the McCorkell family who were much involved in the commercial life of Derry particularly in the shipping trade of the late 18th and 19th century and more latterly in the grain business. The site of the present house was originally occupied by a house belonging to James Browne, the valuation of which was given as £13 in Griffiths Valuation 1858. Barry McCorkell d.1895 married a Browne, built Ballyarnett towards the end of the 19th century. While there are no drawings extant, the detailing of the house bears the hallmark of the Derry Architect Eccles Buchanan. The OSS 13 1830 shows a long cottage-like plan on the site which was likely partially demolished during the construction of the new as the south gable of the former roughly coincides with north gable of the present house.

References::

Primary Sources
OS Map 1st Edition 1830 Co Londonderry sheet 13
OS Map 1st Edition 1830 Co Londonderry sheet 13
OS Map 2nd Edition 1848-52 Co Londonderry sheet 13
OS Map 1904-5 Revision Co Londonderry sheet 14A
Present owner (1999)
Griffiths Valuation 1858

Secondary Sources:
Cooke S, Londonderry & Western Ocean

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A good example of a large Art & Crafts style house with good interesting composition of its type displaying fine internal arrangement and detailing. Home of family with important historical maritime association with the city of Derry.