263 Clooney Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey three bay slated, harled and whitened house in the Georgian style, on the south east side of the main Derry to Limavady Road. House is six steps higher than the road, and separated from it by a small garden and an 800mm high harled and whitened wall. The wall is topped by a 450mm high wrought iron fence simply but attractively constructed from 10mm diameter rods which form an interlocking loop pattern at the head. The gate to the centrally placed door is similarly detailed as is another at the side of the garden and a larger one to the courtyard on the north east side. Each gate is flanked by ribbed cast iron posts topped with finials.

The central four panelled entrance door of the house is flanked by three pane side lights and has a plain segmental fanlight. The ground floor windows are 16 pane sashes, while the three aligning windows above have twelve panes.

On the NE gable there are are two windows, one at ground floor and one at first floor level. Both are close to the left hand side, that is, to the rear of the building. To the ground floor a long narrow four pane high window. Above and with rear edge aligning, a six pane
( four over two ) sash.

The rear elevation has a centrally placed two storey return. This has square proportion casement windows. A small sash lights the rear of the NE ground floor room. The SW gable is blank and shaded by trees along a field boundary. To the rear and NE of the building a rough courtyard has been created from modern looking single storey barns. Chimneys are brick and located on the gables.

Historical information

Building shown on the 1830 Ordnance Survey map and probably dates from the second half of the eighteenth century. The 1830 map shows buildings on each side of the road forming an almost continuous group for a short distance from the house. The pattern continues until the 1924 Ordnance Survey. The most recent map (1963) has the present arrangement of a single building with outhouses set back on each side of the road. The 1848 Griffith’s Valuation lists the occupant of the house as Mr W Thompson leasing the house from Rev Peter Benson Maxwell. Its value is given as £2.5s.0d. Rev Maxwell was lessor of much of the land in the surrounding area.

The present occupants have lived in the house since 1990 though it is the building that the owner grew up in. When first surveyed in the 1970s by the Historic Buildings Branch it was owned by a Mr A Cunningham. It was subsequently vacant for a number of years and owned by Mr Bob Mullan of Ballykelly (see Bridge House HB02/02/003). The present occupant’s mother, living in the house in the 1950s, was responsible for the addition of the two storey return. She was a teacher at Faughanvale School. The building, originally on the supplementary list was listed as Grade B on the 25th May 1978. This was subsequently upgraded to a B1 and renovations to the house in 1993 were grant aided. Windows were replaced, harling replaced and roof renewed.

References:

Historic Buildings Records
The Griffiths Valuation 1858
Occupants R Mc Kinney

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Simple and attractive Georgian house at the side of the main Derry to Limavady Road. Well proportioned and though some original Georgian detailing has probably been lost around the entrance door (plain fanlights date from the mid 19th century at the earliest) the survival of the gates and rails add an architectural quality of detail to the building which makes it worthy of preservation. The building is of local interest as a Georgian house. The late 18th century/early 19th century fencing is also a rare local survival.