Fairlea

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey detached rendered house on mature grounds; built c.1840 and located to the north side of Cullycapple Road in Aghadowey, south of Coleraine. Plan comprises L-shaped block with additional rectangular block to re-entrant angle, creating a square plan; single-storey return and a variety of small abutments to rear.

Hipped natural slate roof with terracotta tiles to ridges and hips; two central rendered chimneystacks with simple caps and four tall clay pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on brackets. Walling is painted smooth render on a chamfered plinth with raised quoins. Windows are timber sash without horns; 3/6 to first floor and 6/6 to ground floor, all in narrow painted render surrounds with projecting painted sills.

The principal elevation faces east and is three openings wide at each floor. To centre at ground floor is an elliptical-headed opening embraced by entablature on pilaster jambs rising from sweeping side walls which enclose three stone steps. Bolection-moulded four-panelled timber door having bronze door furniture, flanked by wide leaded lattice sidelights with coloured glass panels and projecting sills, and surmounted by similar elliptical-headed transom light. Cast-iron levered bell-pull to left jamb.

The south elevation is four-evenly spaced windows wide at each floor.

The west (rear) elevation has a round-headed 1/1 window and a 3/3 window to first floor; 6/6 to ground floor right. Abutted at right by a single-storey toilet-block projection with slated lean-to roof and the single-storey return; abutted at left by a tall flat-roof projection surmounted by a water tank and a roughcast rendered single-storey lean-to annexe with chamfered northeast corner. Return has modern window openings to north and south elevations; south elevation also with dormer window to attic and abutted by an early twentieth-century timber greenhouse with decorative crestings to ridgeline. Projection is almost full-height and opens to south with a round-headed arch into porch with timber-sheeted entrance door. Annexe has large window opening to west elevation and timber-sheeted door to east.

The north elevation has window to first floor left and ground floor right. Right section has three windows to first floor (central window is 1/1 round-headed); window to left and right at ground floor.

Setting:

Accessed from Cullycapple Road to south via a tree-lined avenue, leading to rear yard laid with concrete and with large metal and timber gates. To west side of yard is a one-and-a-half-storey painted roughcast render outbuilding with slated roof and rendered chimneystack (with clay pot) to south gable. Opens to yard at east with three replacement timber-sheeted doors and abutted at west by a rubblestone slated outbuilding. Yard enclosed to south by modern garage, which abuts the gable of the single-storey return. To southwest is a timber conservatory with plastic roof awning. Wrought-iron gates and piers to north side of house with gravelled path leading to mature garden at front of house.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Painted smooth render
Windows: Timber sash without horns
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

‘Fairlea’, formerly known as ‘Cullycapple’ dates from c1840. A building is shown on the site on the first edition OS map of 1831-2 which appears to have survived as an outbuilding to the current dwelling. The present house is first shown, as a square structure with two outbuildings to the west on the second edition OS map of 1849-53. ‘Cullycapple’ has been extended to the rear by the third edition of 1904-5 and a further outbuilding added, which has also survived.

The house is listed in Griffith’s Valuation of 1856-64 as the home of James Thomson, merchant, who leases it from the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers. The house and outbuildings are valued at £14 and are situated on a plot of 4 acres. The house remained in the Thomson family until the 1930s and at the time of the 1901 census the inhabitants were five unmarried Thomson sisters, Elizabeth, Marianne, Martha, Jane and Emily. Their parents, James Thomson and his wife Jemima, had had a large family of ten children, nine of whom were girls. The sisters were aged between 50 and 70 and employed a live-in domestic servant, the seventeen-room house being designated first class. The five sisters were all still living at the time of the next census in 1911.

On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the ladies of Aghadowey Presbyterian Church met together and agreed to knit socks, mufflers etc, prepare bandages and provide chocolate to sustain the soldiers at the Front. Miss Jane Thomson took charge of donations of chocolate and subscriptions and wrote a poem ‘To the Ulster Volunteers’ which was published in the Coleraine Chronicle in 1916 and has been republished many times since. The refrain runs, ‘Courage, boys, courage/Be this your daily cry/But don’t forget to trust in God/And keep your powder dry’. Jane was the last of the sisters to pass away in 1937 and is buried in Agahdowey Presbyterian churchyard. (Thompson)

In the 1930s the accommodation at the house comprised, three receptions, two kitchens, two pantries, two sculleries, an oil room, a servants’ room accessed by separate stairs, five bedrooms, a linen room, a boxroom, bathroom and WC. The house was well built and kept in good repair but was still lit by oil lamps in 1940 and water was fed into a tank by means of a hand pump. Valuer’s notes of the period show the house with returns to the rear and outbuildings.

The building was listed in 1977 and renovation work took place in the 1970s and 1980s including the restoration of the former servants’ quarters and the rebuilding of the conservatory. (HB file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/19/1 First Edition OS Map 1831-2
2. PRONI OS/6/5/19/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-53
3. PRONI OS/6/5/19/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904-5
4. PRONI OS/6/5/19/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1924-27
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/2A-FAnnual Revisions (1864-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/B/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
8. Griffith’s Valuation online
9. 1901/1911 census online
10. HB file – 03/03/026

Secondary Sources

1. Mullin, Rev T H “Aghadowey, A Parish and its Linen Industry” Belfast, 1972
2. Thompson, R “Garvagh and Aghadowey Heroes 1914-18” Bushmills: Robert Thompson, 2008

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey detached rendered house on mature grounds; built c.1840 and located to the north side of Cullycapple Road in Aghadowey, south of Coleraine. Fairlea is a well-preserved example of a middle-sized Victorian house on mature grounds, displaying proportions and detailing typical of the period, with a fine example of an early nineteenth-century doorcase. Of interest locally, Fairlea makes an important contribution to the architectural quality and character of the surrounding area amd is enhanced by its setting and outbuildings..

General comments

Listing criteria R - Age and S - Authenticity also apply to thie building.