Ashlea

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached three-bay, one-and-a-half-storey double-pile house with outbuildings, built c.1865 and located to the south side of Magheraboy Road south of Portrush town centre. L-shaped plan with annexe to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles and two rendered chimneystacks to centre; decorated bargeboards and finials to gables. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on overhanging eaves with cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. Walling is painted roughcast render on a contrasting plinth. Windows are 6/6 timber-framed sash with horns and projecting painted sills (unless otherwise stated).

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged with window to gablet over central doorcase, flanked by a ground floor window to each side. Doorcase is accessed by a semi-circular brick pavior step and comprises four-panelled timber door with brass lion head knocker, surmounted by three-pane transom and flanked by three-pane side-lights over timber aprons; flanked by pilasters supporting scrolled console brackets and corniced canopy.

The south elevation has two windows at each floor.

The west elevation has re-entrant angle infilled with lean-to annexe; annexe has corrugated plastic roof sheeting and is flush with projecting bay at left. Left bay has bipartite six-paned timber casement window at first floor and bipartite eight-paned timber mullioned window with exposed boxes at ground floor; south elevation has two windows at first floor. Right bay is blank to first floor.

The north elevation comprises double-pile gables, each two windows wide at each floor, including oculus to first floor left at rear gable.

Setting:

Set on a large mature site to the south side of Magheraboy Road, having long lawned garden to front with central pavior driveway leading to rear yard. Entrance to north leads to paved forecourt at front of house. Bounded by mature trees and hedgerow and modern fencing to north. Roughcast rendered walls to east entrance with painted coping; circular piers having pointed caps supporting wrought-iron entrance gates. Roughcast rendered entrance walls also to north entrance with square piers having smooth flat quoins and square caps surmounted by cast-iron lantern, supporting wrought-iron gates.

Single and two-storey whitewashed rubble stone outbuildings to rear yard, with a variety of openings. Single-storey range to south has three window openings (without glazing); central block is two-storey with timber louvers to first floor openings; large square-headed opening to ground-floor left; four-paned timber casement window and replacement timber-sheeted door to ground floor right; to far right is an over-sized square-headed opening giving access to modern agricultural shed to west. To north is former stable-block with window (no glazing) and timber-sheeted door. Square paving stones and partitions remain to stable. Twentieth-century pebble-dashed outbuilding to southeast of yard.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Roughcast render
Windows: 6/6 timber-framed sash with horns
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Ashlea House, a three-bay one-and-a-half-storey house in the townland of Magheraboy, was constructed c. 1865, first appearing in the Annual Revisions in 1866. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map records that the current building replaced a previous dwelling that had stood on the same site since perhaps the 1830s (an indistinct building can be seen on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1830)). The Annual revisions note that the earlier dwelling was demolished in 1866 when construction of a ‘new house [was] in progress;’ upon completion the new dwelling was valued at £8 10s.

The dwelling was owned by a Mr. Robert Hamilton M. D. of the nearby Seaview House (HB03/07/005); Hamilton was a Liverpool-based doctor who retired to the Causeway Coast c. 1855 and constructed Seaview House to a design by Charles Lanyon). Hamilton also purchased some of the land surrounding his new holding which he leased out to tenants. In 1866 Hamilton let the newly completed Ashlea House to a Mr. John Sharpe who resided there until 1888; in that year Sharpe vacated the site which was thereafter recorded under Robert Hamilton’s name.

The Annual revisions continued to record Hamilton as the sole occupant of Ashlea House (although he certainly resided at the much grander Magherabuoy) until 1917; the house appears to have remained unoccupied throughout this period, both the 1901 and 1911 Census record that the property lay vacant. In 1904 the Ordnance Survey map for the area first depicted the property (which it simply captioned ‘Ashlea’); at that time the site consisted of the L-shaped house (which then lacked its greenhouse) and a number of outbuilding to its south and west (only the western outbuilding are still standing).

In 1917 a Mr. Samuel Archibald reoccupied the dwelling after it had lain uninhabited for almost three decades. It was under Archibald that the current greenhouse, abutting the rear of the dwelling, was erected; further improvement work was presumably undertaken by Archibald as the value of the property more than doubled to £19 in that year. Samuel Archibald continued to be recorded as occupant of Ashlea House until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929, however PRONI’s catalogue of Wills notes that the Rev. .James Septimus Mairs resided at the site at the time of his death in 1927.

Ashlea House’s southern outbuildings were demolished in the late-20th century sometime after 1966 when they were last depicted on the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map. In 1972 Girvan described Ashlea as ‘a three-bay, double pile house; bracketed doorcase above which is a half dormer; eaves have bargeboards and finials; Georgian glazing bars’ (Girvan, p. 39). Little alteration has been made to Ashlea House since Girvan’s description; however comparison of the First Survey Image (1975) with the current state of the dwelling shows that the originally pointed finials have been substituted with squatter poppy-head replacements. Ashlea was listed in 1977 and since that time has continued to be occupied as a private dwelling.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/3/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/3/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map c. 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/5/3/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/3/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1922-32
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/4A – Annual Revisions 1862-1864
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/4B – Annual Revisions 1865-1880
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/4C – Annual Revisions 1881-1889
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/4D – Annual Revisions 1890-1898
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/4E – Annual Revisions 1899-1910
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/4F – Annual Revisions 1911-1929
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17G – Annual Revisions 1918-1929
12. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
13. PRONI Wills Catalogue (11 May 1927)
14. First Survey Record – HB03/07/002 (1973)
15. First Survey Image – HB03/07/002 (1975)
16. Ordnance Survey map 12-4 (1966)

Secondary Sources

1. Girvan, W. D., ‘Historic Building in North Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Ashlea is a detached three-bay, one-and-a-half-storey double-pile house on an L-shaped plan with traditional outbuildings, built c.1860 and located to the south side of Magheraboy Road south of Portrush town centre. Architectural detailing is well-preserved and largely intact and much of the original character has been retained. A good range of whitewashed outbuildings to rear, gates, gate pillars and walling all add to the historic interest of the site. Ashlea is good example of a typical early Victorian middle-sized rural house with traditional outbuildings, contributing to the architectural character of Portrush.