Briarfield

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached asymmetrical gabled brick and render Arts and Crafts residence, built c.1910, with decorative timber-frame work to all gables. L-shaped on plan facing north and located at the end of a short gravel drive to the west of Hopefield Road.

Pitched natural slate roofs with roll moulded terracotta ridge tiles, plain red brick chimneystacks with terracotta pots and a single box dormer window to the front pitch with multi-pane timber casement windows. Moulded timber bargeboards to all gables having deeply overhanging sheeted eaves with caved brackets and cast-iron rainwater goods. Painted rendered gables simulating timber-frame patterns, rough-cast rendered walls to the first floor and machine-made red brick walls laid in stretcher bond to the ground floor having a moulded red brick trim above and smooth cement rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills and largely 16/1 timber sash windows.

Front elevation is two windows wide, abutted by a full-height gabled bay window to the right and a gabled entrance porch to the left. Diminutive round-headed window to the gable having a 9/1 timber sash window. Paired window openings to the bay with 12/1 to the remainder having decorative leaded coloured glazing to the lower sashes. Entrance porch has a slate roof and bargeboard fronting applied timber-frame work having a gauged brick flat-arched door opening with stop-chamfered bull-nose moulded surround, original seven-panelled timber door with bolection mouldings, brass furniture and rectangular overlight opening onto three concrete steps.

Gabled east side elevation abutted by a pair of bay windows, that to the left being canted with a slate roof and that to the right being rectangular with chamfered corners and a flat roof. The elevation is dominated by the timber-frame decoration to the attic storey with a pair of windows each having chamfered pilaster strips to cornice, bracketed sills and apron panels. The bay to the right and the window above have leaded coloured glazed lower sashes. The elevation extends by a single window to the south.

Planar rear south elevation with an advanced two-storey gabled section to the right abutted by a lean-to and a timber-framed conservatory to the re-entrant angle.

Gabled west side elevation abutted by a canted bay window to the left and dominated by the timber-frame gable having attic windows as per east gable.

Setting

Located within its own landscaped site to the west of Hopefield Road accessed via a winding gravel driveway opening onto the road via pair of decorative wrought-iron gates on pair of rendered piers with rough-cast panels.

Roof : Natural slate
RWG : Cast-iron
Walling: Rough-cast render / red brick
Windows : Timber sash / leaded coloured glazing

Historical information

The present dwelling house, dating from 1910-11, is first shown on the fourth edition OS map of 1922-32, captioned ‘Briarfield’.
‘Briarfield’ entered valuation records in 1911 as the property of John G W Boggs, valued at £28 and situated on a plot of over 5 acres.

The 1911 census reveals that the house was occupied by four siblings – John G W Boggs, who was a pharmaceutical chemist, Mary, a milliner and draper, Christopher, who was a dental surgeon, and another sister Jane who kept house. A general domestic servant was employed, 15-year-old Mary Clarke Logan and the fifteen-room house was designated first class.

Valuer’s notes of 1911 give the cost of construction as £848 and show the plan form of the house which remains unchanged to the present day including the glass conservatory to the rear. The house remained in the Boggs family until at least the 1950s and valuer’s notes of the 1930s record the accommodation as three receptions and a panelled ‘lounge hall’, kitchen and scullery on the ground floor with four bedrooms, a bathroom with hot and cold water and a WC on the first floor. There were four attic rooms on the top floor. The valuer also notes the cavity walls, which were a relative innovation at the period the house was built, and the wood block floor. However, the house did not benefit from other modern conveniences such as electric lighting or a ‘motor house’. The only electricity supply was to an outhouse in order to drive a water pump.

The building remains in domestic use.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/3/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1922-32
2. PRONI OS/6/5/3/4 Fifth Edition OS Map 1922-39
3. PRONI OS/6/5/3/4 Sixth Edition OS Map 1939-50
4. PRONI VAL/12/A/5/6 Valuer’s notes 1911
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/4A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/3 First General Revaluation 1933-57
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/S/7 First General Revaluation 1933-57
8. 1911 census online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
G. Innovatory Qualities
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached asymmetrical gabled brick and render residence, built c.1910, with decorative timber-frame work to all gables. L-shaped on plan facing north and located at the end of a short gravel drive to the west of Hopefield Road. An eclectic type suburban house with Tudorbethan exterior references and Art Nouveau glazing toning down the large proportions of this Arts and Crafts building. An early example of cavity wall construction and more typical of a city suburb, this house is one of a handful of buildings of the period to be built in Portrush and contributes to its special architectural and historic interest.