5 Cliff Terrace

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced single-bay one-and-a-half-storey stone former labourer’s cottage, built c.1875, as one of twelve by Sir William Harvey Bruce to the designs of Frederick Henry Godwin. Rectangular on plan facing north with flat-roofed extension to the rear, added c.1980.

Steeply pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and a tall rendered chimneystack to the east, shared with the adjoining house (HB03/12/007D). Pair of dormer windows to the front pitch (that to the west shared with adjoining house HB03/12/007F) with hipped slate roofs, timber pinnacles and original timber casement windows with plain glazing. Ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering supported on timber fascia. Deep overhanging eaves with timber sheeting and exposed timber beams supported by two stop-chamfered timber brackets on sandstone corbels. Random coursed rock-faced basalt walling with tooled sandstone ashlar dressings and cement pointing. Square-headed window opening formed in stop-chamfered dressed sandstone surround and sandstone sill with original four-light timber window frame and plain glazing.

Front elevation has a single window opening and a segmental-headed recessed entrance porch with painted stop-chamfered dressed sandstone surround and keystone. Entrance porch shared with No.6 (HB03/12/007F) having a square-headed door opening set at a right angle to the facade with original sheeted timber door having iron door furniture. The porch has clay tiled floor and a large worn sandstone step opening onto a slightly raised area laid in cobbles and running the entire length of the terrace.

East elevation abutted by adjoining house No.4 (HB03/12/007D).

Rear elevation abutted by flat-roofed single-storey extension, built c.1980.

West elevation abutted by adjoining house No.6 (HB03/12/007F).

Setting:

Built as part of a terrace of twelve similar houses on an elevated site overlooking the sea to the west of Castlerock. Street-fronted with paved rear patio and garden.

Roof : Natural slate
RWG : Cast-iron
Walling : Random coursed rock-faced basalt
Windows : Original timber casement

Historical information

The terrace of twelve houses known locally as the ‘Twelve Apostles’ is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1906. The houses date from c1875 and were built to designs by Frederick Henry Godwin for Sir Henry Hervey Bruce, third baronet Downhill. Girvan comments that the terrace is ‘an English design in an Irish setting’.(Girvan)

The terrace is entered into the valuation fieldbook between 1873 and 1878 at which stage all the houses are inhabited and valued at £2.5s. The terrace is described as ‘recently erected’ in the Irish Builder of February 1882, but appears to have been constructed some years earlier. The architect, Frederick Henry Godwin (a nephew of the better-known Edward William Godwin), is little known with only three local structures attributed to him, the last of which was the current terrace. However, he moved to England c1890 and is thought to have designed additions to Westburton House, Gloucestershire. (www.dia.ie)

The stone used was local basalt with freestone (i.e. fine-grained stone that could be easily worked with a chisel) dressings to doors and windows. The plan of the houses given in the Irish Builder shows that each consisted of a single room on the ground floor and a washhouse/scullery to the rear while a staircase led to the upper floor where the space was partitioned to form two bedrooms. (Irish Builder) These tiny cottages, often accommodating very large families, were built for estate workers, although by no means all the inhabitants were employed by the Hervey Bruce family.

The valuation of the all the houses in the terrace was dropped to £1.10s in 1887 and the rent for this year is recorded as 10d per week. At the time of the 1901 census the three-room houses were all designated second class. The tenants all leased their houses from the Hervey Bruce estate.

The first tenant to be listed in number five was James Gillespie. Several changes of occupier followed and at the time of the 1901 census the occupier was Jane Gillespie, a widow of 80 who kept house and looked after her grandchildren, the only household income appearing to come from her 15-year-old grandson who was an assistant gardener. By 1911 Jane was 90 and in receipt of the newly-introduced old-age pension. Her two female grandchildren were working as embroiderers.

At the time of the first general revaluation of the early 1930s the buildings remained much as originally constructed with a kitchen on the ground floor and two small bedrooms upstairs. A separate, single-storey washhouse stood in the rear yard and the water supply had to be carried from a pump. The rents varied from 6s to 8s8d a month.

Since the 1960s/70s the majority of the houses have been extended to the rear and refurbished internally. (HB file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/2/1 First Edition OS Map 1831
2. PRONI OS/6/5/2/2 Second Edition OS map 1848
3. PRONI OS/6/5/2/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/2/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/10A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/H/5 First General Revaluation 1933-57
8. HB file – 03/12/007A-L
9. Irish Builder Vol 24, 15th February 1882, p54(illus.)

Secondary Sources

1. Eccles, J “Downhill, A Scrapbook of People and Place” London: Bath Press, 1996
2. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in North Derry including Limavady, Ballykelly, Castlerock, Downhill and Magilligan” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1975
3. www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Terraced single-bay one-and-a-half-storey stone former labourer’s cottage, built c.1875, as one of twelve by Sir William Harvey Bruce to the designs of Frederick Henry Godwin (HB03/12/007A-L). The house retains its original appearance and stands as one of the better examples on the terrace having retained the original timber window frames, albeit with latticed glazing replaced. With its distinctive steeply pitched roof, deep overhanging eaves and tall chimney stacks and its original basalt stone walling with freestone dressings, the terrace greatly contributes to the late nineteenth-century character of Castlerock.

General comments

Criteria R- Age, S - Authenticity,T - Historic Importance and U - Historic Associations also apply.