Mountsandel Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay single-storey with attic rendered house, built c.1820. Rectangular on plan, extensively renovated c.1930 and extended to the east gable with a two-storey rendered wing, built c.1994. Set on the northeast side of Mountsandel Road behind a tall rendered wall and set within its own mature gardens.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and two chimneystacks with clay pots. Replacement guttering to boxed timber eaves supported on diminutive paired brackets. Three-sided canted glazed dormer to the rear pitch. Pebble-dash rendered walling with rusticated rendered quoins. Square-headed window openings with architrave surrounds, concrete sills and largely early twentieth-century 6/6 timber sash windows with margin lights.

Symmetrical front elevation has a central door opening flanked by a window set within elliptical-headed recesses also having moulded architrave surrounds with keystones and rising from a concrete sill at floor level. Square-headed door opening with moulded architrave surround and keystone housing a tripartite pilastered timber doorcase with double-leaf four-panelled doors, multi-light sidelights with margin panes and stepped lintel cornice. Door opens onto stone step to the front garden.

East gable abutted by single-bay two-storey link block connected to two-storey house, added c.1994, emulating external detailing of the original house.

Rear elevation is three windows wide and abutted by a three-sided canted bay window with moulded cornice and timber sash windows as per above.

West gable abutted by a timber-framed conservatory with a pair of square-headed window openings at attic level having moulded architrave surrounds and 2/2 timber sash windows.

Setting:
Located to the northeast of Mountsandel Road behind a tall rendered wall and set within extensive gardens filled with mature specimen trees and planting. Winding bitmac drive opens onto the road at the north end via a pair of early wrought-iron gates on matching iron posts.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement steel
Walling Rough cast render
Windows Early twentieth-century timber sash

Historical information

The current dwelling house pre-dates the first edition OS map of 1830 and was extended to the east c1840 and after 1923. A rectangular structure corresponding to the western-most block of the present house is shown on the first edition OS map of 1830. The house had been extended to the east by the second edition of 1849-50 and a further block was added after 1923.

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the occupier as Rev Richard P Young, Curate of Coleraine parish from 1850-1859 (Clergy of Connor). Rev Young leased the house and offices situated on a plot of over 8 acres and valued at £13.10s from the eccentric Samuel W Knox, Mayor of Coleraine, ‘who wore knee breeches and stockings and powdered his hair’ (Mullin). The house passed to Mrs Mary Knox after Rev Young had accepted the incumbency of Castlewellan, but from 1872 was briefly the home of the Rev Henry Stewart O’Hara who was Rector of Coleraine from 1869 to 1894. From 1875 the house was let to a succession of tenants, and at the time of the 1901 census the occupier was Jane Crawford, a 60-year-old widow who lived with her three adult children, her son working as a foundry manager, probably in the nearby Kennedy’s foundry which produced turbines and agricultural machinery (Mullin). The eight-room house was designated second class.

The house was taken over c1923 by Frederick W Young who built the nearby ‘Mountsandel Nursery’ which is captioned on the fourth edition of 1923. Tomato houses were built to the east of the dwelling house at this period and a new dormer and bay window were added to the house itself causing a rise in the valuation to £25. Valuer’s notes of the 1930s record the accommodation as, on the ground floor, two receptions, a kitchen, scullery and pantry and on the first floor, four bedrooms, a bathroom, WC and hot press. A large expanse of tomato and mushroom houses with associated heating chambers and water tanks was laid out in the adjacent fields and additional tomato and mushroom houses were added throughout the 1930s and 40s. The dwelling house was sold by the nursery owner c1948 and continues in domestic use.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/7/1 First Edition OS Map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/7/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-50
3. PRONI OS/6/5/7/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/7/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI OS/6/5/7/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1949
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/9A-N Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/4 First General Revaluation 1933-57
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/2/A/34 First General Revaluation 1933-57
9. Griffith’s Valuation online

Secondary Sources

1. “Clergy of Connor, from Patrician Times to the Present Day” based on the unpublished Succession Lists compiled by JB Leslie, Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation and Library Committee of the Dioceses of Down, Conor and Dromore, 1993
2. Mullin, Rev T H “Coleraine in Modern Times” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1979

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical three-bay single-storey with attic rendered house, built c.1820 with early twentieth-century alterations that give it its current appearance. While the extension to the east detracts from the overall composition, the house retains much of its historic detailing both internally and externally and is enhanced by a mature garden setting.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; and S - Authenticity also apply.