20 Cloneytrace Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey late Georgian style detached house of perhaps c.1810. The property is set within spacious wooded grounds, on a slight rise to the east of Cloneytrace Road, roughly 2km north / north-east of Broughshane.

The front elevation is symmetrical and faces south. To centre there is an elliptical-headed door opening with margin panes. The moulded surround is topped with a keystone. At either side there is a flat-headed window opening with 8/8 timber sash frames. These rest on cut-stone sills. At first floor there are three similar, evenly-spaced windows.

The roof is pitched and covered with natural slate and red clay ridge tiles. At the apex of each gable is a replacement rendered chimneystack with modern concrete coping and plain clay pots. Eaves overhang slightly; verges have pronounced overhangs and painted bargeboards.

Walls are finished with plain render.

Historical information

A house of similar plan and orientation as the present dwelling is shown on the OS map of 1832. It is marked ‘Oakfield’ on this map, although both earlier and later sources suggest it was actually known by the present name of 'Oaklands' at this time. In the valuation of October 1832 this house is recorded as a ‘not new’ building occupied by ‘Mr. Duffin’ and measuring 47½ft x 28½ x 16, with a ‘back’ (ie rear projection) of 44½ x 19 x 12½, and a ‘return office’ of 11½ x 11½ x 6½. To the rear (north) were outbuildings including a ‘poultry house’ of 20 x 8½ x 8½, cow house of 54 x 15½ x 6 and stables measuring 71 x 21½ x 10½, with the whole property rated at a highly respectable £18.

The ‘Mr Duffin’ mentioned by the valuers was undoubtedly Adam Duffin, a member of a notable local family whose daughter married one of the McCrackens of Belfast. According to his own diary, Adam was living at ‘Oaklands’ in 1814 so it is likely that the house recorded in 1832 was standing at that point, particularly as –in the valuers’ reckoning- it was possibly over 25 years old at that date.

Adam Duffin remained living at Oaklands until some time prior to April 1833, for the OS Memoirs of that month mention that 'Counsellor White has left it and it is at present uninhabited.’ By 1846 it was in possession of William Sayers, who appears to have been a relation of Adam Duffin. In the second valuation of February 1860 the dimensions of the house are virtually the same as those noted in 1832, however, the height of the main section is recorded as 21ft as opposed to 16ft previously. It is possible that this discrepancy was due to the valuers of 1832 merely measuring to the eaves level (which they frequently did) and neglecting an attic or loft space, and not from the raising of the wall height in the interim years. It must be said, however, that externally at least the house could pass for a building of the 1830s or 1840s, indicating, perhaps that it was remodelled -and the roof raised- around this time. The fact that the valuers still grade the house as 'not new', does not prelude a significant change to the building, if such a change had taken place 25 years or so previously- in the mid 1830s. The outbuildings, on the other hand, definitely appear to have added post 1832, as their footprint is larger on the revised OS map of 1857 and, at 71ft x 21 x 15, 89 x 21½ x 8, and 60 x 19 x 7, their dimensions, as recorded in 1860, as well. The valuers also make reference to 'detached offices', of 29 x 18 x 7, 29 x 14 ½ x 6 (both thatched), 25 x 18 x 10 (a 'weaving shed') and 83 x 18 x 6 ½, all of which probably made up the complex located a significant distance to the north of the house.

The addition of all of these new buildings meant that the rateable value had risen to £30 by 1860. In 1865 a 'flax mill' is noted by the valuers, rated at £10, whether this is a reference to a newly built structure, or the aforementioned weaving shed, is not certain, but by 1874 it was no longer being worked, the boom years of the American Civil War having long passed. The rateable value of the property as a whole had fallen to £27 in 1870, and fell again to £25 in 1883, and again, to £21, in 1903.

William Sayers was succeeded as occupant in 1880 by James sayers, with James and John Sayers noted as joint residents in 1886, and John Sayers listed solely in 1906. He remained there until c.1933 when Oaklands either passed to, or was acquired by, James Shannon. John A. Shannon is listed as owner in 1960, and was still there in 1972.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI T1242/6 Drennan-Duffin Papers Diary of Adam Duffin of Oaklands, 1814
3 PRONI VAL1A/1/33 OS map, Co. Antrim sheet 33, with valuation
references, 1832
3 PRONI VAL1B/15A-C First valuation, Skerry parish, 1832
4 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland...vol.13', eds Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB, 1992), pp.110-11, (1833)
5 PRONI VAL2A/1/33B OS map, Co. Antrim sheet 33, with valuation references, 1857[-60]
6 PRONI VAL2B/1/4A Second valuation, Skerry parish, 1860
7 PRONI VAL12B/3/21A Annual valuation revision book, Longmore ED, 1864-80
8 PRONI VAL12B/3/21B Annual valuation revision book, Longmore ED, 1881-96
9 PRONI VAL12B/3/21C Annual valuation revision book, Longmore ED, 1897-1909
10 PRONI VAL12A/1/33 Valuers' office notebook, Ballymena Union, 1903
11 PRONI OS6/1/33/3 OS map, Co. Antrim sheet 33, 1903
12 PRONI VAL12B/3/21D Annual valuation revision book, Longmore ED, 1909-29
13 PRONI OS6/1/33/4 OS map, Co. Antrim sheet 33, 1921
14 PRONI VAL3B/1/7 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Longmore ED, 1935
15 PRONI VAL3C/1/10 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Longmore ED, 1935-56
16 PRONI VAL4B/1/21 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Longmore ED, 1956-72

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-storey late Georgian style detached house of perhaps c.1810. Evidence suggests this house could be pre-1832 and as such is of some interest. However, it is of a relatively common type among the best examples of a traditional rural dwelling.