Hill Head

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This is a detached rendered two-storey house, built c. 1857. The house was built along with the ‘dying and finishing works’ as part of the industrial linen buildings along the riverbank. The house is roughly square in plan with a single-storey hipped roof return to the rear West. There is a single-storey flat-roofed return to the Northwest, c. 1950. There is a single-storey outhouse building to the South. There are two further single-storey garden sheds to the rear yard. The house is set within its own grounds at the end of a short drive covered with extensive foliage. It is set on a hill to the North-west of Cullybackey. The original grounds have been partially developed by modern housing to the South and East.

The front North-eastern elevation faces onto a short lawn. The timber panelled door is flanked by leaded side lights and surmounted by an elliptical headed leaded fanlight. Sidelights and fanlight sport later coloured glass. The knocker, doorknob and letterbox are later.
There is a carved later elliptical-headed door canopy supported by timber brackets. This is Queen Anne revival in style and may date from the 1930s or 40s.

The windows are six-over-six timber sash frames set on cut-stone sills. There are carved Art-Deco style stone hoods to each window.

The upper level has timber sash windows, as previous.

The side South-eastern elevation faces onto a short overgrown lawn. There is a bowed bay to the right of the ground floor and a projecting squared bay to the centre, c. 1900-1910.
The bowed bay has seven timber casement windows set on cut-stone sills. There are leaded lights to the top pane.
The projecting squared bay has three-lights to the front and one to each side. It has timber windows as previous. Both bays have flat-roofs and a carved timber fascia.
The upper level has 6/6 timber sash windows with carved stone surrounds, as previous.

The side North-western elevation has extensive views over the main town.

The side elevation of the main house is to the left. The single-storey flat-roofed return is to the centre. The side elevation of the single-storey hipped roof return is to the right.

There are 6/6 timber sash windows with unusual, vaguely ‘Art Deco’ style carved stone surrounds; sills are cut stone to the main house.
There is a timber casement window to the flat-roof return with a concrete sill to the flat-roofed return.
There are paired 12/1 timber sash frames to the rear return with painted cut-stone sills to the hipped roof return.

The rear South-western elevation has an assortment of square-headed timber sash to the ground floor. The upper level has 1/1 timber sash frames. All windows are set on cut-stone sills.

The main roof is hipped and slated with black ridge tiles. The roof to the rear elevation is double hipped. Downpipes, hoppers and gutters are cast-iron. The roof has a brick chimney to the right (East). The chimney has a dentilled course and profiled stepped capping.

External walls are painted dry-dash render. There is a painted carved stone plinth to the base of the front elevation.

Return:
The South-eastern elevation of the single-storey hipped return has a semi-circular headed doorway to the right and a square-headed window to the left. The door is timber panelled with rectangular single-light windows to each side. There is a radial fanlight over. The window has a paired 12/1 timber sash frames with painted cut-stone sill. The windows to the North-western elevation are matching. There is artificial slate to the hipped roof

The flat-roof return has a timber casement window with a concrete sill.
External walls to the return are dry dash render.

Outbuildings:
The single-storey outhouse building set to the South of the main house is accessed via a timber double gate. The side North-western elevation faces into the rear yard. It has a flat-headed timber doorway to the left, a large square-headed opening to the centre and window openings to the right. External walls are painted render and stone. There is artificial slate to the roof and replacement uPVC rainwater goods

Setting:
There is a gravelled and grass yard to the rear accessed via a gated entrance to the South of the main house. The rear yard is bound by a random rubble stone wall and a timber picket fence.

The house is set on a rise North-west of the town centre. It has broken views over the town centre.

Historical information

Cullybackey historian William Shaw, writing in 1913, described the history of Hill Head as ‘to a large extent, the history of the village and its commercial activity.’ According to Shaw a Mr. Davison was responsible for the building of the house and the ‘adjoining dyeing and finishing works’, along the riverbank to the north-west. Apparently, Mr Davison’s concern did not flourish and it passed into the hands of a Mr. Walker, who, in conjunction with Messrs Nicholl, ‘carried on a prosperous business for many years’.

Joseph Nicholl of Cullybackey is listed under ‘Linen merchants and registered bleachers’ in Pigot’s Directory of 1824. On the OS map of 1832 a house and outbuildings are shown, but the house as we know it today was not yet standing. This is confirmed by the details supplied by the valuation book of 1834, where the dwelling on site at that point is recorded as an ‘old’ building (quality letter ‘1C’) measuring 59ft x 24 x 15½ with a return noted as ‘bad’, a thatched office (i.e. outbuilding) measuring 61 x 20½ x 7, and another office of 42 x 20½ x 8. The rateable value for the ensemble is given as £5-14-0, a modest sum for what was a relatively large two or one and a half storey house, suggesting that the property was indeed an old building not in the best of order.

Shaw tells us that in his latter years, Joseph Nicholl shared the house with his late wife’s brother, Robert Young, and that after Nicholl’s death the house and business passed to his sons, John and Robert.

The present house -minus the return- is shown marked ‘Hill Head’ on the OS map of 1857. It is recorded in the second valuation of c.1861 as a relatively new building (quality letter ‘1A’) and described by the valuer as ‘a comfortable house but plain building finish’. The main section of the dwelling is noted as measuring 15yrds x 14 x 2(storeys), with offices of 16 x 5 x 1 and 18 x 7 x 1, with the rateable value a respectable £22. It is not certain when the house was actually built, however its style is consistent with a building of c.1840-45. By 1861 a James Woods was in residence, with a Thomas Casement the immediate lessor. Woods, who Shaw says bought the mills from the Nicholls, is likely to have been responsible for the building of the new house.

In 1873 Hill Head and the mills were acquired by Messrs Robert Simpson and Nathaniel Morton. One or both of these may have occupied the house for a period; however by 1883 they were leasing it to a Captain Joshua Rowan. Rowan remained there until 1888, when a William Moore (who appears to have been in partnership with Simpson & Morton) is recorded as the occupant.

In c.1893 a William Young bought the mills and Hill Head, leasing the latter to a John Newtown from 1895. The building is shown with the return on the valuation plan of 1906. Unfortunately (and unusually) the valuations give us no indication of when this was added, however it is clear that some work was carried out to the property c.1900-10, for significant elements of detailing, including the bays to the west, some of the sash window frames, the downspouts and hoppers, and some of the fireplaces, are typical of the period.

John Newton is listed as the tenant up until 1929. When valuation returns resumed again in 1936 an Osbert Jackson had taken up the lease. Jackson appears to have acquired the freehold of Hill Head at some point between this date and the later 1950s. In 1959 a Norman Cox is listed as the resident / owner, with a Major (later Colonel) Frank B.S. Maclaran succeeding him in 1964. Colonel Maclaran was still in residence in 1987.

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Pigot & Co's Provincial Directory of Ireland’, (Manchester, 1824)
2 PRONI VAL/1A/1/32 First valuation map, Co. Antrim sheet 32, with valuation
references, 1832-c.38
3 PRONI VAL/1B/176 First valuation, Ahoghill parish, 1834-c.1838
4 PRONI VAL/2D/1/3 Second valuation plan of Cullybackey, 1859
5 PRONI VAL/2B/1/65B Second valuation, Ahoghill, c.1859-61
6 PRONI VAL/12B/3/14A Annual valuation revision book, Galgorm ED, 1864-77
7 PRONI VAL/12B/3/14B Annual valuation revision book, Galgorm ED, 1877-90
8 PRONI VAL/12B/3/14C Annual valuation revision book, Galgorm ED, 1890-1902
9 PRONI VAL/12B/3/14D Annual valuation revision book, Galgorm ED, 1902-12
10 PRONI VAL/12E/23/1 Valuation plan of Cullybackey, 1906 (-35)
11 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5E Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1913-29
12 PRONI VAL/3B/ First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1936-57
13 PRONI VAL/4B/ Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1956-72
14 PRONI VAL/14B/48 Third general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1976-87
15 PRONI VAL/14C/36 Fourth general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1987-93

Secondary sources
1 Shaw, William, ‘Cullybackey- The story of an Ulster village’, (William Donald & Co., 1913), pp.123-26

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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is an early Victorian house with an Edwardian return and Edwardian and perhaps 1930s decoration. Little internal detail from the mid nineteenth century remains; much appears to date from the Edwardian period.

The house shares historical association with the former ‘dying and finishing works’ as part of the industrial linen buildings along the riverbank. It occupies an impressive location over the riverbank.
Combined with the nearby remaining linen buildings of Cullybackey, this house adds variety and interest to the architectural legacy of the town.