Ballyronan House,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This is a detached two-storey house, ‘Ballyronan House’, built possibly in the late eighteenth century. The house is long and linear in plan with a series of returns forming an overall L-shaped configuration. Ballyronan House is located at the junction of small street perpendicular to the Shore Road overlooking the Quay at Ballyronan.

The front South elevation is nine bays in width and fronts directly onto the street. It is composed of a three-bay house to the right, a four-bay ‘granny-flat’ wing to the centre and a two-bay outbuilding to the left. The main house to the right has a square-headed doorway to the centre flanked by a square-headed window to each side. The door is a nine-light glazed and timber door. It has carved timber pilasters with cut-stone pad stones. A rectangular overlight surmounts the door. Windows to the ground and first floor are 6/6 timber sliding sash set on painted cut-stone sills. The ground floor windows continue down to street level. Windows to the first floor are larger than the remaining first floor windows, distinctively
setting it apart from the continuing fenestration line.
The central wing is four windows wide and has square-headed 6/6 timber sliding sash windows, as previous. Classical proportions are reducing to the upper levels. There is a square-headed door to the ground floor which contains glazed panels.
The outbuilding the left has two openings to the ground floor; a square-headed carriage door to the left, and a segmental-headed coach arch to the right.

The side West elevation to the outbuilding is gable-ended and has a brick chimney to the apex of the gable. There are no openings to this elevation.

The side East elevation is gable-ended. It has a large tri-partite window at ground and first floor. Windows are timber-sliding sash. The ground floor window extends to meet the ground level. All windows have painted cut-stone sills. The side of the rear return is visible to the right of this elevation.

The rear north elevation is largely obscured by returns. The outbuilding to the West is visible with the segmental-headed coach arch continuing through to the left.

External walls are painted roughcast render. The house and outbuilding form the same building line and are have a shared continuous roof. This roof is pitched with natural slate and red ridge tiles. There are four simple brick chimneys to the roof.

Returns

There is a pitched return parallel to and directly abutting the main house creating a double pitched roof. There is a further double-pitched return extending to the rear North. The house and returns face onto a rear yard. The yard contains a hipped outbuilding to the rear Northwest, adjacent to the coach arch. There are two single-storey outbuildings arranged in an L-shape form to the rear.

The pitched return parallel to and directly abutting the main house faces onto the rear yard. The North elevation has an assortment of timber casement and replacement uPVC openings. There is a timber and glazed door to the West.

The double-pitched return extending to the rear North fronts onto the Quay. The East elevation has square-headed openings with 6/6 timber sliding sash frames. Windows are set on cut-stone sills. The West elevation contains a mixture of square-headed timber sliding sash and replacement uPVC windows. There is a door to the left, which is surmounted by an open porch supported on timber corbel brackets. The door is timber and glazed. The North elevation has two gable-ends. To the left gable there is a large double door with side panels at ground floor level. There is a square-headed replacement uPVC to the first floor.
A wall located to the rear yard contains a round-headed opening which leads into a garden to the North

The house and returns enclose a rear yard to the North. The yard contains a hipped outbuilding to the rear Northwest, adjacent to the coach arch.

There are two single-storey outbuildings arranged in an L-shape form to the rear Northwest. Both outbuildings contain a regular arrangement of high level square-headed windows. The roofs are pitched with natural slate. There is a further metal-roofed outbuilding to the North with similar openings. External walls to the outbuilding are rubble stone with red brick dressings.

Setting

Ballyronan House is located at the junction of small street perpendicular to the Shore Road within the centre of Ballyronan. The East elevation is overlooks the Quay at Ballyronan and Lough Neagh.

Historical information

The village of Ballyronan was established by a merchant named David Gaussen, on a lease of land belonging to the Salters’ Company, in c.1788. Intended as a trading centre, he constructed a pier along with ‘extensive grocery, spirit, timber, iron, coal and grain stores, chiefly for the supply of the shopkeepers in the neighbouring towns’. In 1824, his sons, David, Charles and James, added a distillery to the south of the village, and, in c.1828-30, a brewery, just to the south-west of the pier, exporting much of the produce of the two ventures to Belfast; both had relatively short existences, however, closing some time prior to c.1857. By this stage, (1852 to be exact), the lease of Ballyronan had reverted to the Salters’ Company. The long-standing expectation, (expressed by Lewis in 1837, for one), of improvements to the village and linkage to the nascent railway network under the management of the Salters’, never materialised, and its further growth stalled. Thus, in 1857 the valuers were reporting the village was ‘no good for trade on any commercial business’, and in the decades immediately following, Ballyronan was surpassed by other centres of trade (with easy access to the railway) and never expanded beyond its pre 1830s bounds.

This building, ‘Ballyronan House, was originally David Gaussen’s home, and as such probably one of the first (if not the first) dwelling to be built within the village. It is building is shown on the OS map of 1832. In the contemporary valuation book the property is recorded as a ‘not new’ house in good condition in the hands of David Gaussen’s eldest son, David Gaussen of Lake View House. The measurements of the building are listed as 58½ft x 34 x 17, with a ‘shop’ of 30 x 22 x 8½, and a porch of 14 x 5 x 5½; an undated annotation to the valuation book (of perhaps c.1856) indicates that the shop and porch were subsequently demolished. The rest of the property was made up of outbuildings, with the dimensions of these recorded as 39 x 22 x 6½, 34 x 19 x 14, 29 x 11 x 5½ (‘shed’), 20½ x 19½ x 12, 14 x 8 x 10, 32 x 9½ x 3 (‘piggery’), 23 x 13 x 5 (a thatched ‘shed’), 28½ x 6½ x 9½, 18 x 12 x 6, 99 x 19½ x 15 (with an annotation showing that this building was later reduced to 75ft. On the other side of the road to the south at this point was the brewery complex, which the valuers include as part of the above property.

In 1853 lease passed to one of David Gaussen’s younger sons, William, and by 1857 (when the second valuation was carried out) the building was seemingly split into four, the main section to the south end occupied by William Gaussen himself, with a David Duncan, an Edward McCann and the local ‘Constabulary Force’ occupying the northern portion's). In 1860 this force is noted as having use of the whole building, however from 1864 until 1890, William Gaussen is recorded as the sole occupant.

In the latter year the property passed to William’s son, Arthur, and in the same year a George Rogers is listed as a resident also. Part of the building (which formerly contained a small dwelling) is recorded as having been demolished in 1908, the same valuer noting that as well as the main dwelling section to the south end, there were two much more modest dwellings.

Sometime between 1929 and 1935 a William McLean acquired the freehold of the whole building. In 1936 the main southern section is listed as a ‘house, [with] petrol pump, offices, weighbridge, with the two smaller dwellings leased to a Robert Wylie and a John Greer respectively, Greers lease taking in not only a dwelling but some outbuildings. This situation remained current until 1957 at least.

References- Primary sources

1 PRONI D.4108/11/2/1 Salters’ Company papers ‘Map of the townland of Ballyronan, coloured with the markings of W. Gaussen’s holdings’, c.1830
2 PRONI VAL/1A/5/47 OS map, Co. Londonderry sheet 47, with valuation
references, 1832
3 PRONI VAL/1B/532 First valuation, Atrea parish, 1832
4 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…vol.6’ eds. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams, (QUB, 1990), pp.6-7, 9 (1836)
3 Lewis, Samuel, ‘A topographical dictionary of Ireland vol.I’, (London, 1837)
5 PRONI D.4108/11/2/2 Salters’ Company papers ‘Map of the Salters’ estate with detailed town plan of Ballyronan’, 1837
6 PRONI VAL/2A/5/47A OS map, Co Londonderry sheet 47, with valuation references, 1853(-57)
7 PRONI VAL/2B/5/26C Second valuation, Artrea parish, 1857
8 PRONI VAL/12B/34/4A Annual valuation revision book, Ballyronan ED, 1860-63
9 PRONI VAL/12B/34/4B Annual valuation revision book, Ballyronan ED, 1864-83
10 PRONI VAL/12B/34/4C Annual valuation revision book, Ballyronan ED, 1884-98
11 PRONI VAL/12B/34/4D Annual valuation revision book, Ballyronan ED, 1899-1915
12 PRONI VAL/12B/34/4E Annual valuation revision book, Ballyronan ED, 1915-29
13 PRONI VAL/12B/34/24F Annual valuation revision book, Salterstown ED, 1915-29
14 PRONI VAL/3C/6/16 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Salterstown ED, 1936-57

Secondary sources

1 Rowan, A.J., ‘North west Ulster’, (London, 1979), p.126
2 Curl, James Stevens, ‘The Londonderry Plantation, 1609-1914’ (Philimore & Co., 1986)

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
V. Authorship

Evaluation

This is a detached two-storey house, ‘Ballyronan House’, built possibly in the late eighteenth century. The house is long and linear in plan with a series of returns forming an overall L-shaped configuration. This is an unusual example of a late eighteenth century house set in village context. Its modest, but well proportioned street fronted exterior, belies its size and the social standing of the inhabitants. Outbuildings to the rear add to its interest. The house appears to have connections with 17th century French Huguenot immigrants.