Brook House, 29 Spout Road, Cavanalee, Strabane BT82 8NB

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached multi-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1895. Rectangular on plan, facing west on an elevated site to the south of Spout Road, with gabled breakfront, lower two-storey return with flat-roofed extension to south and front and side entrance porches.

Pitched natural slate roofs, lead valleys, roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, terracotta finials to gables and four large redbrick chimneystacks with heavy moulded cement cornice and terracotta pots. Moulded cast-iron guttering to timber box fascia, cast-iron downpipes and decorative timber barge-boards to all gables including lucarne openings. Pebbledash rendered walling, rusticated smooth rendered quoins and plinth course with a continuous moulded string course above ground floor. Square-headed window openings to ground floor, segmental-headed to first floor, with moulded architrave surrounds, concrete sills and single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns.

Three-bay two-storey front west elevation with gabled breakfront to right and single-storey square-plan entrance porch to the centre. Windows to the breakfront are arranged in pairs with a single concrete sill to each pair. Entrance porch has a flat-roof and cast-iron cresting with moulded cornice below, a window opening to the front and a square-headed door opening to the left cheek with moulded architrave surround, keystone and four-panelled timber door with bolection mouldings, brass furniture and replacement rectangular overlight, opening onto two concrete steps.

Single-bay two-storey gabled north side elevation fronts onto the road with the recessed three-bay two-storey return also facing the road and forming part of this elevation. The windows to the side gable are arranged in pairs as per the front gable while the first floor windows to the return are lucarnes with decorative timber barge-boards and terracotta finials. A modern square-plan timber-framed side entrance porch gives access to this side of the house.

Rear east elevation is abutted by the return and a further flat-roofed extension to the south with a single window opening to the first floor of the rear elevation. Between the return and the rear elevation is a small projection below eaves level with a hipped natural slate roof, raised above that of the return.

Single-bay two-storey gabled south side elevation has a single window opening to the ground floor. The flat-roofed extension has a large modern timber casement window and hardwood glazed door.

Set in landscaped grounds with mature trees the north of the house is finished in concrete and enclosed to the road by a low rendered wall with decorative cast-iron railing with matching vehicular and pedestrian gates on octagaonal cast-iron posts. The remainder of the site is enclosed by rubblestone walling. Opposite the entrance gates to the north is a farmyard on the site of a threshing mill, now occupied by cement rendered farm buildings.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Pebbledash render
Windows Timber sash
Rainwater goods Cast-iron

Historical information

The house is first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905 captioned ‘Brook Villa’. On the fourth edition (1951) it is captioned ‘Brook House’. It replaces an earlier building present on the site since at least the first edition of 1833. A flax mill is shown to the north east of the house from the second edition of 1854. By the third edition (1905) this is ‘disused’.

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists a house, offices and land valued at 15s, later reduced to 10s. John Young leases the property from the Marquis of Abercorn. A flax mill is also listed.

Jane Young becomes the occupier in 1879 and in 1890 Joseph Young. In 1898 there is a large increase in value of the plot from 10s to £5.10s indicating a rebuild of the house on the plot. Accompanying valuers’ notes indicate that the valuation has been appealed by Young and is subsequently dropped to £5. A plan and dimensions are given for the house and the cost is estimated at £231, later reduced to £197. Revisions note that in 1894 the mill is ‘down’ and a new slated barn has been built costing about £150. In 1898 a ‘thrashing and grinding mill’ has been built nearby which is valued at £10. Valuers’ notes also contain details of this mill and remark that it is ‘only used for owner’s grinding and thrashing’.

In 1904 the house and mill are valued together at £20 and a further entry is made in valuers’ notes which shows that the house has been extended to the east. The cost of the house is now estimated at £428 and it is stated to have a bath and hot and cold water. The mill’s valuation does not appear to rise at this time, but additional outbuildings are shown, including a stable and coach house and a dairy. In 1906 Joseph Young becomes the owner in fee of the house under land purchase legislation of the early twentieth century.

Cox, in his history of Edymore and Cavanalee townlands, traces the fortunes of the Young family who eventually built Brook House. John Young became the tenant of farm No. 13 in Cavanalee about 1850 and built a modest flax mill shortly afterwards. “After John Young’s death in 1877, his widow, Jane, became the tenant and upon her death in 1889 her son Joseph succeeded her. Towards the end of the century the flax mill became disused. At that time Joseph Young had installed a threshing mill in an adjoining building…By 1900 [he] had built a substantial new farmhouse, shown as Brook Villa on the 1905 OS map and later known as Brook House.” (p.49)

The book carries a sketch made by an RAF Officer staying there during the Second World War. The original house had only six windows, but was extended to the east by the time of the 1905 OS map, giving it eight windows (p.49,50).

Local folk memory relates that, “Joseph Young’s wife was a rich American widow and the children were those of her first marriage. This probably explains how Joseph Young became the first man to own a car and build a substantial new house in Cavanalee.” (p.71)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/5/1 – First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/5/2 – Second Edition OS Map (1854)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/5/3 – Third Edition OS Map (1905)
4. PRONI OS/6/6/5/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map (1951)
5. PRONI VAL/2/A/6/5 – Griffiths’ Valuation Map
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/41 – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/A/6/50 – Valuers’ Note Book (1898-99)
8. PRONI VAL/12/A/6/51 – Valuers’ Note Book (1900-04)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/10A-G – Annual Revision Records (1860-1929)
10. PRONI VAL/3/D/7/10R/1 – Valuers’ RV Binder (1933-57)

Secondary Sources

Cox, M. “Overlooking the River Mourne: Four Centuries of Family Farms in Edymore and Cavanalee in County Tyrone” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2006

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This solid detached house has more in common with its urban or suburban contemporaries and as a result makes an unusual addition to this rural setting. Dating from c.1898, Brook House retains most of its original external features including roof, chimneys and barge-boards, all timber sash windows and front entrance porch doors as well as its very decorative iron railings to the road. The interior also retains much of its original joinery and a fine polished timber staircase. Although largely intact this house is not of sufficient architectural or historic interest to warrant listing.