Riverdale House and Rocaille, 19 Aghalee Road, Aghagallon, Co Antrim, BT67 0AR

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached 2-storey house of 1910-11 in the vaguely Italianate Style (rendered façade, canted bays, hipped roof etc.) much used for middling-sized ‘suburban’ residences in the late Victorian / Edwardian era. The house is set in spacious garden just north of the village of Aghagallon. Within the garden is a collection of ornamental features or ‘rocaille, and on the opposite side of the Aghalee Road is a former threshing mill complex that belonged to the dwelling’s original owner. Two sets of matching flat bar decortaive gates and simple slim stone pillars with pyramidal caps are located at middle of northern garden boundary to lane and from lane exiting to Aghalee Road also north of the house.

The house is L-shaped in plan with a 2-storey return and double-pitched hipped roof. There is a single-storey detached garage to the rear of the main house.

Front elevation (SW)
The front elevation is symmetrical and consists of a doorway in the centre, flanked by a 2-storey canted bay either side. At ground level there is a plain deep painted plaster plinth. The doorway has a flat segmental arched opening with a moulded keystone, archivolt and reveals. Set within this is a painted timber door screen with a 4-panelled door, glazed over-light and half-glazed side-lights. There is etched glass in the glazed over-light. There is a modern (mid 20thcentury) porch light mounted above the doorway. The front door is accessed via a set of concrete entrance steps which spans between the canted bays and has 3 no. curved steps. The canted bays have 3 no. plain square-headed window openings on each level, with 1/1 sliding sash painted timber windows. Above the front door is a single similar style window. There is a string course at floor level, plaster quoins at the corners and cills are plain painted masonry. The eaves consist of painted masonry corbels supporting a painted metal ogee gutter. Roofs on the canted bays are hipped and slated similar to the main roof, with terracotta cox comb and finials. There is a pair of tall chimneys centrally located on the main ridge. They are plastered brick with projecting courses and terracotta pots.

Side elevation (SE)
The side elevation is very plainly detailed with only 1 no. single window at each level, located directly above one another, on the far right of the elevation. The windows are similar to the windows on the main elevation. The elevation generally has the same wall and roof details as the front elevation.

The rear return abuts the rear elevation of the main house close to its SE elevation. The SE elevation of the return is roughly symmetrical with 2 no. window openings at each floor level. The windows are generally similar to main house but smaller, apart from one which appears to be the same size. The eaves and roof on the return are detailed similarly to the main house but the roof is not hipped.

There is a small enclosed yard NW of the rear return and abutting the main elevation on the NE. It has a plastered brick wall boundary, quarry tile paving and original painted cast iron gate and gate posts.

Side elevation (NW)
The side elevation has a 2-storey canted bay on the left-hand side, similar to the front bays. It is plain on the right-hand side with only 1 no. single window, similar to the other windows and located at ground level. The elevation generally has the same wall and roof details as the front elevation.

The NW elevation of the rear return is roughly symmetrical. At ground level, in the centre, is a projecting porch with hipped roof, flanked either side by square-headed window openings with 1/1 sliding sash windows. (The porch has a window centrally located on NW elevation and a painted timber boarded door on the SW.)
There are 2 no. windows centrally located at first floor level, similar to the ground level windows. All windows are similar to main house but smaller. The eaves and roof on the return are detailed similarly to the main house but the roof is not hipped. The roof on the porch is hipped with painted timber brackets at eaves level supporting an ogee gutter. Rainwater good are painted metal. There is a single chimney, similar in style to the main house and located on the ridge, just off centre.

There is a small enclosed yard NW of the rear return and abutting the main elevation on the NE. It has a plastered brick wall boundary and original painted cast iron gate.

Rear elevation (NE)
The rear elevation has a 2-storey return on the far left-hand side and is plainly detailed on the right-hand side with only 1 no. window at each floor level closely abutted to the return. The windows are similar in style to the return elevations and have stained glass. The elevation generally has the same wall and roof details as the front elevation.

The NE gable elevation of the rear return has a single square-headed window opening at first floor level, on the right-hand side. There is a single centrally located semi-circular arch-headed window opening at attic level. The square-headed window is similar to other windows on the return. The arched window has a painted timber single-glazed window with glazed over-light and double-opening casement. Walls are detailed similarly to the rest of the house. The gable eaves has a painted timber moulded bargeboard and soffit on brackets. There is a terracotta finial at the apex.

There is a modern fuel tank mounted against the wall at ground level.

There is a single-storey detached outbuilding to the rear of the main house. It has smooth ruled and lined render and plain plaster plinth. Roof is double-pitched natural slate roof with painted timber brackets at eaves level supporting an ogee gutter and moulded bargeboard at gable. On the SW elevation there is a window opening in the centre and 2 no. door openings each side. All openings are square-headed and the doors are painted boarded timber. The window is 2/2 painted timber single-glazed sliding sash. There is a modern garage door on the NW gable and a circular vent opening at each gable apex with original metal grille. The details on the roof ridge are similar to the main house. Rainwater goods are painted cast iron.

Materials:
Roof: Natural slate with terracotta cox comb and finials.
RWG: Cast metal, painted.
Walls: Painted smooth render, ruled and lined with quoins.
Windows: Generally 1/1 single-glazed sliding-sash painted timber. Some stained glass to rear windows.

Garden features
At the SW corner of the garden, immediately S of the drive, is a collection of somewhat quirky, folly-like, rubble and polychrome brick-constructed ornamental garden features - or ‘rocaille’ - believed to have been built / assembled in stages between c.1870s to c.1900. These are located on an irregular plot of gently sloping ground approximately 17m x 11, which is curved in semi-circular fashion to the west. This plot, enclosed by low rubble walling / retaining walls, is bounded on the east side by some trees, to the west by the road, and to the south by a pond which in effect is a part of the larger dam belonging to the mill opposite. The features themselves have a naïve, small-scale, folk-art quality, being made up of rocks of various sizes (and some bricks) arranged as small roughly circular enclosures, cemented together as pillars (much like vernacular gate piers), a tiny grotto, turrets, and odd sections of walling interspersed with arches, steps and castellations.

The standout element in the whole collection is set on a rubble-built ‘island’ within the pond, and consists of a small red brick hut with attached yellow-brick folly ‘tower’, which houses what was once a working shower (apparently for the use of workers at the nearby mill, but no-longer operative). The hut is entered via a tall narrow pointed arch doorway to the east, and within the bare interior is a small changing area, and the shower space itself, which has a stone tray and a small window with decorative metal grill. The island is reached via a narrow rubble bridge whose single arch is dressed in brick.

Setting
The house is set in a mature landscaped site with the Goudy river to S and a culvert (‘Gilberts Bridge’) to W at the boundary with the main Aghlalee road. The former threshing mill complex (now ‘Riverdale Barn’ ) is located directly on opposite side of the road. The house is accessed via a short tarmacadam driveway, entered directly off the main Aghalee road at the Bridge, via a set of replacement cast metal gates and original cast gate posts. The garden is landscaped with lawned areas, some mature trees and a collection of ‘Rocaille’ (described in more detail above) to the W at the junction of the river and bridge. The garden is bounded to N and E with hedging and to W with a low rubble stone wall with rough stone coping. There is an original painted cast iron gate on the N boundary with masonry posts, and a matching arrangemnt onto Aghalee Road off lane north of garden.

There is a similar collection of rocaille at Rockhouse, 2 Rock Lane (HB14/08/025), about 0.5km west of this site, a house that once belonged to relations of the owners of Riverdale.

Historical information

Riverdale House was built in 1910-11 by Jonathan Gilbert, the then owner of the threshing mill on the opposite side of the road (built c.1870s converted to a wedding venue c.2000 - see below). The identity of the architect responsible for the house is not known. The property appears to have remained in the Gilbert family home until at least 1954, but may have been rented out for a period shortly after this. It was acquired by the present owner, a relation of the Gilberts, in or shortly after 1989.

The garden ornamentation, or ‘rocaille’, in the garden to the south of the house may, in part at least, be older than the dwelling itself, as it is thought to have been commenced at the time of the creation of the threshing mill and mill dam on the other side of the road – ie c.1870s. The features themselves appear to have 'evolved' over time and indeed the present owner states that he believes they are of various dates from between c.1880 and c.1920. The folly-like centrepiece on the artificial 'island' within the pond, housed an early form of shower, that is said to have been for the use of the mill workers.

Interestingly, a smaller but similarly styled collection of ornamental garden features exists in grounds of Rockhouse, a property around 0.5km to the north-west of this location, that belonged to relations of the Gilbert family in the later 19th and early 20th century (see HB14/08/025).

OTHER STRUCTURES IN THE VICINITY OF GILBERTS BRIDGE - A very long, narrow building that in part corresponds to the footprint of the present nos.24 and 26 Aghalee Road is shown on the OS map of 1832, but which at that point extended further south-west, roughly to the edge of the present mill pond. To the immediate north-west of this a shorter structure set on an east-west axis is depicted, which seems to match the long shed still extant to this corner of the site, whilst along the road itself the bridge is marked as 'Gilberts Bridge'. A Hertford estate map of the following year shows a similar arrangement, but with a lime kiln marked in the field on the opposite (south-eastern) side of the road, in what is now the garden of the Riverdale House (no.19 Aghalee Road).

In the first valuation of 1834, the long block is noted as being split into two properties, as today, with that to the north-east in the hands of Stephen Gilbert, and that to the south-west belonging to Johnathan Gilbert. The former is recorded as a ‘not new’ thatched house (grade ‘2B’) measuring 26½ft x 24½ x 17½, with a section of 16½ x 22 x 17½, thatched offices (also 2B) of 29 x 21½ x 7, 77½ x 17 x 6, and the whole valued at £5-15-6 for rateable purposes. The south-western dwelling, meanwhile, is noted of consisting of a thatched section of 28 x 24½ x 18½, with a slated portion of 11½ x 21 x 7 and 24½ x 21 x 6, offices of 13 x 21 x 7 (slated), 24½ x 18½ x 7, 35 x 21½ x 7, a ‘stable and coach house’ 30 x 19 x 7½ (all thatched), and a slated ‘fowl houses etc.’ of 48 x 9 x 6 and 36 x 16 x 6, with this property rated at the slightly higher value of £6-7-0.

It is clear from this valuation that most of the structures on site in 1834 had been standing for several decades at least, and may, (in part if not in whole), have been built in the 18th century. Taylors and Skinner’s road map of 1777 depicts structures strung out along the roadside within the general Aghagallon area, but all of these are shown to the south of the stream, whilst there is no clear evidence of any buildings in this vicinity on any of the other available 1700s maps (although, that said, most of these are small scale and do not contain much detail anyhow). A Stephen Gilbert is recorded as living in Aghagallon area in 1829 and this, taken together with the fact that the bridge bore the name in 1832, suggests that the family may have been long established here long before this date.

On the revised OS map of 1857, an L-shaped return is shown to the rear of the south-western house with a similar-shaped freestanding structure to the south which would appear to equate with much of the present mill building. In the second valuation of c.1860 the house to the north-east (still in the hands of Stephen Gilbert) is recorded much as before - 26 x 24 x 17 16 x 22 x 17, with offices of 29 x 21 x 7, 77 x 17 x 6, 32 x 18 x 8, 18 x 12 x 6 (the last two slated). The dwelling the south-west, meanwhile, which had passed to James Gilbert on the death of Johnathan in 1853, is also noted as before - 28 x 24 x 18 and 11 x 21 x 6. Its offices appear to have remained unchanged as well - 24 x 21 x 6, 13 x 21 x 7 (slated), 24 x 18 x 7, 30 x 19 x 7, 48 x 9 x 6 (slated) and 36 x 16 x 6, but an additional thatched structure of 35 x 21 x 7 is recorded, which may have made up part of the rear return shown on the 1857 map.

In 1872 the rateable value of the south-western property is noted as rising from £7-10-0 to £15-10-0 and a ‘threshing mill’ is mentioned for the first time; it rose again to £20 in 1878, dropping to £14 the following year. From all of this we may infer that much construction work was carried out at this time, probably to the mill structures. In 1899 the rateable value of no.26 increased from £8-10-0 to £8-15-0, a rise that the valuers state was due to the construction of a new shed.

On the OS map of 1900, approximately half of the present extent of the mill dam appears, along with much of the mill complex itself, with the houses and outbuildings to the north much as in 1857. Just south of the dam, fronting directly on to the roadside was small dwelling (which is shown in a shorter form on the 1857 map) and across the road from this was a hall – ‘Union Hall’ – built c.1880 and which from 1882 acted as a school. The site is captioned 'Laganville' on this map, however, later evidence indicates that this name was applied solely to no.26.

In 1911, on the other side of the stream to the north of Union Hall, Jonathan Gilbert built a new house, ‘Riverdale’, which subsequently became the main family residence (see above). The garden ornamentation, or ‘roccaille’, just south of the house may in part be earlier, however, perhaps dating - in part at least - from the time of the creation of the dam c.1870s (see above). This ornamentation also served a practical purpose, as the small turret housed a shower, said to have been for the use of the mill workers.

The Gilbert family are believed to have retained the whole site until (or shortly before) 1925, when no.26 - Laganville - was sold to James Mulholland. At some point around this time both nos.24 and 26 were damaged in a fire and, according to a remark in a later (1954) newspaper article - 'rebuilt'. It is clear that substantial work was carried out to both properties around this time, with much of no.24 demolished and what remained remodelled; more of no.26 may have survived, but the roof and chimneys look to be of this era, as does the roundel window to the front.

The Gilberts continued to live at Riverdale up until at least 1954, with a mill employee occupying the much-reduced no.24 up to this date also. Shortly after this the mill ceased to be worked. Subsequently, much of the site was left idle until 1989, when Riverdale, no.24 and the mill buildings were acquired by a relation of the former owners, who since then has restored much of the complex. The road bridge itself was rebuilt in the 1990s, and Union Hall demolished in the same decade.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 15 May 1829, 10 May 1956
2 OS maps 1832, 1858, 1900, 1920, 1965
3 PRONI D.427/14 Hertford estate maps of Aghagallon parish, 1833
4 PRONI VAL1B/165A-B First valuation, 1834
5 PRONI VAL2B/1/54 Second valuation, c.1860
6 PRONI VAL12B/9/1A-E, VAL12B/9/2E Annual valuation revisions, 1864-1928
7 'Lisburn Herald and Antrim and Down Advertiser', 9 January 1954

Secondary sources
1 Brett, C.E.B. ‘Buildings of County Antrim’, (Belfast, 1996), pp.265-66
2 Information from owner of no.24, (November 2018)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Riverdale is a substantial detached two-storey dwelling house of 1910-11, prominently set within spacious grounds in a semi-rural locale just north of Aghagallon. It is built to that fairly standard, and still relatively common, vaguely Italianate late Victorian / Edwardian suburban villa plan characterised by a symmetrical frontage with canted bays and a shallow-pitched overhanging hipped roof; however, in contrast to many of its counterparts, both it and its garden are largely untouched. The garden itself is of particular note, containing a unique eye-catching collection of folly-like ornamental features (or ‘rocaille’), that may in part predate the dwelling itself. The property was originally associated with the extensive c.1870s+ threshing mill complex on the opposite side of the road, and together with the latter, the large mill pond, and an older pair of neighbouring dwellings also connected to the mill, forms an attractive, historically interesting and locally important grouping.