Beechfield

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached asymmetrical three-bay two-storey with attic rendered house, built c.1780, with projecting entrance porch, extended and refurbished c.1890. L-shaped on plan facing south with a single-bay two-storey rear return. Set on an elevated mature site to the north of Grovehill Road with extensive gardens and a rear yard enclosed by single and two-storey rubblestone outbuildings. The site is accessed via a long gravel avenue to the west.

Hipped natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, rolled lead hip ridges, replacement moulded metal guttering to rendered eaves course and replacement metal downpipes. Flat felt roof to east return. Three rendered profiled chimneystacks with decorative clay pots and further slender rendered stack to flat-roofed return. Ruled-and-lined cement rendered walling. Square-headed window openings with stop-chamfered surrounds, granite sills and 2/2 timber sash windows.

Front south elevation is four windows wide with an off-centre flat-roofed projecting entrance porch. The ground floor windows have decorative horns and some cylinder glass extant. Entrance porch has plastic guttering to drip cornice and plain frieze. Slender square-headed window opening to either cheek of the entrance porch with uPVC windows. Square-headed door opening with concave moulded surround, replacement hardwood panelled door flanked by slender round-headed recessed panels. Door opens onto granite platform and step to front gravel parking area.

West side elevation is three windows wide including two slender single-pane timber sash windows to the first floor and an enlarged window opening to the ground floor with uPVC window.

Rear elevation abutted by full-height projection to right and to left of centre. Variety of window openings, generally 2/2 timber sash windows. Between the two rear projections is a raised concrete platform with a bipartite timber sash window at ground floor level and a square-headed door opening to the west projection having replacement hardwood glazed door opening onto two concrete steps. The west projection is also abutted by a single-storey rubblestone structure with pitched natural slate roof, brick chimneystack with decorative clay pot, plastic guttering, brick lined openings having a diminutive four-pane window and original timber sheeted doors.

The east side elevation has a single window opening at ground floor level.

Setting

Set on an elevated site with mature trees and extensive landscaped gardens to the south and west overlooking the Grovehill Road to the south. Concrete paved yard to the rear enclosed by rubblestone outbuildings running on a north-south axis.

To the west is a single-storey rubblestone range with pitched natural slate roof, five openings and small animal pens enclosed by rubblestone walls with wrought-iron gates. To the north of the yard is a diminutive lofted rubblestone outbuilding with central gabled loading bay, pitched natural slate roof and steel doors. The east of the yard is bounded by a multi-bay two-storey rubblestone outbuilding with pitched slate roof and redbrick lined openings to the northern end having replacement sheeted timber doors. The southern end of this range is in a derelict state with a collapsed roof, external stone steps and original timber sheeted doors with some timber casement windows and wrought-iron gates. To the south of the yard is a further detached lime-rendered rubblestone outbuilding with pitched natural slate roof and double-leaf timber sheeted vehicular doors, while forming the boundary to the front garden of the house. The yard opens into an avenue to the north with a further detached single-storey rubblestone outbuilding (in separate ownership). The avenue continues on a gentle decline to the west running along the west garden. The west garden has a pair of iron gates on cut stone piers with matching iron railings providing access to the front of the house.

Roof Natural slate
Walling render
Windows Timber
RWG metal

Historical information

‘Beechfield’ owes much of its present appearance to remodelling which took place c1880 but the core of the building pre-dates the first edition of the ordnance survey (1833) and some of the internal detailing (doors/fireplaces) suggest a late eighteenth century date. The irregular spacing of windows to the front façade and internal steps down into the west wing suggest that this part of the house was a later addition, but map and valuation evidence do not point to a clear date for this extension.

The house is shown on the first edition OS map of 1833 together with a number of free-standing outbuildings to the rear and is approached from driveways to the west and east. The Townland Valuation (1828-40) records Nathaniel Barclay as the owner of the house, mill and offices which are valued at £7. A building within the curtilage of the main house that is initially listed as a flax mill with a ‘very large overshot wheel’ was converted to a dwelling during the lifetime of the fieldbook. The mill/dwelling is thatched and measures 45.6x18x8. The main house is two-storey and measures 38x23.6. Three thatched outbuildings are also listed.

The second edition OS map of 1859 shows further outbuildings including a structure contiguous to the main house. The avenues leading to the house are now tree-lined. John Barclay leases the house from the Representatives of the Honourable Robert Meade, and the buildings which are set in a plot of over 51 acres are valued at £13. (Griffith’s Valuation) The dimensions given for the house are approximately the same as those noted in the Townland Valuation and 10 outbuildings are also noted, both one and two-storey, one of which is thatched.

On the third edition of 1902-3 the house is captioned ‘Beechfield’ for the first time. In 1880 the house passed to Agnes Barclay, John’s widow and the valuation was raised to £17 suggesting enlargement or improvements at this time, consistent with the present day appearance of the house and additions to the outbuildings. The house passed to another Nathaniel Barclay in 1892 and he is recorded in the 1901 census as a farmer, resident with his wife and three young children. The family keep a female farm servant in her twenties and the ten room house is rated first class. The 1911 census sees an increase to the number of servants, with an additional young man now employed to work on the farm. Nathaniel Barclay was resident on the farm until his death in 1940. (Will of Nathaniel Barclay)

In the 1930s accommodation comprised, on the ground floor, two receptions, a kitchen, scullery and two pantries, and on the first floor, four bedrooms, a bathroom with hot and cold water and separate WC and a ‘farm boys’ room’. There was an attic bedroom on the second floor. Valuer’s notes of this period give a plan of the house and outbuildings, which largely survive. To the rear left was a single-storey boiler and coal house with garage behind and cattle sheds beyond. To the right was a two-storey byre, stable with loft over and an adjoining pigsty with housing for fowls above (all still present). To the rear of the byre/stable was a threshing barn (still present).

The house and outbuildings remain in domestic and agricultural use.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/34/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/34/2 Second Edition OS map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/34/3 Third Edition OS Map 1902-3
4. PRONI OS/6/3/34/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/351 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55B Griffiths Valuation (1861)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/14A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
1. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
2. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/N/3 First General Revaluation 1933-57
8. PRONI Will of John Barclay, died 7th September 1870
9. PRONI Will of Nathaniel Barclay, died 2nd May 1940
10. 1901 census online
11. 1911 census online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached three-bay two-storey with attic rendered house, built c.1780, with projecting entrance porch, extended and refurbished c.1890. L-shaped on plan facing south with a single-bay two-storey rear return and incorporating earlier fabric, Beechfield was once the site of a flax mill in the nineteenth-century. Refurbished and extended during the late nineteenth-century, the house exhibits a largely Victorian character with much historic fabric and detailing that includes earlier features. The mature setting survives with extensive gardens and a rear yard enclosed by single and two-storey rubblestone outbuildings. This is a good example of an early house developed to reflect the changing fortunes of its owners. The history of the earlier flax mill and its eventual incorporation as part of the service yard is also of note.