Cornhill House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey lime-rendered house, built c.1820. Rectangular on plan, facing east with single-bay two-storey extension abutting north gable, built c.1900. Located to the west of Cavehill Road, with enclosed front garden and two rubblestone outbuildings enclosing rear yard.

Pitched natural slate roof with oversized slates, terracotta ridge tiles, three replacement profiled redbrick chimneystacks and steel guttering on iron brackets to rendered eaves course. Painted lime-rendered walling to front elevation, pebbledash rendered to remaining elevations and extension with smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings, diminished to front elevation, with painted masonry sills, exposed sash boxes and original 2/2 timber sash windows with ogee horns to front elevation only. UPVC windows to rear elevation and timber casement windows to east extension.

Symmetrical front east elevation is three windows wide with a central depressed elliptical-headed front entrance having a tripartite timber doorcase. Original vertically-sheeted woodgrained double-leaf timber door with iron door furniture, fixed-pane sidelights and depressed timber radial fanlight over. Door opens onto three granite steps to front garden.

Gabled south side elevation with chimney to apex has a single 2/2 timber sash window to the ground floor.

Rear elevation has irregularly arranged square-headed window openings with a square-headed door opening to the left bay having replacement vertically-sheeted timber door and rectangular overlight, opening directly into rear concrete paved yard.

Gabled north side elevation with chimney to apex abutted by gable-ended two-storey extension, of little interest.

Setting

Located on the west side of Cavehill Road on an elevated site at a bend in the road. Front garden enclosed to the road by rough-cast rendered walls and pair of wrought-iron gates on rendered piers opening into a short gravel drive to the front garden. A further vehicular entrance located further south has a pair of wrought-iron gates and sweeping rendered walls providing access to the rear yard. Lining the south side of the yard is a two-storey rubblestone outbuilding, dated ‘JUNE 1840’, having pitched natural slate roof with cast-iron rainwater goods, vertically-sheeted timber doors and abutted to the north by a flight of external stone steps and to the south by a lean-to structure having corrugated iron roof. The west of the yard is enclosed by a late twentieth-century double-height structure. The north of the yard is enclosed by a further single-storey rubblestone outbuilding having pitched natural slate roof, vertically-sheeted timber doors, those to the rear north elevation having gauged redbrick arches.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: renderer
Windows: Timber/uPVC
RWG: Steel

Historical information

The current farmhouse and north outbuilding pre-date the first ordnance survey of 1833 and field inspection suggests a date of c1820. A further (dated) outbuilding was added to the site in June 1840.

Buildings are shown on the first edition OS map of 1833 which correspond to the house and north outbuilding that remain on the site today. The farm is listed in the Townland Valuation as a house and offices belonging to Joseph McKibben and valued at £6.13s. The two-storey slated dwelling measures 44x23 and there are two thatched single-storey outbuildings.

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) records the ‘neat concern’ as the home of Anthony McKibben who leases it from the Representatives of William Sharman Crawford. The contemporary OS map (1859) shows that a new outbuilding has been constructed forming a farmyard at the rear of the house and this structure bears a datestone of June 1840. The house and outbuildings are situated in a plot of over 81 acres and are valued at £9. In 1872 the valuation was increased to £10.10s because the outbuildings had been improved.

At the time of the 1901 census, 63-year-old farmer Anthony McKibben lived with his sister and a domestic servant. The ten-room house was designated first class. In 1903 the house passed to the Smyth family and in 1911 William John Smyth was resident with his wife Agnes and three of their five children, aged 15, 13 and 8. In the first general revaluation of 1933/4 the accommodation was noted to be two rooms, a kitchen, pantry and milk room and three bedrooms. An addition was made to the agricultural outbuildings in 1940 causing a slight rise in the valuation. A valuer’s plan of the same period shows outbuildings to the west of the farmyard that are no longer present and have been replaced.

The house and farmyard 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/352 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/56 Griffiths Valuation (1861)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/1A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/A/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
10. 1901 census online
11. 1911 census online

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

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey lime-rendered house, built c.1820. Rectangular on plan, facing east with single-bay two-storey extension abutting north gable, built c.1900. Its historic character and much original fabric survive including original roofing of notably large cut slates and original lime-rendered front elevation. The plan form is also of note, appearing to be a development of the lobby entry form with transverse stairs. The setting comprises an enclosed front garden and two rubblestone outbuildings enclosing rear yard, which together form a good and largely original vernacular group. The whole ifs a good example of the type of substantial farm in a relatively unaltered state that is becoming rare.