Aghalee House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey gabled rendered house, dated 1878, incorporating an earlier house, dated 1818. Irregular on plan facing east, set within its own grounds and farm on the west side of Ballinderry Road with a gate screen to the north and to the south, extended gate lodge to the south entrance.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and finials. Three tall redbrick chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots and decorative replacement timber bargeboards to front and side elevations. Cast-iron rainwater goods to timber box fascia. Painted ruled and lined rendered walling with projecting render plinth course and rusticated strip quoins. Square-headed window openings with original timber sash windows, cylinder glass and painted masonry sills.

Symmetrical two-storey front elevation with a central recessed bay flanked by pair of gabled elevations having a corniced two-storey three-sided canted bay to each and a balcony spanning the recessed bay above the front entrance. Each gable has an oculus to the attic with moulded surround with decorative mouldings to the bay windows. Lancet opening to each gable at first floor level with pointed-headed single-pane timber sash window and decorative hood moulding. Concrete balcony above the entrance with decorative cast-iron balustrade accessed by replacement timber glazed door from the first floor with sidelights. Square-headed door opening with replacement timber door surround and panelled sidelights, with original leaded coloured glazing re-inserted. Slender window opening to either side.

North side elevation has a 2/2 timber sash window to the first floor and a single-pane timber sash window to the ground floor. Crenellated wall extends eastward from the side elevation (possibly part of the earlier house).

Rear elevation has three gables, that to the centre projecting forward and a single-storey lean-to section to either side. Rough-cast rendered walling and simple timber fascia to this elevation. The lean-to to the south has a natural slate roof and timber casement windows, built c.1980. The lean-to to the north possibly incorporates part of the earlier house and has corrugated cement roof with 6/6 and 4/4 timber sash windows and an elliptical-headed door opening with early nineteenth-century timber doorcase comprising; replacement timber panelled door flanked by plain pilasters and sidelights framed by console brackets to lintel cornice and webbed timber fanlight above, all containing cylinder glass. Further 6/6 timber sash windows to the south gable, horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows to the first floor of the central gable and replacement timber casement windows below.

South side elevation is three windows wide with a chimneystack rising through the eaves with decorative timber bargeboard. Original 2/2 timber sash windows to the first floor with decorative mouldings, replacement timber sash windows to the ground floor with cornice over, formerly housing two glazed door openings.

Setting:
Set within its own landscaped grounds on the east side of Ballinderry Road enclosed by modern stone wall to the road with a rendered entrance screen to the north and south. Entrance to the north has replacement decorative steel gates and railings, that to the south being original and having a single-storey rendered gate lodge with natural slate roof and original 2/2 timber sash windows. Two-storey rubblestone former outbuilding to the north (possibly seventeenth-century in origin), currently being renovated with pitched artificial slate roof and large early joists to the interior.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Ruled and lined render
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

Aghalee House first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832 where it is depicted as a T shaped building to the north of which are three oblong outbuildings. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records that the house was occupied by a Mr. George Carter, who was then replaced by George Stephenson. The original house was recorded as a 1b+ dwelling with dimensions 43 ft by 20 ft by 17 ft high with a square measuring 16 ft by 15 ft. The outbuildings depicted on the 1832 map included two stores, a number of offices and a kiln. The entire property was valued at £12. 14s.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs described the building as ‘a neat oblong house two storeys high and slated, occupied by Mr George Carter, grain merchant. There are good offices and well enclosed yards.' The writer also recorded that a three-storey grain store and a two-storey Corn Kiln stood close to the house; the kiln had been erected 16 years previous to the time of writing (1833-38) by a Mr. Thomas Elliot of Belfast. The house was occupied by George Carter in 1827 from which time he ‘dealt extensively in the grain trade, by which traffic he not only benefits himself but also affords the farmers of the surrounding neighbourhoods a convenient and speedy sale for their grain, without having to send it to distant markets. The writer records that the house was originally built ‘many years ago’ by the Usher family who owned large tracts of land and built a large flour mill and bleaching mill in the vicinity (OSM Antrim VII, Vol. 21).

In 1859 Griffith’s Valuation split the value of the property between the house and the three office buildings. At this time the house was let by George Stephenson and occupied by a Mr. Brendan Burton; the offices were valued at £5. whilst the house was recorded at £9. Burton occupied the house until 1879 when the valuer states that it was taken down.

A new house was erected in 1880 along with a new gate lodge; it was constructed and occupied by a Mr. Lancelot Turtle who resided there until 1891; due to the rebuilding work the house was increased in value to £30. 10s. In 1891 Mr James Knox was recorded as the new occupant and owner (in 1893) of Aghalee House. In 1894 the gate lodge was taken down reducing the value of the house to £25. 10s. The third edition Ordnance Survey map (1900-01) shows that between 1858 and 1900 one of the out offices had been taken down; however the house does not appear to have been altered suggesting that it was extensively rebuilt in 1880 along the foundations of the original house. Knox occupied the house until 1922 when a Mr Robert Horner bought the house for £1,800.

In 1910 the Lisburn Standard recorded James Knox as a Justice of the Peace for the area of Aghalee (Lisburn Standard). The 1911 Census records that James Knox, a 61 year old farmer, lived in Aghalee House with his wife Sarah Knox (54). One of his sons, Alfred Defton Victor Knox, was a solicitor of the Irish Supreme Court. A 1st class house with 13 inhabited rooms, Aghalee House possessed 11 out offices in 1911 including a stable, harness room, cow house, two calf houses, a piggery, fowl house, potato house, workshop, shed and a store in the buildings north of the house. There is however, no mention of the kiln recorded in the 1830s.

Field research supports an early nineteenth century construction date for the original house, evidenced by Georgian glazing to the rear elevation and an earlier door case; however, the current appearance is generally resultant from the late nineteenth century modification; a crenellated wall visited at the rear of the house may also be a remnant of the earlier house. Aghalee House was listed in 1985; in 1993 repairs were made to the roof and in 1994 the chimneys and original rafters were repaired (NIEA File). An aerial First Survey image of the farm dated 1972 shows the house with its northern out offices, however recent field research has found that only the large north-most office remains and is currently being renovated. At some stage a new Gate Lodge was constructed and is situated to the south-west of the house.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI VAL/1/A/1/62 – Field Map c.1830
2. PRONI VAL/1/B/166 – Townland Valuation
3. PRONI OS/6/1/62/1 – First Edition OS Map 1832
4. PRONI OS/6/1/62/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858
5. PRONI OS/6/1/62/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-1901
6. PRONI OS/6/1/62/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-1921
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/58 – Griffith’s Valuation 1859
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/9/2 A – Annual Revisions 1863-1879
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/9/2 B – Annual Revisions 1880-1894
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/9/2 C – Annual Revisions 1894-1905
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/9/2 D – Annual Revisions 1906-1918
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/9/2 E – Annual Revisions 1918-1928
13. Ordnance Survey Memoirs - Antrim VII, Vol. 21.

Secondary Sources
1. NIEA File – HB19/03/028.

Online Resources

1. Glenavy History Website - http://www.glenavyhistory.com/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached three-bay two-storey gabled rendered house, dated 1878, incorporating an earlier house, dated 1818, on the east side of Ballinderry Road. The unusually pronounced gables to the front elevation are highly decorated and depict an architectural style more commonly associated with urban suburbs of the late nineteenth-century. Retaining most of its varied fenestration, decorative Victorian interior and incorporating some earlier fabric, the house is one of the most significant in Aghalee. Set on the main road through the village it is enhanced by its decorative entrance screens and it has group value with Laurel Vale house (HB19/03/030), a short distance northwards.