Magherahinch House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached five-bay two-storey stone and brick double-pile house, dated 1838, facing east, rear pile built c.1720. Set within a farm accessed by a long lane to the south of Main Street Moira with enclosed front lawn, single-storey outhouse attached to either gable end and large farmyard to rear enclosed to north and west by L-plan range of two-storey stone outbuildings, dated 1847, and to the south by later range of concrete and iron sheds.

Double-pile pitched natural slate roof, rolled iron ridges, parged verges and cement rendered chimneystacks to all four gable with octagonal clay pots. Replacement metal rainwater goods and lead-lined central valley. Random-coursed basalt walling with squared stone quoins and redbrick surrounds to window and door openings. Square-headed window openings with stone sills and original timber sash windows and some replacement hardwood casement windows.

Symmetrical five-bay two-storey front elevation with painted random-coursed stone, painted squared quoins to north end, rubble to south. Original timber sash windows with no horns and cylinder glass, 3/6 to first floor, 6/6 to ground floor. Central three-centred brick arched door opening with salvaged flat-panelled timber door flanked by replacement hardwood sidelights and original webbed timber fanlight over. Carved stone plaque over door with Devonshire crown and raised figures ‘1838’, with the last three digits inserted later. Door opens onto tiled step and concrete footpath through front lawn.

South side elevation abutted by modern reproduction single-storey rubble outhouse with pitched natural slate roof, flush to front facade. Side elevation comprises two gables, the rear gable stepped back behind front pile, built of rubble stone with redbrick to the chimney flues and squared tooled stone to the southwest corner.

Three-bay two-storey rear elevation built in random-coursed rubble with redbrick window and door openings. Single 6/6 timber sash window to stairhall with hardwood casement windows to remainder. Hardwood glazed door opens onto two large granite steps to the concrete paved farmyard.

North side elevation abutted by single-storey stone and brick outhouse, with a bay recently collapsed. Side elevation comprises two gables, the rear gable stepped back behind front pile, built of rubble stone with redbrick to the window openings and chimney flues. Some squared sandstone to the corners of the front pile.

Small front lawn enclosed to the lane by reproduction semi-circular rubble wall, the lane continues before turning along the south side of the house opening into a large concrete paved farmyard with an L-plan range of stone outbuildings to the north and west. Uninterrupted hipped natural slate roof, rubblestone walling with redbrick square-headed door and window openings and elliptical-arched carriage arch openings. A carriage arch to the west exposes its original timber roof construction and a keystone inscribed ‘1847’.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement metal
Walling Random-coursed rubble / redbrick
Windows Original timber sash

Historical information

This farmhouse consists of an early rear block, dating from the early eighteenth century and a front block dating from 1838.

The townland of ‘Mahernahinck’ was granted to Sir George Rawdon in 1666 by Charles II, and may have been built on at this time. However, the townland clearly changed hands subsequently and the current house, dating from the early eighteenth century, is first mentioned in a will of John Bateman dated 1754, who leaves his ‘freehold estate in Magherahinch with my house and gardens thereon’ to his ‘dear wife Dorcas’ and thereafter to his son William Bateman. The house is mentioned in the ‘Post-chaise Companion’ of 1786, “Near Moira and on the west of it, is the seat of John Bateman Esq standing on an eminence and having a beautiful prospect of wood and the meanders of the river Lagan”. (Wilson, p.178) The house remains in the Bateman family for some generations, but the family appear to have financial difficulties and the property is mortgaged by William Bateman in 1795 and 1801.

The townland and property thereon finally passes to the Marquess of Downshire in 1833 and in 1838 he improved the property by building an additional block onto the front of the old house. This bears a datestone and the Downshire coronet. No evidence could be found that Lord Downshire used the house himself and it appears to have been let out as a farm once he acquired it. At the time of the Townland Valuation (1834), the house was occupied by the Representatives of Joseph Green and his brother and was a house and offices valued at £12.3s. The dimensions given in this fieldbook show that the new block has not yet been built. By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1862), the Greens are still in residence and the house has been remodelled, giving it a valuation of £22. The valuer notes, ‘very old house – remodelled...offices all new’. In 1847 the outbuildings were also rebuilt and elevations of the new structures may be available in the public record office (currently missing).

In 1868 the house passed to Adam Agar, a farmer, who leased the house from the Marquis of Downshire and obtained a reduction of the valuation to £20.10s. In 1891 he died and the following year the house passed to James Turner, also a farmer. Following an appeal concerning the valuation, valuer’s notes of 1906 give dimensions and a plan of the property. In 1913 James Turner became the owner in fee under land acquisition legislation of the early twentieth century, and in 1929 the house was sold for £5,000 to Joseph H Cresswell.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI D671/D8/7/1A – Copy letters patent Magherahinch (1666)
2. PRONI D671/D8/7/3 – Copy will of John Bateman (1754)
3. PRONI D671/D/8/7/6 – Mortgage Magherahinch (1795)
4. PRONI D671/D/8/7/8 – Mortgage Magherahinch (1801)
5. PRONI D671/D/8/7/22 – Conveyance and declaration of Trust (1833)
6. PRONI OS/6/1/13/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
7. PRONI OS/6/1/13/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
8. PRONI OS/6/1/13/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1903
9. PRONI OS/6/1/13/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1916
10. PRONI VAL/1/B/347 – Townland Valuation (1834)
11. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/47A – Griffith’s Valuation (1862)
12. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/71 – Valuer’s Notebook (1906-1910)
13. PRONI VAL/12/B/21/7A-D – Annual Revisions (1866-1929)
14. PRONI D671/P/8/30 – Elevation of new buildings and offices at Magherahinch farm (1847)
15. PRONI Will of Adam Agar, farmer, who died 23 November 1891.
16. Wilson, W “The Post-chaise Companion or Travellers’ Directory Through Ireland” Dublin, 1786

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of County Antrim” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996

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

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A five-bay two-storey stone and brick farmhouse consisting of an early eighteenth-century rear pile and front pile dated 1838, with historical connections to both the Bateman Estate and the Marquis of Downshire. The composition with its well proportioned symmetrical front elevation conceals an earlier eighteenth-century house to the rear which retains its original staircase and some early timber panelled doors. These intact interior elements along with the nineteenth-century stone outbuildings and its uinspolied rural setting make this a significant house in the context of Moira.