Ballycushan House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1900, with an octagonal lantern, projecting bays and a two-storey return. Facing south on the north side of Old Ballyclare Road the house is set on its own grounds with the remains of a 17th century ruin to the rear, an early stone outbuilding to the rear and several 19th and 20th century sheds and outbuildings.

M-profile pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles and decorative timber bargeboards to the paired gables on both side elevations with timber finials. Original cast-iron ogee-moulded guttering and square-profile downpipes. Cement rendered walling with plinth course and rusticated render quoins to the front elevation only. A running moulded string course above ground floor level continues across the front and both side elevations. Segmental-headed window openings to the first floor, square-headed to the ground floor, concrete sills and replacement hardwood casement windows. A central entrance bay projection is surmounted by a decorative gable, and flanked by a pair of full-height three-sided canted bays. Segmental-headed front door opening to the entrance bay with blind spandrel panels and a timber door frame with sidelights above panels, and a tripartite overlight with timber panelled door. Door opens onto stone platform and three stone steps to a front gravel area within a large front lawn.

Abutting the rear elevation to the east, is a tall redbrick wall laid in English garden wall bond, while to the west is a tall rubble stone wall with concrete coping, both having arched openings lined in redbrick, giving access to the rear yard.

Setting

to the rear of the house is a five-bay two-storey rubble stone former house, built c.1650, now roofless and in a ruined state. This early house has a large projecting chimney to either gable end and retains some timber joinery such as sash windows, architraves, panelled shutters and panelled doors.

A further multi-bay two-storey stone outbuilding to the rear of the ruin, built c.1700, with a pitched corrugated iron roof and coursed rubble stone walling with large squared quoins. The square-headed window and door openings have voussoired stone lintels and jamb stones with later timber doors and windows.

Historical information

The current house first appears on the 1904 OS map and is recorded as Ballycushan House on the 1932 OS map. A group of buildings appears on the first edition OS map of 1833. The group comprises the current building to rear of the main house, with smaller structures to north and west. The second edition OS map of 1857 shows the same group of buildings, now marked ‘Threshing Mill’, and with the structure to west enlarged. A mill pond is also shown on the site.

The first valuation mentions the group as ‘house and offices’, but the buildings are valued at less than £5. In 1859, Griffiths Valuation records the occupier as Mrs Jane Wiley, and the lessor as Lord Templeton. The ‘house, offices and land’ are valued at £15.0s.0d, with several offices and a ‘shed’ being listed on the property. Griffiths mentions no mill in this townland, despite the map being labelled. OS Memoirs of the late 1830s record a flax and a corn mill at Ballycushan (p.142).

The Valuation Revisions, dating from 1864 to 1929, mention no mill. The house is recorded in the ownership of the Wiley family throughout the Revisions, and in 1894, the erection of a new house is recorded. The house is noted to have cost £100, and the group is valued at £179.0s.0d. An additional note records that the ‘old house is used as a store’.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/51/1 – First Edition OS map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/51/2 – Second Edition OS map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/51/3 – Third Edition OS map (1904)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/51/4 – Fourth Edition OS map (1932)
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/1/51 – Townland Valuation Map (1837)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/129B - Townland Valuation Fieldbook (1837)
7. PRONI VAL/2/A/50A - Griffith's Valuation Map (1859)
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/10 - Griffith's Valuation Fieldbook (1859)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/1/22A-E – Valuations Revisions (1864-1929)

Secondary Sources

1. OS Memoirs; Antrim Vol. 35 (1838)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This symmetrical house has an unusual number of external features including a lantern and three full-height bays with a curvilinear gable to the centre. However, it is of a late date and not a particularly good example of the type.