Glenville

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey, three-bay, rubble blackstone gabled house with slated roof. Main entrance front faces east.

East elevation symmetrical with a centrally positioned later gabled porch. Main roof Bangor blue slates in regular courses with dark blue ridge tiles. Two chimneys symmetrically positioned, of red brick with projecting brick course; modern pots. Wall of rubble blackstone and boulders with lime mortar galleted; red brick eaves course. PVC gutter with PVC downpipe to left hand extremity. Red brick flat arches over windows with smooth cement render to underside of ground floor lintels. Three windows to first floor and two to ground floor, all modern rectangular timber fixed lights with narrow top hung vent containing modern pseudo-leaded glazing; deep projecting concrete cills, painted.

Porch gabled, with slated roof and brown ridge tiles rising to abut first floor cill; PVC gutter and downpipe to each side. Timber barge boards in poor condition to front. Porch walls of concrete blockwork, painted. Front gable has rectangular timber window, sliding sash, vertically hung, 3 over 1, with horns, original; concrete cill. Doorway in north side of porch rectangular timber with ledged timber door containing panel of lozenge pattern glazing bars; early to mid-20th century bakelite doorknob and modern metal letterbox. Window in south side of porch is rectangular timber fixed light, three-pane.

South gable of house is blank wall rendered with dry dash of crushed black stones; flush verge to roof.

Rear elevation three windows wide to first floor. Roof slated as previous with one modern rooflight. PVC gutter and downpipe to right hand extremity; PVC soil pipe near centre. Walling as previous to front elevation. Three windows to first floor, rectangular timber fixed lights with top hung vents as on entrance front; projecting concrete cills to outer windows, smeared cement reveal to central window; red brick side reveals to left hand window. Ground floor has three rectangular windows, modern as previous. Window to left smaller than opening which is filled in at bottom by timber boarding; concrete cill of poor quality; modern brickwork used to block part of wall opening below cill. Window to right of that is set in a modern brick doorway, with rotting wooden lintel, concrete cill, and crudely cemented rubble stonework to fill opening below cill. Window in centre of elevation has shallow concrete cill with cement render to walling below it. Rectangular doorway to right hand side of elevation is now enclosed by modern timber conservatory. Original doorway has cement dressed opening with brick flat arch above; modern glazed door of 12 panes. Attached to rear elevation at left hand extremity is a single storey gabled outbuilding of rubble stonework and corrugated perspex roof, returning to the west, of overall poor quality.

North gable of house is of rubble stonework as previous, with flush verges; one rectangular timber window as previous to entrance front, set in flat arch of brickwork; projecting concrete cill. Returning to north is a lean-to side porch of rubble stonework with rectangular timber door of herringbone pattern glazing set in brick jambs; two small rectangular windows to right of doorway, pseudo-leaded glazing, recessed cement cills, wooden heads. Lean-to roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. PVC rainwater goods. Roughly rendered top of outbuilding gable appears above lean-to roof.

SETTING: The house stands at the end of a long lane in a very rural area, with outbuildings of poor quality attached and detached on the north side. Hard surfaced area to front of house with grassy garden to rear.

Historical information

Although what appears to be a smaller structure is shown on this site on the OS map of 1832-33, the valuation of January 1835 describes a house of similar dimensions to the present. This, plus the fact that no subsequent sources document any major changes to the property, indicates that the building we see today is pre-1832.

The 1835 valuation records the house as a ‘not new’ building measuring 44ft x 22½ x 15 (to the eaves), with a slate roof and attendant outbuildings to the north and west of 96 x 18 x 8½ (thatched), 13½ x 20 x 9½, 26 x 14 x 7, 12 x 8 x 6 (a thatched piggery), 13 x 14½ x 8 (thatched shed); also noted is another small thatched dwelling of 41½ x 21½ x 8 with its own outbuilding 20 x 21½ x 12½. At this point the main house was in the hands of John Higginson, with the smaller dwelling occupied by his mother, Elizabeth. John is mentioned in a Belfast News-Letter notice of March 1835 as being ‘of Glenville’, so the property possessed the name at that date, although it is not captioned as such on the 1832-33 map. The house could well be the 'Glen-ville' near Glenavy recorded in Ambrose Leet's 1814 'Directory' and in Atkinson's 1823 'Ireland exhibited to England…' as the residence of a William Whitlaw.

In the second valuation of c.1859 Robert Higginson is named as the occupant of Glenville, holding a lease from the Hertford estate. The smaller house is not mentioned and unfortunately no other details are recorded, but interestingly there is a pencil annotation in the valuation which reads ‘old, 40 or 50 age’, which presumably means the valuers believed the building to be of c.1810s, a date which accords with the internal detailing. The revised OS map of 1858 shows that more outbuildings had been added to the northwest by this stage, and that that the long outbuilding to the immediate west of the house had been lengthened to join to a small block to the far west that is shown as a separate structure on the earlier map. The latter structure may have the secondary dwelling mentioned in 1835.

Apart from the porch, which map evidence shows was added somethime between 1901 and 1920, the post-1864 valuations do not mention any other alterations to the house, and the rateable value remained at a constant £7 per annum from this date up until at least 1930. The freehold was acquired by the Higginson family from the Wallace estate in c.1906, and the family seems to have remained there until 1944, when Mr. Victor Higginson put the property up for sale. The sale notice in the Belfast News-Letter describes the house itself as ‘a good slated dwelling house containing 2 reception rooms, 5 bedrooms, boxroom, kitchen, pantry, scullery and storeroom.’

The sequence of occupation thereafter is difficult to trace, but by 1950 Alice Gerda Courage was living here, and in the later 1950s and 1960s it may have been in the hands of a family called Shepherd (although this is not certain). The present owner's family acquired it prior to 1976, and the house was listed in April 1976.

In or shortly before 1983, Glenville and its surrounding farmland, along with other lands in Ballyvollen townland and the nearby townlands of Aghnadarragh and Ballyshanaghill, were acquired by the Dept. of Economic Development with the intention of mining for lignite. It is thought that the mining rights were subsequently granted to an Australian company, and It was during their period of ownership that the house’s original sash windows were replaced with the current modern style frames. The mining venture in the area was eventually abandoned [?c.1995], and Glenville passed back into the hands of its previous owners.

References – Primary sources
1 Leet, Ambrose, 'Directory of market towns…', (Dublin, 1814), p.201
2 Atkinson, A., 'Ireland exhibited to England…vol.II', (London, 1823), p.442
3 First edition OS map, Antrim sheet 58, 1832-33
4 PRONI VAL1B/169 First valuation, Camlin, January 1835
5 ‘Belfast News-Letter ‘,10 March 1835, 24 March, 9 August 1944, 10 August 1945, 28 April, 1 November 1950
6 Revised ed. OS map, Antrim sheet 58, 1858
7 PRONI VAL2B/1/52 Second valuation, Camlin, c.1859
8 PRONI VAL12B/1/16A-F Annual valuation revisions, Crumlin ED, 1864-1929
9 OS maps, 1901, 1920
10 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 30 September 1965, 3 November, 8 December 1983
11 Information on HED file HB20/15/017

Secondary sources
1 C. Watson, ‘The Story of the United parishes of Glenavy, Camlin and Tullyrusk’, (Belfast, 1892), p 19

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity
R. Age

Evaluation

Glenville is a relatively rare example of a two-storey gentleman's vernacular residence of the late Georgain period, which despite some recent alterations, most notably the loss of its original sash window frames, remains largely intact throughout.

General comments

**Under consideration : awaiting further information**