360 Ballyclare Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached five-bay single-storey direct-entry vernacular house (fifth bay extended to right), built c.1800, located on the south side of Ballyclare Road. Rectangular on plan, facing west.

Pitched corrugated metal roof (former thatch), metal ridge cap, red brick chimneystack to ridge of north gable and to party wall between right and extended bay; replacement half-round metal gutters. Walling is painted smooth-render over chamfered plinth, bowed in to eaves. Windows are square-headed timber 1/2 sliding sash (with horns), painted smooth-rendered reveals, sills.

West elevation has off-centre entrance with two windows to left, one window to right and one window to extended bay to right. Door is a square-headed replacement timber panel.

North gable is blank.

East elevation is painted roughcast without plinth and lit by six windows, replacement timber casements/top-hung. Extended bay flaking render exposing painted red brick walling.

South gable is abutted by shed. Exposed gable apex is blank.

Attached to south gable is two-bay single-storey shed with pitched natural slate roof, painted rubble stone walling (partially cement rendered). East gable has one timber casement. South gable is blank. West elevation has one cast-iron hopper head (missing downpipe and gutter), a square-headed painted timber sheeted door to each end with two casements between.

Set perpendicular to road in gravel forecourt of modern house. Detached modern concrete shed to west of shed.

Roof: Pitched corrugated metal roof
Walling: Painted smooth-rendered walling over chamfered plinth
Windows: Square-headed timber sliding sash (with horns) , single glazed / some top-hung replacement windows to rear
Rainwater Goods: Replacement half-round metal gutters

Historical information

The building is shown on the first edition OS map of 1832, alongside a smaller building set to the west. The Second edition of 1902 shows the complex to have been further developed, including two smaller buildings located to the south-west and north-west of the adjacent building.

The property is not included in the first valuation of Carnmoney parish of 1836, suggesting (as is usual in cases of omission) a fairly modest vernacular dwelling beneath the valuation threshold.

The second valuation of 1859 records a ‘house, offices and land’, with the house described by the valuers as being ‘[a]...long range, [and] thatched’. At this point it was occupied by John Strahan (or Straghan), who leased it from Dorothea Turnley with the rateable value given as £2-15-0, later revised to £3 at some point before 1862.

Mary E. Strahan is recorded as the occupant in 1880 followed by another John Strahan (presumably the son or nephew of the above) in 1883. In the 1901 census, John [‘Straghan’], a 44yr-old farmer, is noted as living here with his wife, Mary Anne, their young son and daughter, a niece, John’s brother, Andrew, and a farm hand, Henry Kavanagh, with the house itself recorded as a ‘2nd class’ thatched dwelling with 3 rooms in use.

John Strahan acquired the freehold of the property in 1928 and appears to have lived here until at least 1937. The property appears to have remained in possession of his family until at least 1972.

References - Primary Sources
1 OS maps 6inch County series, Co Antrim sheet 51 – 1832, 1857, 1902
2 PRONI VAL1B/115A-B First valuation book, Carnmoney parish - 1836
3 PRONI VAL2B/1/13B Second valuation book, Carnmoney parish - 1859
4 PRONI VAL12B/5/7A-G Annual valuation revision books, Carnmoney ED - 1862-1929
5 PRONI VAL12B/5/1A Annual valuation revision book, Ballyduff ED – 1923-29
6 ‘Larne Times’ – 25 December 1937, p.3 [Mentions a ‘John Straghan, Ballycraigy’.]
7 PRONI VAL4B/1/3 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballyduff ED - 1956-72

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
R. Age

Evaluation

A detached, five-bay, single-storey, direct-entry vernacular house, built c.1800, located on the south side of Ballyclare Road, Newtownabbey, approximately 3 miles NE of Mallusk, Co Antrim.
This former thatched dwelling now has a corrugated metal roof and portrays its authenticity by retention of historic sliding sash windows to the front, along with a historic plan form and interior features such as original joinery. It is of local interest as a surviving example of an increasingly rare vernacular typology.

General comments

This record was originally recorded in the wrong ward as HB21/15/001.

FILE PA'd 15/04/2015