Breckenhill Road, Doagh, Ballyclare

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey-over-basement house (split-level site with basement exposed to rear,) built c.1820, renovated c.1989 and located to the east of Breckenhill Road, Doagh. Rectangular on plan with single-storey pitched roof return to rear.

Roof is pitched natural slate with three roof lights to south slope, two to north; smooth rendered gable chimneystacks, clay pots. Rainwater goods are ogee profile cast-metal; walls are roughcast rendered; windows are timber sliding sashes, 6/6 at ground floor; 3/6 at first floor and basement all with exposed boxes and masonry cills.

Principal elevation faces south and contains central entrance with two windows at each side; five windows at first floor. Entrance comprises a four-panelled door with glazed sidelights and fanlight recessed within segmental-headed arch with moulded surround, all accessed by six masonry steps.

Left gable contains glazed timber double door to right at basement level; two windows at first floor. Abutted to right corner by masonry steps with modern cast-metal handrail.

Rear elevation has a single-storey return with pitched slated roof to right of centre at basement level. Window to each floor at right and left; central window at stair landing level, diminished window below (also to stairwell.)

Right gable contains two windows at basement level; single at ground floor (right) and two at first floor.

Return is accessed at west and contains a timber four-panelled door to right; single 2/4 window to left; 3/6 window to north gable; 2/4 window to east cheek.

Setting

Set within mature gardens to the east of Breckenhill Road with view over Tildarg dam; accessed by a lane which connects the house with the adjacent outbuildings to the west.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Roughcast render
Windows; Timber sliding sashes with exposed boxes and masonry cills (6/6 at ground floor; 3/6 at first floor and basement)
Rainwater goods:Ogee profile cast-metal .

Historical information

The building is shown on the first edition OS map of 1832, along with formal gardens, and is captioned ‘Breckenhill’.

Griffith’s Valuation of 1859 records the property as a ‘house, offices and land’occupied by John Smith Esquire with the property held in fee. The description ‘occupied by caretaker’ has been struck through and the building is valued at £15.

Boyle’s OS Memoirs of 1835 state that the house is “the residence of John Allen Esq. The house, though old, is rather spacious and modern, and is prettily situated in the midst of some planting in a retired district” (p. 136).

Lawlor writes that the house was owned by James Gilliland of Waterhead or Bracken Hill from 1755 and that the house “shortly after [1780] passed to James Owens of Tildarg, a cousin of the Holestone family but it seems to have fallen into the possession or tenancy of the Allens after 1820 in which year James Owens’s sudden death is recorded in the local press”.

Brett writes that “the house itself was, until quite recently, single-storey over basement, with attic windows in the gables only; but a good fanlight and doorcase at the top of a flight of six fine granite steps. Five-bay – now two-storey – on basement, the walls roughcast and painted grey. There is reeding in the pilasters inside the front door. It seems that one Sam Todd and his forebears farmed here for several generations, until the place fell into dereliction; it was rescued by its present owners in 1989, when very extensive renovation was called for, and the opportunity was taken to raise the house a storey when re-roofing it. The result is a little bulkier than the original long low house hugging the hillside; but it retains much individual character” (p. 151).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/45/1 - First Edition OS Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/45/2 - Second Edition OS Map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/45/3 - Third Edition OS Map (1902)
4. PRONI VAL/2/A/1/45B - Griffith’s Valuation Map (1857)
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/10 - Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/1/25B - Valuatiom Revisions (1867-1880)

Secondary Sources

1. Boyle, J. OS Memoirs, Co. Antrim XII (1835)
2. Lawlor, H.C. Fibres and Fabrics Journal, January 1942
2. Brett, C.E.B. Buildings of County Antrim, UAHS, 1996.
3. Breckenhill. [Internet Source]. Available from: . Accessed 20th Jan, 2008.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An attractive Georgian house, originally a one-and-a half-storey house over basement built c.1820 and renovated in the late twentieth century to incorporate another level. Constructed on a symmetrical plan layout the house retains many original internal details; particularly significant are the window surrounds at ground floor and original panelled entrance door with decorative fanlight. Although reconstructed from dereliction, it has retained much internal historic detail and the exterior is complementatry to it. The quality of the surviving historic features and its character as a late 18th century house with the detailing and development of the changess in an appropriate and historically valid form . The house is preserved within its original setting and and farmyard to west.