Islet Hill Farm

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay farmhouse with attic, built c.1835, located on an elevated site to the north side of Bangor Road, west of Groomsport. Rectangular-on-plan with single-storey rear return and outbuildings.

Roof is pitched natural slate with angled ridge tiles, cement rendered skews, and ruled-and-lined cement rendered chimneystacks to gables having octagonal clay pots. Rainwater goods are uPVC on a timber eaves board. Walling is ruled-and-lined cement render throughout. Windows are timber sliding sashes with plain reveals and painted masonry cills unless otherwise stated; those to ground floor principal elevation are 1/1 set within arched recesses; those to first floor and east elevation are 8/1 (top pane diminished); those to west elevation are 1/1; those to rear are 6/6 of various sizes, with 8/1 to ground floor left. The door is narrow, having four raised-and-fielded panels, cast-iron knocker and knob, surmounted by a radial fanlight with hub, all set in a painted masonry surround with corniced imposts and keystone.

Principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged with three openings to each floor about central entrance.

West elevation has a first floor window to left side, and a small plain glazed attic window. Ground floor is abutted by a corrugated tin roofed lean-to outbuilding.

Rear elevation is abutted by the single storey return. The exposed section has irregular fenestration including a mid-level stairwell window. Return has various multi-pane replacement timber casement windows and a half-glazed replacement timber door.

East elevation has a window to each main floor.

Setting

The house is set on an elevated side surrounded by farmland overlooking Groomsport to the east, and the Copeland Islands to northeast. To rear is a gravelled courtyard enclosed to north and west by two storey outbuildings which have been extensively renovated. To the front is a small garden bounded to the access lane by a rubble stone garden wall having a small iron gate on circular rubble stone piers to south end. The house is accessed by a long farm lane from the south.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: render
Windows: Timber
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

A house was first built on this site c1790, and the current dwelling dates from c1835.

The land on which the house is built, consisting of a farm of fifty seven acres and one rood, was let to the Agnew family in 1731. A lease of 16th October 1787 contained a covenant between the landowner Sir John Blackwood and the farmer John Agnew that by 1791 there should be built a ‘sufficient dwelling house of stones and mortar’ 60 feet in length and 8 feet high and thatched’. And indeed the Townland Valuation lists a building of approximately this size (valued at £3.17s). (Mayne)

Two simple rectangular structures are shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. It is noted in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) that there is a ‘house in progress of building’ and dimensions are also given for this, the current building – 38x27x17. The former house is noted to be in use as outbuildings, and map evidence suggests that the range of outbuildings currently to the rear of the house may contain some surviving historic fabric from this building. James Clarke is the owner and builder of the new house, having bought the farm at auction in 1832 from Patrick and James Agnew. (Mayne; Brett, p.181)

On the second edition (1858), the house is captioned ‘Islet Hill’ and it is also listed by this name in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64). Ellen Clarke is now the occupier and it is leased from Lord Dufferin and Clandeboye with a valuation that increases from £12 to £16 during the life of the fieldbook. The house remains in the Clarke family until 1886 when John Robb is listed as the owner. In fact, the house had been sold by auction in 1882 and an advertisement in the Newtownards Chronicle on the second Saturday of March 1882 states that the farm then comprised about 79 acres and one coastguard house, with 12 cottages let. The farm also had two lime kilns and the right to collect seaweed along its coastal perimeter.

John Robb was the proprietor of Robb’s Department Store of Castle Place, Belfast, successful wholesale and retail silk mercers and woollen-drapers. Samuel Kingan is the lessor in 1894 and he becomes the occupier in 1906. (Lyttle, p.39; Mayne; Brett, p.181)

Denis Payne, while making repairs to the kitchen ceiling discovered a trapdoor that would have been used by a servant using a ‘monkey ladder’ in front of the range to climb up to her bedroom – the trapdoor being the only entrance to her room. (Mayne)

At the outbreak of the Second World War four gun emplacements were built between the farmhouse and the shore and a number of Nissen huts erected nearby to accommodate about 150 men. They were intended to defend the entrance to Belfast Lough in the event of naval attack. During the 1950’s an underground bunker which functioned as an observation post was built on the gun site by the Observer Corps who were a civil defence organisation empowered to defend against nuclear attack. In 1957 the Nissen huts were used as a transit camp for refugees from the Hungarian uprising. (Mayne)

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3.PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
4.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
5.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
6.PRONI VAL/1/A/3/2 – Townland Valuation Map (1828-40)
7.PRONI VAL/1/B/31 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
8.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/2 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
9.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
10.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
11.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/8A-C – Annual Revisions (1894-1923)

Secondary Sources

1.Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
2.‘Fifty-seven acres and a Rood’ unpublished history by Denis Mayne

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

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay farmhouse with attic, built c.1835. Islet Hill farmhouse is located on an elevated site on farmland previously owned by the Clandeboye estate and latterly the nearby Glenganagh estate. Details such as the stone doorcase elevate the farmhouse above the status of vernacular, and the influence of polite architecture is clear. The setting adds to its interest and comprises rubble stone garden walls, gate piers and a good wrought and cast iron gate. It is a good example of the type.