Whitehill Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one-and-a-half-storey three-bay two-unit vernacular house built c.1850 and located east of Coyles Lane off Craigdarragh Road, Helens Bay. Rectangular on plan with dormer extension to rear and garage to north.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and two roughcast chimneystacks having a single clay pot. Cast-iron half round rainwater goods. Walling is smooth painted render. Windows are 4/4 timber sliding sash with horns (unless otherwise stated).

The principal elevation faces west and is three openings wide; to centre is replacement timber sheeted door, with glazing to upper portion.

The north elevation is abutted by a modern garage with three window openings to gable.

The east (rear) elevation is dominated by a flat-roof extension to the roof and is abutted to ground floor by a single-storey extension. Three timber-framed modern windows to first floor and two large window openings to ground floor; opening to north. To far left is a timber mullioned window.

The south elevation has a replacement timber-framed window to attic.

Setting
The cottage is located in an attractive and scheduled rural
setting on a small lane off the Craigdarragh Road. Mature gardens to all sides with unspoilt views of farmland to rear. Enclosed to all sides by mature hedgerow and trees with decorative cast-iron latch gate to front.

Roof: natural slate
Walling: render
Windows: timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The house is first shown on the second edition OS map of 1858 in an area of farmland to the south of the railway line where it occupies a previously empty site. The present building is shown, together with a further range to the north that has now gone. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the plot as providing dwellings for three occupants, Joseph McIlwain, Catherine Orr and William Wright, their houses and gardens valued at £1.10s, £1 and £3 respectively. The houses are let from Matthew Carruthers who himself leases a slightly more substantial farmhouse to the south of the current building. (Griffith’s Valuation)

On the third, fourth and fifth edition OS maps of 1900-41, the house is captioned ‘Whitehill Cottage’, the wider area surrounding it gradually becoming encroached upon by development spreading inwards from the coast and along transport lines. Street directories of the early twentieth century note that the occupier of White Hill Cottage is T Rea and a Thomas Rea is listed in the 1901 census as a farmer who lived with his wife, two sons and a daughter, a grandchild, a boarder and a general servant. The boarder, Robert White, worked as an ironmonger’s assistant, perhaps commuting to Belfast for the purpose. Thomas Rea died in 1907 and the house is not identifiable with any certainty in the 1911 census. (1901 census, Will of Thomas Rea)

Some time after the fifth edition of 1941 the range to the north of the property was demolished and the current building was extended by a bay to the north. The current owner has extended the house to the rear.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/1/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/1/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
4. PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
5. PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
6. Will of Thomas Rea, died 11th October 1907
7. Griffith’s Valuation online
8. 1901 census online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A one-and-a-half-storey three-bay two unit vernacular cottage built c.1850. This is an unusual survivor of the type of simple rural dwellings that were once common in this area. However, internal alterations, the large extension to the rear and the modern garage to north, have compromised its interest and it does not meet the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.