Bramcote

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached two-storey rendered house, built c.1870. Irregular on plan, facing southwest with front entrance porch, full-height canted bay to the northwest garden elevation and pair of two-storey projections to the southeast side elevation fronting onto Station Road and set within its own landscaped gardens on an elevated site. Now empty.

Hipped natural slate roofs with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and three rendered profiled chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots. Ogee moulded cast-iron guttering to overhanging rendered eaves supported on eaves corbels and cast-iron downpipes. Painted ruled and lined rendered walling with moulded continuous sill course at first floor level and plat band below, projecting stepped plinth course with some redbrick walling visible. Square-headed window openings with stop-chamfered surrounds, painted sandstone sills and original 2/2 timber sash windows having original flat-panelled timber shutters.

Southwest front elevation is three windows wide with an advanced bay to the south and a central single-storey flat-roofed entrance porch to the re-entrant angle. Square-plan porch comprises; low parapet wall and projecting cornice with round-headed door opening having stop-chamfered surround, hood moulding with foliate label stops, replacement flush timber door and glazed fanlight opening onto sandstone platform and step to front gravel area. To the north cheek of porch is a slender round-headed window opening with single-pane timber sash window. The south return abutting the southeast side elevation extends the front elevation, at a lower level, with plainer detailing and smaller square-headed window openings with timber sash windows.

Northwest side garden elevation is dominated by an off-centre full-height three-sided canted bay with single-pane timber sash windows.

Northeast rear elevation is two windows wide, detailed as per above.

Southeast side elevation abutted by a lower two-storey lean-to and pair of gable-ended single-bay two-storey projections. Square-headed window openings with plain reveals and 2/2 timber sash windows except for a single segmental-headed window to the centre having 2/2 timber sash window with margin lights. Spanning the space between both projections is a screen wall with square-headed door opening and timber plank door opening directly onto Station Road.

Setting

Set on its own mature landscaped site on the northwest side of Station Road and overlooking Belfast Lough to the north. Although named Station Road, this bitmac lane is a cul-de-sac giving access to No.19 and several other detached houses to the east of the main Station Road.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Ruled and lined render
Windows Original timber sash

Historical information

With the opening of the railway to Bangor in 1865 this area of the North Down coast, previously studded with mansions and gentlemen’s residences, became more accessible to increasing numbers of middle-ranking professional and mercantile families and began to be developed more intensively. A large number of villas were constructed up and down the coast, usually taking advantage of formerly undeveloped land to build substantially on spacious plots. A number of houses were built in the vicinity of ‘Ailsa Lodge’ by James McCutcheon and ‘Bramcote’ is first shown, captioned, on the third edition OS map of 1900-02. The site is close to the railway station at Craigavad, which closed in the 1980s.

‘Bramcote’ enters valuation records in 1880 as a newly-built vacant property built by James McCutcheon and valued at £43 and £1 for the garden. The first tenant of the house to be noted is Josiah C Bretland (1886) at a rent of £70 per annum. Josiah Corbett Bretland, civil engineer, was born in 1846 in Nottingham, the son of a master painter and gilder. In the 1860s he moved to Belfast and became Belfast City Surveyor in 1884, overseeing major improvements to the city as it underwent a period of extraordinary growth. In 1896 he was co-assessor of the competition to design Belfast City Hall. Alexandra and Woodvale Parks were laid out by Bretland and his legacy of built heritage includes a number of fire stations and markets, including St George’s Market. (www.dia.ie)

The 1901 census lists Bretland as resident in the house with his Cork-born wife, and his three adult children, his two sons also listed as civil engineers. The family’s domestics were a parlour maid from Fermanagh and a cook from Tyrone. Bretland appears to have lived at the house until his death in 1921, although he was staying elsewhere at the time of the 1911 census. (1901 census)

The next occupant was John Holden Craig (1922), a bank official for the Bank of Ireland, who subsequently became the immediate lessors of the house. Craig added a motor house to the plot in 1931, which raised the valuation to £50. (1911 census; valuation records). Captain William J Cole was resident briefly from 1943 but it appears he may not have survived the war and by 1945 the occupier is William F Black. (www.warexperience.org; Annual Revisions)

References:
Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
2. PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
3. PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/11A-C – Annual Revisions (1888-1930)
6. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/4/2 – Annual Revisions (1923-30)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/9 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/3/23 – Second General Revaluation (1956-72)
9. 1901 census online
10. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. www.dia.ie
2. www.warexperience.org

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached two-storey rendered house, built c.1870. A substantial late Victorian residence with restrained Neo-classical detailing and retaining its original external appearance and original detailing. However, the house is a common type of a late date and not one of the best examples of the style.