37 Farmhill Lane

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey two-bay end terrace red-brick former coastguard cottage, built c.1870 to designs by Enoch Trevor Owen, located east of Farmhill road to the north east of Holywood town centre. L-shaped on plan.

Hipped natural slate roof with blue-black angled ridge tiles; brick chimneystack having sandstone dentilled eaves; bargeboard decorated with quatrefoils. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves. Walling is Flemish bonded red-brick with yellow brick dog-tooth string-course and ornamental stone dressings to windows; smooth render to rear. Windows are pointed headed multi-paned timber sliding sash; 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash with horns to rear.

The principal elevation faces west. To right is projecting bay containing two windows to each floor; exposed section to left with carved stone angled pistol loop. To left is recessed entrance bay with timber sheeted entrance door with pointed headed transom light.

The north elevation has diminutive square-headed window to left at first floor; to right is projecting pointed oriel window on geometric painted sandstone supports. Two diminutive square-headed windows to ground floor.

The east (rear) elevation has, to ground floor; replacement timber sheeted door with transom light to centre, accessed by two concrete steps; window to either side. First floor has window to left and projecting pointed oriel window on geometric painted sandstone supports to right. Cement render off-shot to right.

The south elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB23/18/028C)

Setting:

Set back from the road to west by a lawned garden with central gravelled pathway, enclosed by mature hedgerow and accessed by cast-iron latch gate. Laned access to north with ashlar gate piers having pointed caps. Large mature garden to rear enclosed by hedgerow.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: brick
Windows: timber
RWG: cast-iron

Historical information

On October 15th 1870 the Irish Builder carried the announcement, ‘A Coastguard station has been commenced at Cultra, Co Down under Board of Works. Messrs J and R Thompson, contractors. Quantities prepared by Mr Bermingham’. (Irish Builder)

This area, north of Holywood, was for many years relatively undeveloped. In the early nineteenth century a number of mansions and bathing lodges were constructed and the area away from the coast remained relatively undisturbed from that time until the early decades of the twentieth century. At the time of their construction, the Coastguard cottages were surrounded by open fields and the grounds of large villas. ‘Marino Coastguard Station’ is first shown, captioned, on the third edition OS map of 1901. Brett suggests that the station was built inland, without a sea view, due to the difficulty of obtaining coastal plots which had already been earmarked for development following the opening of the railway line to Bangor in 1865. Government correspondence of 1 June 1870 shows that the watchtower was not thought vital to the finished building because the villas that were yet to be built nearer the coast would obscure its view. (Brett, p.257)

The ‘Coast Guard Station’ first enters valuation records in 1872 when it is valued at £42. Street Directories of the period list a Chief Boatman at the station and four crew. In 1880 the Chief Boatman was John Thompson and the crew were Francis Beggs, James McKeown, William Medden and Cornelius Cronin. (Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory) The command structure had altered by 1892 and there was now a Chief Officer, Edward Jeffers, two ‘Commissioned Boatmen’ and two ‘Boatmen’. (Belfast and Ulster Directory)

Edward Jeffers was still in his post at the head of the station during the recording of the 1901 census and the return shows that his house at the western end of the terrace comprised eight rooms, whereas accommodation for his men consisted of only four rooms for each family. The houses were all deemed to be second-class, based on their size and construction. (1901 census)
English-born Jeffers lived at what is now 37 Farmhill Lane, at the end of the terrace, with his Scottish wife and their five children and one granddaughter. Coastguard crew were a mobile force and it appears that three of Jeffers’ children had been born in County Wexford, probably on a previous posting, and a fourth in County Cork. All the children over the age of sixteen were bringing in extra income to the household, as a milliner, a dressmaker, a monitress in school and in the ‘linen warehouse business’.
The coastguard houses are listed as vacant in the 1911 census and it appears that by 1913 the terrace had ceased to be a Coastguard Station and was occupied as private dwellings. (1911 census, Annual Revisions) Occupiers are listed in the valuation records from 1913 onwards and separate valuations begin to be given for each dwelling.

The valuation of the current house was £10.5s, more than twice the houses in the middle of the terrace, reflecting its much larger size. There are also several occupants listed which appears to indicate that the accommodation was being shared between a number of households. From 1913 the occupiers were Levi Edward, Mrs Erskine and Mrs D Williams and then from 1917, Mary Jane Harper replaced Levi Edward but Mrs Erskine and Mrs D Williams remained in the house. From 1923 the occupier is recorded as William Anderson and in the same year a motor house is added to the description. This raises the valuation to £15.

In 1856 the Coastguard, which was at this time largely an anti-smuggling force, was transferred to the Admiralty, and some military functions were added to its remit. The responsibility for building and maintaining coastguard buildings was given to the Board of Public Works who designed and built over 60 new stations during the next 20 years. (Mayne, p.17) The chief architect at the Board of Works was James Higgins Owen but after 1863 Owen delegated responsibility for design to Enoch Trevor Owen who is likely to have been responsible for the Coastguard station at Marino. (www.dia.ie)

Marino follows the basic design of coastguard stations, consisting of a terrace of houses with a clearly defined officer’s house at one end and a watchtower at the other, containing the room where the nightly watch was kept and which also contained the crew’s arms. According to Mayne, the stations were often built to a standard design with slight amendments according to terrain and the availability of local materials. “The ground floor of a crew’s house had a scullery about 8ft by 10ft (fitted with 24 wrought-iron hat and clothes pins); a living room half the width of the house measured about 17ft by 11ft. Upstairs was a master bedroom with the same dimensions as the living room and two bedrooms half that size. At the back of the terrace was a yard with a row of domestic offices including, for each house, a coal shed and a two-seater privy with yellow pine seats. A communal wash house stood in the centre of the row and wash days were divided in rota among the households. A pump sometimes stood in the middle of the yard.” (Mayne, p.19)

Coastguard stations were often vulnerable in times of unrest, the coastguard being seen as representatives of the crown, and following sectarian riots in 1864, gun loops were inserted into coastguard terraces in much greater numbers. Marino coastguard station is particularly well defended in this way. Oriel windows fitted with gun loops and wrought-iron shutters also formed part of the defences. In order for crews to be able to defend any part of the station, interconnecting doors were fitted between the bedrooms on the first floor. (Mayne, p.19)

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 FIN/16/5/1 – Correspondence relating to siting of proposed Coastguard Station at Cultra
7. 1901 census online
8. 1911 census online
9. Irish Builder Vol 12, 15th October 1870, p.247
10. Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1880
11. Belfast and Ulster Directory, 1892

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
2. Mayne, D “19th Century Coastguard Stations in Mourne” in 12 Miles of Mourne, Journal of Mourne Local Studies Group, Volume 7, 1996, p.13-28
3. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

An mid-terrace red-brick former coastguard cottage built c.1870 to designs by Enoch Trevor Owen of the Board of Works in Dublin. Architectural detailing throughout the terrace is of good quality and is largely intact, including the weathervane to the top of the watch tower and the carved stone angled gun loops. The house forms part of significant and coherent group, and is of interest as part of the coastguard estate in Northern Ireland.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered, it was previously recorded as HB23/18/028