Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB03/03/045 A

Address :
34 Glasgort Road Coleraine Co. Londonderry BT51 5AF

Townland:
Glasgort

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
Yes

Thatched:
Yes

Monument:
No

Derelict:
Yes

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OS Map No:
31-07

IG Ref:
C9060 2208

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached rendered red brick two-storey former dwelling, built c.1820, with a further single-storey red brick structure to the southeast. Both buildings are rectangular on plan and boarded up. Both buildings are located at the end of a long lane to the west of Glasgort Road as part of a group of buildings (HB03/03/045B & C). Two-storey house: Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a pair of rendered brick chimneystacks to both gable ends. Painted ruled-and-lined cement render over red brick walling throughout. Square-headed window openings with painted concrete sills and boarded up windows. Front elevation is three windows wide with an off-centre square-headed front door opening having a stop-chamfered timber frame and flat-panelled timber door. South gable has partially exposed red brick walls revealing a Flemish bond of hand-made bricks. Single square-headed window opening to the ground floor with original 2/2 timber sash window having an exposed sash box with a further square-headed window opening to the attic having a steel casement window. Rear elevation is three windows wide with fully exposed red brick walls laid in English garden wall bond. Timber lintels to all window openings with 2/2 timber sash windows having exposed sash boxes. Central square-headed door opening with timber frame and sheeted timber door. North gable is blank and abutted by a derelict roofless brick structure. Single-storey House: Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a pair of red brick chimneystacks to both gable ends. Hand-made red brick walls laid in English garden wall bond. Front west elevation is three windows wide with an off-centre square-headed door opening. Gauged brick flat arched window and door openings with no sills, boarded up windows and a sheeted timber door. Rear elevation is two windows wide with diminutive square-headed window openings having timber lintels, no sills and boarded up windows. Setting: Forming part of a collection of nineteenth-century structures on a site to the west of Glasgort Road including a red brick firing range wall (HB03/03/045B), a thatched red brick former dwelling (HB03/03/045C) and a pair of mid to late twentieth-century dwellings. Roof Natural slate RWG None Walling Red brick Windows Timber sash

Architects

Historical Information

The current dwelling pre-dates the first edition OS map of 1832 and was originally abutted by another house to the north (now gone). The building is of brick of at least two different types/sizes and demonstrates the local prevalence of brick production, bricks being produced on a number of sites in the area from the early plantation era. The character of the built heritage of Agivey parish owes a great deal to local brick production, which is known to have taken place here since at least the early seventeenth century. George Canning, the agent of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, records in 1615 the manufacture of bricks at a kiln across the Bann from Agivey where they were to be used to complete the upper floors of a stone-built castle for the ironmongers. (Hill) Brick production flourished and the first edition OS maps (1830s) of the area show brickfields all along the River Bann south of Coleraine, including in the townland of Glasgort, to the east of the present houses, a ‘Pottery’ also being captioned in the same townland. The OS Memoirs comment on the brick made in the grange [parish] of Agivey, which was used to construct local vernacular housing. The bricks were brought up the River Bann to Coleraine and sold for 10s per 1,000. (OS Memoirs) The Parliamentary Gazetteer reports in 1846 that coarse, earthenware, bricks and tiles were made ‘in considerable quantity from a clay which abounds [in Agivey]’ and a ‘Potters Kiln’ and ‘Potters Field’ are shown on the second edition map of the 1850s in a settlement called ‘Brick Hill’ at Mullaghmore (Agivey parish). Clay of two colours, reddish and bluish-gray was used to make bricks, tiles and flower pots in the townland of Glasgort in the 1880s. (Kinahan) Brick production appears to have gradually slackened off during the second half of the nineteenth century, but brick kilns and clay pits are still shown on the third edition OS maps of c1900 in the wider area around Agivey. Brick has been the building material of choice for much of the vernacular and more formalised housing that might otherwise have been of rubblestone construction and is a distinctive feature of this area. The current building is not listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) being of too low a value, but Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists it as the dwelling of Hugh Henry who leases it from the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers. The house and outbuildings are valued at 10s. The house passed down through the Henry family to Robert Henry in 1891 and David Henry in 1895. David Henry is listed in the 1901 census as a farmer resident with his baby son, his uncle, brother and sister who worked as a seamstress. The six-room slated house is designated second class. By 1911 the occupiers were John McCann, a farm labourer and his wife, who worked as a general servant, together with their two young children. Valuer’s notes of the 1930s give the occupier as John Mitchell and list the accommodation as two bedrooms, a reception, kitchen and pantry. A plan of the building is given showing a single-storey return to the rear (now gone). The house was in ‘fairly good repair’ and was valued at £4 with 10s for agricultural outbuildings. A brick structure to the south east of the house is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1904 but is not listed in valuation records, having perhaps escaped the attention of valuers. The brick used in this later structure appears to be of a more uniform character. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/5/12/1 First Edition OS Map 1832 2. PRONI OS/6/5/12/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-53 3. PRONI OS/6/5/12/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904 4. PRONI OS/6/5/12/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923 5. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/2 Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/2A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929) 7. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57 8. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/B/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57 9. Parliamentary Gazetteer 1846 Secondary Sources 1. Day, A., P. McWilliams, English L., eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Londonderry VI, 1831, 1833, 1835-6, Vol. 22.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1993. 2. Day, A., P. McWilliams, English L., eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Londonderry XII, 1829-30, 1832, 1834-6, Vol. 33.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1995. 3. Hill, Rev George “An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster at the Commencement of the Seventeenth Century, 1608-1620” Belfast, McCaw, Stevenson & Orr, 1877 4. Kinahan “Economic Geology of Ireland” 1889

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached rendered red brick two-storey former dwelling, built c.1820, with a further single-storey red brick structure to the southeast. Both buildings are rectangular on plan and boarded up. Both buildings are located at the end of a long lane to the west of Glasgort Road as part of a group of buildings (HB03/03/045B & C). Vernacular in appearance, this pair of former dwellings are unusual for their use of red brick. The area was once known for its extensive brick fields in use until the 1880s. Not of sufficient interest to warrant listing.

General Comments

Date of Survey

22 February 2013