Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/06/008

Address :
Beech Hill Country House 32 Ardmore Road County Londonderry BT47 3QP

Townland:
Ballyshasky

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
16/11/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Hotel

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
37-9SW

IG Ref:
C4677 1376

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Owner Category

Leisure

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached multi-bay two-storey over basement with attic rendered country house, built 1729 (east section) with later additions, c.1870 and c.1910 including an advanced entrance bay with port-cochere. Irregular on plan facing south and set within its own extensive mature landscaped grounds on the north side of Ardmore Road. Accessed via a bitmac avenue opening onto Ardmore Road to the west with entrance screen and gate lodge (HB01/06/007). Now in use as a country house hotel. Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, hipped over the entrance bay with lead ridges. Cast-iron rainwater goods on dentilled eaves course and rendered chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling, painted rough-cast render to the east section. Generally square-headed window openings with timber sash windows and masonry sills. Principal south elevation has a sunken basement and is abutted by an advanced two-storey entrance bay incorporating an arcaded port-cochere with oriel windows to all three sides. The earlier eastern section has replacement 6/6 and 8/8 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and a battered basement with replacement single-pane timber sash windows. The westernmost section has single-pane and 2/2 timber sash windows to the first floor with 4/2 timber sash windows to the ground floor. The advanced entrance bay has a raised roof with a lantern having quatrefoil lights. The oriels have splayed window surrounds, single-pane timber sash windows and oversized corbelled bases, that to the front being stepped and canted and rising from a shallow jetty storey. The jetty storey is supported by four cable-moulded cast-iron colonettes framing three arched openings with continuous base and impost mouldings and moulded archivolts with keystones. The cheeks of the port-cochere have elliptical-arched openings. At the reentrant angle of the entrance bay and the western section is a full-height canted bay lighting the stairwell with splayed window surrounds and apron panels. The principal entrance has a timber glazed screen with heavy moulded transoms and mullions. A secondary square-headed door opening to the eastern section has a replacment timber glazed door with original interlacing timber tracery fanlight opening onto a timber bridge spanning the basement well. West side elevation comprises a two-storey over basement gabled elevation and set back elevation with a two-storey wing glazed to the upper level. The main gabled elevation has slender 6/1 timber sash windows to the ground floor and single-pane timber sash windows to the basement. Two-storey over basement rear elevation abutted by a full-height bow and full-height gabled bay to the west. A late flat-roofed infill section connects the rear elevation to a square-plan section to the west with pyramidal roof. Windows on the rear elevation have decorative render surrounds with moulded sills and 8/1 timber sash windows to the first floor, 6/1 to the ground floor. The basement is battered with single-pane timber sash windows and exposed sash boxes while the ground floor windows to the bow are single-pane. The square-plan section has a series of slender arched windows with brick arches, single-pane timber sash windows and apron panels on a continuous sill course. East side elevation has a jettied attic-storey with twin gables having timber bargeboards and supported on elaborate timber brackets. A shallow niche houses a painted classical statue. Cruciform timber casement windows to the gables and 6/1 timber sash windows to the remainder with exposed sash boxes. This elevation is abutted by single-storey late twentieth-century accretions. Materials: Roof Natural slate RWG Cast-iron Walling Painted ruled-and-lined render / painted rough-cast render Windows Timber sash Setting: Set within its own extensive mature landscaped grounds on the north side of Ardmore Road. Accessed via a bitmac avenue winding through manicured gardens which include a waterfall and water wheel, forest walks, an elaborate carved heraldic shield dated 1863 and a stone ruin to the southwest. The avenue opens onto Ardmore Road to the west with entrance screen and gate lodge (HB01/06/007). Due south of the house, a further gate screen, comprising substantial square pillars, roughcast rendered, with pyramidal stone caps and ball finials, flanked by low rubble schist stone walling that is curved on plan. The gates have been replaced but the screen is centred on the porte-cochère at the principal façade and a mature tree-lined promenade separates them. North-west of the house, a walled garden abuts the rear elevation to the gate lodge and is enclosed by rubble schist stone walling with red brick dressings; its entrance is set midway along the east boundary wall and consists of a segmental arched gate, highlighted in smooth render, painted. A green house structures is located within. The NW side of the walled garden is bound by a range of single and two-storey gabled outbuildings, partially occupied by a gravestone premises, with a combination of rubble schist stone and brick walling punctuated by informally arranged openings along its north elevation that include metal framed multi-paned windows, timber sheeted doors, metal roller shutters and sliding metal screens. All roofs are duo-pitched with corrugated metal and asbestos sheeting in a variety of finishes. To the south (walled garden) elevation of the lower outbuilding, is a single storey abutment with cat-slide roof, roughcast rendered walls and a series of singular and paired timber casement windows, all now blocked up with concrete. Two Nissan huts are set within a secluded area to the east of the house, one of which houses a WWII exhibition.

Architects

Historical Information

Historically, the family principally associated with the history of this building is the Skipton family. It is believed that members of the Skipton family came to Ulster in the early 1600s as contractors in the Londonderry Plantation. The first house at Ballyshasky (now Beech Hill) is said to have been built in 1622, but on the opposite side of the stream from the present building. This house was destroyed as a result of the wars of the 1640s, but was rebuilt in the early 1660s by Thomas Skipton and named Skipton Hall. It was again burned at the time of the Siege of Derry (1689). The oldest part of the present house has been dated to 1729 when the owner of the property was another Thomas Skipton (1683-1739), a captain under General Stanhope in the Spanish wars. He is said to have given the house its present name of Beech Hill on account of the large number of beech trees growing in its vicinity. In 1802 Sampson noted that the house was ‘convenient’ and around this time the property was inherited by George Crookshank Kennedy, a deputy-governor of Londonderry, who took the name Skipton. He oversaw major improvements to the grounds. In 1833 Atkinson (p. 284) provided the following description of Beech Hill: “The demesne though limited in its extent combines many features of a rich and respectable character; among which a comfortable dwellinghouse, enveloped in the deep shade of its own full grown timber, a richly planted glen, an excellent garden, walled in and in full bearing, and sanded walks for the accommodation of the passenger through its richly wooded lawn, altogether unite to render Beech hill a respectable specimen of the march of building and planting in this section of the country.” Two years later, the Ordnance Survey Memoir of the parish of Clondermott described the house as ‘old and square’ and approached by a straight avenue formed of several rows of old lime trees. The walled garden was large and well stocked with fruit trees; over its gate was inscribed ‘Thomas Skipton Esquire, 11th April 1783’. Robert Porter’s map of the ‘Beech-Hill Estate’ of 1823 shows an L-shaped structure on the site of the present house, with a smaller separate building on its south side. It is hard to reconcile the depiction of these buildings with the Ordnance Survey maps of the 1830s and 1850s. The 1st edition map of 1830 shows a rectangular structure with a projection roughly centrally placed along its north side. The First Valuation fieldbook of c. 1835 lists the house as being in the possession of Conolly Skipton and values it at £24 14s. The 1856 Valuation map shows simply a plain rectangular structure on the site of the house. The Primary Valuation House Book of 1856 provides the following dimensions for the house which indicates it was a more complex structure than indicated on the contemporary map.. Building Code Length Breadth Height House 1C+ 46 41½ 24 Cellar 5 Return 1C+ 12 20 8 Kitchen 1C+ 33 25 22 Return 1C+ 36 7 8 Griffith’s Valuation of 1858 shows that the property was in the possession of Henry Stacy Skipton and that the buildings had a valuation of £22. The Valuation Revision Books show that in 1870 the valuation of the buildings increased from £22 to £35. An annotation from 1870 states, ‘a large add[itio]n to house in progress’. A further annotation reads, ‘Not finished – will not be finished for 12 mo[nth]s, March 1871’. In 1872 the value of the buildings was raised from £35 to £65, suggesting that the works had been completed, or at least were nearing completion’. The works at this time included the construction of new gate lodge. An undated annotation from c. 1870 reads, ‘See new gate lodge & off[ice]s in 1869’. In 1877 the gate lodge was distinguished from the rest of the buildings on the property and given the valuation of £5. (Therefore, the valuation of the other buildings was reduced from £65 to £60.) In 1882, however, it was again valued with the other buildings. In 1905 the house was reroofed, but retained the same valuation. In the 1920s the value of the buildings was separated out between £21 15s. And £43 5s., but no precise date given, nor explanation. In 1878 Beech Hill was put up for sale and advertised as ‘fit for a gentleman of large fortune.’ It was subsequently bought by Edward Nicholson of New Buildings, County Londonderry. By 1894 it was possessed by his son, Thomas F. Nicholson. The House of Building return of the 1901 census stated that 28 rooms occupied by the family and 15 windows in the front of the house. By the time of the 1911 census, on the other hand, 19 rooms were being occupied by the family, but there were 21 windows in the front of the house. By 1914 Beech Hill was possessed by Thomas’ widow Frances Lucy, and by 1924 by their son Cyril A. Nicholson. During the Second World War it was used as a base by United States Marines, the subject of an exhibition in the present hotel at the time of writing. Serving Marines who visit today uphold a tradition that started around 70 years ago when many of their wartime predecessors carved their names on a tree in the Beech Hill woods. Initials and dates are still visible on the trunk of what is known as 'The Marines Tree'. After the war, part of the house was divided into flats. In 1956 the valuation of the property was increased from £40 to £55. In 1991 Beech Hill opened as a hotel. In 2000 a new wing was added to provide more accommodation space. In 2011 an extensive programme of restoration was completed at a cost of almost £500,000. These works included new sash windows, extensive re-roofing and external and interior redecoration. References Primary sources: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland First Valuation fieldbook, c. 1835 – VAL/1/B/549A-D Primary Valuation house book, 1856 – VAL/2/B/5/50 Valuation Revision Books, 1860-1930: VAL/12/B/32/1A-G Valuers and Revaluation Binders, Faughan Ward, Ballyshasky townland, 1956-75 – VAL/4/C/6/3/15/2 Valuation map, 1856 – VAL/2/A/5/22C Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/22/1 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1904-32 – OS/6/5/22/3 Map of the ‘Beech-Hill Estate’ by Robert Porter, 1823 – D4446/A/4/19 Northern Ireland Environment Agency First Survey record – HB01/06/008 HB Records – HB01/06/008 Secondary sources: Published sources George Vaughan Sampson, Statistical Survey of the County of Londonderry (Dublin, 1802) A. Atkinson, Ireland in the nineteenth century (London, 1833) Angélique Day & Patrick McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, vol. 34 (Belfast, 1996) Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979) Dan Calley, City of Derry: An Historical Gazetteer to the Buildings of Londonderry (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013) Online sources Dictionary or Irish Architects: www.dia.ie 1901 and 1911 censuses: www.census.nationalachives.ie Beech Hill website: http://www.beech-hill.com/our-story.aspx

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H+. Alterations enhancing the building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

S. Authenticity T. Historic Importance U. Historic Associations X. Local Interest R. Age

Evaluation

Detached multi-bay two-storey over basement with attic rendered country house, built 1729 (east section) with later additions in c.1870 and c.1910. The estate was established in the early 1600's as part of the Londonderry Plantation by the Skipton family, with parts of the current building being constructed over 100 yrs later by a Thomas Skipton, a captain in The Spanish Wars. In later years, during the Second World War it was used as a base by United States Marines. Architecturally, the early origins of this former house are somewhat obscured by the later additions. Both the interior and the exterior exhibit an array of architectural styles expressing an evolution in tastes from the early eighteenth-century to the present day. The house is greatly enhanced by the extensive grounds and associated gate lodge to the west (HB01/06/007).

General Comments

Date of Survey

11 April 2014