Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/12/010

Address :
Milltown Lodge Farm Adjacent to 8 Ballougry Road Termonbacca Co. Londonderry BT48 9XJ

Townland:
Termonbacca

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
26/02/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Outbuildings

Former Use
Outbuildings

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
36-11SW

IG Ref:
C4083 1420

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached two-storey multi-bay red brick farm building, built 1857 on the east side of Ballougry Road on a steep slope that descends towards the River Foyle with enclosed sunken yard to west. Set on a north-south axis with two long projections to the west elevation, central gabled breakfront to the north elevation and battered gabled projection to the northeast. Formerly associated with Milltown House, No.8 Ballougry Road to the north (HB01/12/008), it now sits closer to Milltown lodge, a 1930s house. Pitched asbestos sheeted roof to the main body and natural slate to the two projections that are nearest to the north end; collectively these are roughly L-shaped plan. Red brick walling laid in English garden wall bond with projecting brick string courses and piers set on rubble schist plinth course. Segmental and round-headed openings formed in gauged brick with terracotta half-pipes arranged in a honeycomb pattern to form ventilation panels. A further projection with concrete block walling, added at some stage between 1925 and 1966, is placed almost centrally on the west elevation. It comprises two parts, divided by a raised concrete skew; nearest to the road is a gabled roof with red tiles; and abutting the main building is a hipped roof with corrugated asbestos sheeting; the latter sits on rubble schist stone walls up to first floor level. Rainwater goods are uPVC throughout. West elevation to Balloughry Road comprises from left to right: a single-storey gable fronting onto the road with kneeler stones to the eaves and a large round-headed arch rising from continuous brick impost courses, now filled with concrete block; followed by a concrete block wall with flush painted door, raised block-work pillar with pyramidal concrete cap and corrugated metal slide-back gate; and a further single storey gable end that is largely obscured by greenery. Set back from the road, facing into an enclosed sunken yard is eight bays to the two-storey main building. The first floor has a series of red brick piers and three square-headed window openings that alternate between bays immediately below eaves level. A blind segmental arcade at ground floor aligns with the brick piers above and diminutive round arched vents are centred at low level within the bays to the right side; towards the middle, one of the segmental arches is open. Roof-lights to west facing pitch of main building are boarded up. North elevation has a gabled breakfront with attic storey off-centred to the left. Largely obscured by vegetative growth, there is an arcaded attic storey and single arched opening to ground and first floors with terracotta ventilation panels to the upper floors and sheeted timber and glazed door to ground floor. This elevation encloses the side garden to the neighbouring property (No. 8 Ballougry Road – Milltown Lodge); the gradient slopes up towards the road so that the building changes from two-and-a-half storey to single storey in height. A round-arched opening containing a square-headed ledged and braced sheeted timber gate sits within a recess at the NW end. To the right of the gabled breakfront, cast iron roof-lights are placed randomly within the natural slate roof and rubble-stone walling below is largely obscured; to the left a segmental arched opening at second floor level is visible. Multi-bay two-storey east elevation with gabled projection to the north-east end having battered ground floor walling; the latter contains segmental arched openings to the front and two side cheeks. Also largely obscured by vegetative growth, this elevation has an arcaded ground floor with terracotta panels to the arches, some multi-pane steel casement windows and some full-height recessed openings. The first floor has blind bays framed by brick piers. To the north end is a round-headed carriage arch opening formed in red brick with double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors. South gabled elevation is rubble-schist stone abutted by a single storey rubble schist-stone structure with mono-pitched corrugated metal roof. Red brick toothed quoins to each side with a pair of segmental-headed arches to the ground floor; open to that on the right with brick vaulted soffit and having double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors to that on the left. Tall segmental-headed recess fills the first floor and gable formed in guaged red brick with remnants of multi-pane steel windows. A rubble stone wall continues from the east side of this gable, up to ground floor level and contains an enclosed grassed area. Materials: Roof Asbestos / Natural slate RWG UPVC Walling Red brick / schist Windows Steel casement Setting: Located on the east side of Ballougry Road, behind a sunken yard on a sloping site to the west of River Foyle. Enclosed to the road by timber fencing and enclosed to the east by dry rubble-stone walls with stacked coping. Adjacent to the property, to the north, is a two-storey 1930s house (No.8 Ballougry Road).

Architects

Historical Information

Milltown Lodge Farm, an L-shaped complex of single-and-two-storey farm buildings located in the townland of Termonbacca, was constructed in c. 1857 as the farm buildings to Milltown House (HB01/12/008). Milltown House, originally known as Milton Lodge, was constructed in the late-18th century. The farm was recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1830) which depicted the house along its current layout with appendages to the SW that formed a more linear footprint than presently exists. The map also recorded a quarry on the opposite side of Balloughry Road, and a formal garden and a well to the SW of the house with a few small buildings around its perimeter, presumably associated with the garden. The contemporary Townland Valuations (c. 1834) note that Milton Lodge was occupied by a Mr. Kennedy Esq. and was originally valued at £26 and 14 shillings. The valuer described Kennedy’s house as a 1B class dwelling (i.e. with a slate roof, of medium age and slightly decayed but in good repair) that possessed a barn, servant’s room and stables amongst it out offices (today, these would be called outhouses). Kennedy had vacated the farm by 1837 when the Ordnance Survey Memoirs recorded that Milton Lodge was the residence of a Captain Henry Lecky (OSM). There was no change to the layout of the house, its original outhouses or garden buildings by the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853 but Griffith’s Valuation records that the current farm buildings appeared to the southwest of Milton Lodge, on the plot of the formal garden, by 1857 when they were valued at £25 ( VAL/2/B/5/16A). It is possible that they were under construction although not fully completed at this time as the valuation states ‘New Offices valued £25, not rateable until the year 1862’. Annotations on subsequent Annual Revisions confirm that the farm buildings were completed by 1864 (VAL/12/B/32/10A & B). Calley states that during the 1840s Milton Lodge was occupied by the Rev. James Crawford, the minister of Londonderry Second Presbyterian on the Strand Road (HB01/21/011). By 1857 the farmhouse had passed to his son Samuel Law Crawford, a local solicitor and landowner (Crawford owned and gave his name to Crawford Square). Samuel Crawford died in 1861 at which time the farm reverted to his father who continued to reside at Milton Lodge until his own death in 1868 (PRONI Wills). Following Crawford’s death Milton Lodge was utilised as a manse by the Rev. Matthew Wilson of Londonderry Second Presbyterian. Wilson remained at the property in Termonbacca until 1897 when the house and its farm buildings were briefly occupied by John McClatchie, a bank manager. By 1901, ownership of the property had passed to Robert Allen Wilson, a local solicitor and ‘Clerk of Crown and Peace’ for Co. Donegal. In that year the census noted that Milton Lodge was occupied by Jessie and Georgina Harvey and that the farm buildings to the south-west of the house were utilised as two stables, a coach house, two cow houses, two piggeries, two fowl houses and a barn. The farm buildings first appear on the third edition Ordnance Survey map (1904) which depicts the red-brick complex along its current L-shaped layout. The Wilson family retained ownership of Milton Lodge until 1936 when when the house and farm buildings were purchased outright by Dr. George D. McCaul. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of the farm buildings was increased to £66 and 10 shillings; this possibly reflects the additional gabled projection added to the west around that time. Dr. George McCaul resided at the house until his death in 1962 at which time his widow, Agnes, took possession of the site, residing there until at least the 1970s. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of the farm buildings at Milton Lodge had been decreased to £34. Milton Lodge and its farm buildings were listed in 1979. In that year Rowan described the latter as ‘a very large range of arcaded barns and farm buildings, unusually grand and in a stylish Italianate manner, with a two-storey arcaded pediment at one end’ (Rowan, p. 404). The HB Records note that the Victorian farm buildings are no longer in use and attempts have been made over the last decade to convert the structures into a number of self-contained apartments. Field inspection carried out during the Second Survey has found that the no alteration work has yet taken place at the site (HB Records). References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1830) 2. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853) 3. PRONI OS/6/5/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1904) 4. PRONI OS/6/5/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1924-25) 5. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16A – Griffith’s Valuation (1857) 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/10A-10G – Annual Revisions (1860-1929) 7. PRONI VAL/3/C/ – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) 8. PRONI VAL/4/B/ – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72) 9. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Londonderry (1837) 10. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1943) 11. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911) 12. PRONI Wills Catalogue (18 May 1861; 8 Nov 1868; 2 Sep 1962) 13. First Survey Record – HB01/12/010 (1972) 14. NIEA HB Records – HB01/12/010 Secondary Sources 1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013. 2. Curl, J. S., ‘The Londonderry Plantation 1609-1914’ Sussex, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 1986. 3. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 1979.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Detached two-storey multi-bay red-brick farm building, built 1857 and located on the Balloughry Road southwest of the city centre, on a steep slope that descends towards the River Foyle. It shares group value with Milltown House (HB01.12.008) to the north, with which it was formerly associated; the two buildings were owned at one time by Rev James Crawford and then by his son, Samuel Crawford, whom Crawford Square to the NE of the city is named after. Despite asbestos roofing and uPVC rainwater goods, which are out of keeping with the date and style of the building, it is well proportioned with Italianate style arcaded openings, low pitched roofs and deep overhanging eaves. Roughly L-shaped on plan with gabled projections, it is characterised by segmental and round-arched openings formed in gauged brick with terracotta half-pipes arranged in a honeycomb pattern to form ventilation panels. As a former nineteenth-century agricultural building, it is of some importance to the history of the local economy and retains much of its distinctive appearance, which is further enhanced by an enclosed sunken yard to the west and riverside setting to the east.

General Comments

Note that this record is associated with Milltown House HB01.12.008

Date of Survey

11 August 2014