Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/06/012

Address :
Ardmore House 70 Ardmore Road Ardmore County Londonderry BT47 3QZ

Townland:
Ardmore

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Survey 2:
B+

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

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
37-13NE

IG Ref:
C4718 1327

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey over basement with attic rendered country house, built c.1800, with two-storey wing to rear and extensively altered c.1819. Irregular on plan facing north east on an elevated site within extensive mature grounds and located on the east side of Ardmore Road accessed via long winding avenue encircling the site with a north west and south east entrance. Double-pile pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, parged cement verges and a pair of rendered chimneystacks rising from either gable end. The rear and south wings have further rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and cast-iron downpipes. Painted rendered walling to the front elevation, rough-cast render to remaining elevations. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and timber sliding sash windows; 6/3 to first floor, tripartite to the ground floor, 6/6 to the ground floor on remaining elevations and 8/4 to exposed basement window openings, with historic glass remaining. Three-bay two-storey front elevation (NE) with basement concealed by raised projecting plinth having nosed Portland limestone covering. The plinth supports a five-sided entrance porch with engaged Doric columns flanking the door opening and sidelights. Replacement multi-pane timber windows and replacement double-leaf timber glazed doors opening onto raised Portland limestone paved platform and swept steps to cobblelock front parking area. To the right side of the main house is a single storey lean-to sun room with mono-pitched roof sloping towards the rear. It has three full-height timber multi-pane round-headed windows with margin-lights and spoked fanlights, divided vertically by timber pilasters onto a painted stone cill and with decorative timber cusped trellising to each round head. Decorative dentilled timber frieze above. Gabled side elevation (NW) has two diminutive 3/3 timber sliding sash segmental arched window openings to the attic storey, two 6/3 timber sliding sash windows to the far edges of the first floor, a 1/1 timber sliding sash to the right of the two storey projection (conservatory to ground floor level and basement below) and a 6/3 timber sliding sash window on the right side of the ground floor level. The basement well has an 8/4 bipartite window with central sash box to the immediate right of the projection, a casement window in the middle and a 6/3 timber sliding sash window with arched head to the right. The rough-cast rendered gable end of the projection is blank. A rubble stone wall protects the basement well which is accessed via a set of steps which run between two tall roughcast walls. The SW gable elevation is abutted on the south west side by the rear pile of the house, and a single-bay section of gable wall contains a 6/3 replacement timber top-hung window to first floor and a 6/3 timber sliding sash window to ground floor level. The rear pile extends beyond the footprint of the front pile towards the north-west with a two-storey over-basement wall containing a 6/3 replacement timber top-hung window to first floor level. A single-storey rubblestone wing with artificial slate roof abuts the gable wall of the north west wing. To the left side is a single doorway with segmental arched head and a replacement uPVC door. To the right of the door is a single window opening with deep reveals containing a replacement uPVC window. The rear of the house (SW) opens onto a courtyard, bounded on the SE and SW sides by outbuildings and with entrance gates and piers on the NW side. The two-storey rear pile is multi-bay with an advanced section to the right side with hipped roof. A recessed entrance bay on ground floor level has a square painted & rendered supporting pier at the left outer corner and a multi-pane timber window on the rear wall of the recess with a 6 panel timber door with glazed top panels to the top. The first floor of the advanced section has a tripartite window to the stairhall with central 12/12 timber sash window flanked by 3/3 sidelights. Gabled side elevation (SE) has two diminutive 3/3 timber sliding sash segmental arched window openings to the attic storey, two 6/3 timber sliding sash windows to the far edges of the first floor, two 6/6 timber sliding sash windows directly beneath on ground floor level and an 8/4 bipartite window with central sash box located centrally at basement level. The SE gable elevation is abutted to the left by the rear pile which advances towards the south east. The north east face of the rear pile has a 6/3 window to the first floor, a 6/6 window to the ground floor and an 8/4 to the basement level. The gable elevation of the rear pile has a 6/3 window to the right side of the first floor, two 6/6 windows to ground floor and two windows to basement level; all timber sliding sash windows. There is a single bay to the left of the SE gable which has a 4/4 timber sliding sash window to ground floor level and a 6/3 timber sliding sash above, on first floor level. A two-storey block abuts the back of the rear pile and appears to be of twentieth century construction. It has pebble dash walls and thin cills. It is of little historic interest. Outbuildings Rear yard enclosed to the north west by one and two-storey rubblestone outbuildings. The range to the north east side of the yard and on the left side when entered from the yard gates on the NW side, is single-storey and of modern construction. Walls are pebble dashed, windows and doors are uPVC and roof covering is natural slate. Rooflights to slope of roof to yard side. This range is accessed off a modern tiled platform, several steps above the floor level of the yard. A two storey range of outbuildings lines the SW side of the yard, opposite the single storey range. Construction is of ashlar stone with stone square-headed and segmental headed arches to openings. The section of outbuilding closest to the yard gates has red brick headers and surrounds to openings. Concrete lintels to first floor window openings. All doors and windows to the yard face of this range are timber casement/top-hung. Large openings have modern timber panelled doors. Modern brick-pavioured surface to yard. Rear face of this range backs onto grounds at SW side of estate. Randomly placed openings; windows are replacement timber casement, modern metal roller shutter door to extreme right. A single storey section protrudes towards the SW. Roof is natural slate. There is a modern storage area to the extreme right side constructed of timber columns and beams and with a concrete block gable wall to the SW side. Setting: Located on an elevated mature site on the east side of Ardmore Road overlooking River Faughan to the east. Accessed by a long winding gravel avenue opening from Ardmore Road via pair of replacement electric gates hung on rusticated sandstone ashlar piers and replacement curved railings. The avenue encircles the house with a further opening to the south east via pair of replacement steel gates hung on rusticated sandstone ashlar piers with pyramidal capstones. To the south east of this entrance is a three-bay two-storey rendered former gate lodge. Rear yard enclosed to the north west by one and two-storey rubblestone outbuildings and to the north west by a tall rubblestone screen wall with iron gates. Roof, windows, doors and surrounds are all twentieth century replacements. Roof Natural slate RWG Cast-iron Walling Smooth render / rough-cast render Windows Original timber sliding sash / replacement fixed-pane timber / uPVC

Architects

Historical Information

John Acheson Smyth (1769-1847), a merchant in Derry, though with business interests in a number of different places, acquired a holding in the townland of Ardmore either at the end of the eighteenth century or the very start of the nineteenth. In 1802 Sampson noted, ‘Mr Smith [sic] has built on an elevated situation’, while in 1814 he commented: ‘Mr Smyth’s house is modern, spacious, and convenient, and his other improvements accord with his active and enterprising character of mind.’ Further alterations to the house were carried out in 1819 for in that year John A. Smyth wrote to Rev. J.M. Staples on his building operations at Ardmore ‘I am keeping open house, for one part of the roof is off and the hall completely pulled down, with other alterations which I expect you will say are improvements, when finished.’ The house is shown on Robert Porter’s map of the ‘Beech-Hill Estate’ of 1823. The First Valuation fieldbook of c. 1835 records a valuation of £37 7s on the house and outbuildings. In the Ordnance Survey Memoir for the parish of Clondermott of 1835 it was recorded that the seat of John Acheson Smyth was ‘commodious’ and between the house and the river was a sloping bank used as a bleach green. Griffith’s Valuation of 1858 shows that the property was in the possession of Ross T. Smith [sic] and the buildings (comprising a house, gate house and offices) had a valuation of £44. Ross Thompson Smyth died in 14 January 1881, leaving an estate valued at under £70,000. In 1879 the valuation of the buildings was increased from £44 to £46 due to the gate lodge being raised by one storey. In 1889 the value of the buildings was reduced from £46 to £40, but with no explanation for this change. In 1904 ‘gate ho.’ changed to ‘2 gate hos.’, though this follows on from a comment in 1902 that there were ‘no new buildings’ and there is no change in the value of the buildings which remained at £40. The succession of owners in this period was as follows: Alice Smyth (died 1910), Ross Acheson Smyth, a major in the 10th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (died 1917), and Mrs Edith Smyth (died 1941). Possession of the house then passed to the Crawford family. In an inspection of the house in 1956, the valuer described the property as an ‘Old type mansion with two gate lodges’. It was also described as having an ‘Old fashioned interior’. In 1988 repairs to the roof, guttering and chimneys were carried out. In the following year repairs to the basement were executed. Rowan (p. 196) comments on the ‘Exceptionally pretty Tuscan conservatory.’ References Primary sources 1. PRONI, Letters and accounts to Rev. J. M. Staples from John A. Smyth of Londonderry, 1815-1822, D1567/F/2/11 2. PRONI, Map of the ‘Beech-Hill Estate’ by Robert Porter, 1823, D4446/A/4/19 3. PRONI, First Valuation fieldbook, c. 1835, VAL/1/B/549A-D 4. PRONI, Primary Valuation house book, 1856 – VAL/2/B/5/50 5. PRONI, Griffith’s Valuation, 1858 6. PRONI, Valuation Revision Books, 1860-1930, VAL/12/B/32/1A-G 7. PRONI, Annual Revisions List of the First General Revaluation, 1936-57, VAL/3/C/6/8 8. PRONI, Valuers and Revaluation Binders, 1956-75 – VAL/4/C/6/3/15/1 9. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830, OS/6/5/22/1 10. PRONI, Valuation map, 1856 – VAL/2/A/5/22C 11. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1905, OS/6/5/22/3 12. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1925, OS/6/5/22/4 13. Angélique Day & Patrick McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, vol. 34 (Belfast, 1996) 14. NIEA, HB Records Secondary sources 1. George Vaughan Sampson, Statistical Survey of the County of Londonderry (Dublin, 1802) 2. George Vaughan Sampson, A Memoir: Explanatory of the Chart and Survey of the County of London-Derry (London, 1814) 3. Alistair J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979) 4. Dan Calley, City of Derry: An Historical Gazetteer to the Buildings of Londonderry (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013) Online sources 1. 1901 and 1911 census returns: www.census.nationalarchives.ie 2. PRONI, Will Calendars: www.proni.gov.uk

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey over basement with attic rendered country house, built c.1800, with two-storey wing to rear and extensive alterations c.1819. Good range of contiguous outbuildings to SW enclosing the inner yard. An impressive mid-sized country house with a complex plan form reflecting various changes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The interior retains some very notable details such as painted door panels, delicate plaster details and a fine staircase while the exterior retains most of its original fenestration. The intactness of the house along with the appealing elevated site make this one of the more noteworthy houses that form an interesting collection of country houses along Ardmore Road.

General Comments

Date of Survey

30 September 2014