Glendona, Gobrana Road, Glenavy, Crumlin, Co Antrim, BT29 4LQ

Glendona is a two-storey Edwardian house built in 1904, constructed of red brick with a dormered attic. It is a fine example of Edwardian domestic architecture of distinct style and proportion, retaining most of its original features both inside and outside, and occupying an attractive setting on Gobrana Road, Glenavy, County Antrim.

The main entrance faces east, and the east elevation is symmetrical, with two windows to each side of a central projecting porch. The roofs are hipped and covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with serrated red terracotta ridge tiles and terracotta finials. The eaves are sprocketed with shaped corbels. There are two chimneys, one to each gable, built in red brick with sandstone weatherings and a moulded sandstone cornice. Moulded cast iron gutters run along the eaves, with cast iron downpipes at each extremity supported on large fleur-de-lys shaped cast iron brackets.

The walls are of red brick with an offset brick plinth in two stages and a projecting moulded brick string course at first floor level. Ground floor windows are segmental arched and first floor windows are flat arched; all are rectangular timber sliding sash windows, vertically hung, one-over-one pane, with horns to the first floor. Window frames to the ground floor are segmental arched. Cills are of rounded projecting red sandstone throughout.

The single-storey projecting porch matches the walling of the main block and has a red brick parapet with moulded red sandstone copings, ramped up at the corners. The central doorway is segmental arched, with stop chamfering to a recessed brick surround, and is surmounted by a segmental arched sandstone canopy with curved sandstone brackets carried on carved red sandstone corbels of stylised foliate scrolls. The front door is a rectangular two-leaf, six-panel raised and fielded door in varnished oak, with a plain segmental arched fanlight above. Three steps lead up to the front door, which are covered with modern tiles. Each side wall of the porch contains one segmental arched window matching those on the front elevation. Above the porch at first floor level is a segmental arched three-light casement window with top lights.

The entrance bay rises into a half-timbered dormer gable incorporating herringbone pattern timbers to the apex and quatrefoil panels to the base. It contains a central rectangular timber window of two fixed lights with two three-pane top lights, which are replacements for the originals. The sides of the dormer gable have vertical panels of timberwork. To each side of the timbered gable is a flat-roofed dormer also featuring red and white vertical timbering to the sides, with replacement windows to the front of similar pattern to those in the attic gable.

The south elevation comprises the main two-storey gable of the house in half-hipped form, with a projecting gabled two-storey stair bay to the left and the two-storey side wall of a rear return further to the left. The main gable has shaped and moulded bargeboards with a trefoil sinking at the end. Three windows are provided to each floor, matching those on the entrance front. The stair bay projection has an oversailing roof with bargeboards similarly decorated to the main gable, surmounted by a terracotta finial and featuring half-timbering to the apex. There are two flat-arched sash windows to the ground floor and one large segmental arched window to the first floor, the latter comprising a three-light arrangement with a central semi-circular arch and top lights, all filled with leaded glazing. The set-back return wall has three windows to each floor, all segmental arched and sashed as before, with numerous cast iron downpipes and soil pipes to the right-hand side and on the returning side wall of the stair bay. At the left-hand extremity, flush with the rear return, is a single-storey lean-to extension, original to the house, with a matching slate roof.

The west elevation comprises the half-hipped main rear wall, which is three storeys in height, plastered and painted red. It has segmental arched sash windows matching those elsewhere — two to the top floor and one to each of the lower floors — along with a segmental arched back door containing a rectangular glazed and panelled door with a plain fanlight above, all painted white. Four concrete steps lead up to the back door. The lean-to projection has a rectangular metal-framed window in its west side, consisting of a three-pane fixed light with a three-pane top-hung vent.

The north elevation comprises the side of the rear return to the right, with a canted bay to the left projecting from the main half-hipped gable of the house. The rear return is of plain character with segmental arched sash windows to each side of a broad chimney breast. The canted bay has one window to each floor in its angled sides flanking the chimney breast. Above, it is surmounted by a half-timbered gable that oversails at the angled corners on large shaped timber struts carried on shaped red sandstone corbels. The bargeboards have trefoil embellishments as elsewhere, and there is a terracotta finial with a chimney at the apex. The windows are rectangular and segmental headed, as on the entrance front, and sashed throughout. The main gable of the front block has similar bargeboards.

The house stands in its own spacious grounds facing the main road but set well back, reached by twin driveways. There is a large grassy garden to the front, screened from the road by mature trees. A tarmac driveway runs across the face of the house, with a concrete path around the north side. To the rear is a large concrete yard with parallel ranges of original gabled outbuildings, and extensive modern farm sheds beyond. The original outbuildings are roughcast and are of no particular architectural merit, though one gable contains an inscribed roundel of interest (see below). The rear yard is screened from the front garden by a low wall of red brick finished in dry dash render with rounded copings, linked to the house by a small plain iron gate set between original circular cast iron posts with replacement turned wooden finials.

The entrance gateway to the south consists of a pair of wrought iron gates of scrolling pattern, mounted on cast iron piers with ornamented panels, with a smaller pedestrian gate to the left mounted on a third pier of similar design. All ironwork is painted white. Low red brick screen walls with rounded brick copings curve forward from short returns on each side. The gateway to the north is similar except that there is no smaller side gate, and the curved screen wall to the north end is truncated.

The house was built in 1904 by Thomas Sefton, who, along with his brother Alfred, had emigrated to America from Ballinderry, County Antrim, in the late 19th century before selling their uncle's insurance company in St Louis and returning to Ulster. The brothers lived at Glendona with their unmarried sisters. The family's first appearance in the Belfast and Ulster Directories at this address was in 1905, when only the Misses Sefton were listed; by 1906, Alfred and Thomas were also recorded as residents. The last surviving member of the family, one of the sisters, died in 1944. The house was subsequently bought by a Mr Acheson, of the well-known Tweedy Acheson drapery business, who remained until 1972, when the property was purchased by the then current owner. A circular plaque on the gable of one of the outbuildings is inscribed: "Glendona. Built by Thomas Sefton. The yard by Alfred Sefton. 1904." Ordnance Survey maps confirm that a previous house stood on the site in 1832 and was still present on the 1901–2 survey, with the present house and its twin driveways appearing on the 1920 survey. Original photographs of the house taken by Abernethy of Belfast around 1904 were held by the owner at the time of recording in 1999.