Glen Oak House, 1 Nutts Corner Road, Crumlin, Co Antrim, BT29 4BW

Glen Oak House is a house of uncertain original date, though a building of this name appears on a map of 1782 as the residence of Rowley Heyland, who built the adjacent flour mills in 1765. The house was described in the 1830s as having been built shortly after those mills, suggesting a construction date in the 1760s or 1770s. It stands in its own grounds set well back from the main road in the townland of Crosshill, near Crumlin, County Antrim.

The building retains a semblance of its original block plan, including the uncommon feature of curved bays at each end gable, and preserves original detailing to elements such as doors and windows. However, virtually all the fabric except the masonry carcass is replacement material, and the original architectural form and mass has been so drastically altered that the house can no longer be considered an 18th-century building in any meaningful sense. This record was delisted on 20 March 2003.

ORIGINAL FORM AND SUBSEQUENT ALTERATION

The house was originally two storeys throughout. A 1972 survey described it as "a two-storey five-bay roughcast house with slated roof hipped at front. Two-storey, two-window segmental bays project on gables. Twelve-pane windows, reduced in height on the upper floor, are set in square moulded openings. The entrance is recessed in a moulded semi-circular headed opening. Two-storey return of much reduced height with Georgian-glazed windows, some triple. Poor condition. Outbuildings are harled; the lodge is derelict."

During the 1970s, following a period in which the house had been described as "deserted and being fast over-run by dry rot," the then new owner undertook a comprehensive reconstruction. This involved demolishing the first floor of the main front block and replacing it with a lower roof incorporating three dormer windows, rearranging the interior layout, remodelling the south face of the lower east wing or rear return, and stripping and replacing the entire woodwork and internal finishes, not all of which were replaced to the original design. The gate lodge, which by 1859 had appeared on maps for the first time, has since been enlarged and remodelled and is now in separate ownership.

EXTERIOR — WEST (MAIN) ELEVATION

The house is now one and a half storeys, with segmental single-storey bays projecting from the two end gables and a long two-storey rear return. The main entrance faces west. The west elevation is symmetrical, five windows wide to the main block, with a segmental bay at each extremity and a central entrance. The hipped roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with three hipped dormer windows slated to match the main roof, including the cheeks and fronts.

The walls are rendered in wet dash using crushed stones, with a smooth cement-rendered plinth. Modern steel ventilator grilles are set into the plinth, one below each of the windows flanking the doorway. The entrance is recessed within a moulded semi-circular headed opening. The door itself is a rectangular timber panelled door of an unusual quadrant design to the lower portion, fitted with a Victorian brass knocker. The doorhead is embellished with a raised design of scrolling acanthus on the frieze, below a coved and ornamented cornice, and there is a semi-circular fanlight with radial glazing bars. Three broad stone steps lead up to the front door.

The windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, three panes over three, with horns, exposed sash boxes, and set in moulded surrounds with projecting stone cills. The dormer windows are fitted with small-paned rectangular timber casements. Moulded metal gutters are fitted, with PVC downpipes in the angle of each short return where it meets the projecting end bays.

The segmental single-storey bay to each end gable has a conical roof with small slates in regular courses. The bay to the north carries a weather vane. Moulded glass-reinforced plastic gutters are fitted to these bays. Each bay contains two windows matching those of the main block, except that the window heads and cills follow the curved form of the bay.

EXTERIOR — REAR AND SIDE ELEVATIONS

The rear elevation of the front block on the north side is a blank wall. The roof is slated as before, with one modern rooflight and one chimney, smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked, with a moulded cornice and a re-used old pot.

The north elevation of the rear return is two storeys with a gabled roof slated to match. There are two chimneys — one on the east gable and one at an intermediate position — both similar to the chimney described above but each with two pots. The walling is rendered as before, with moulded metal gutters and PVC downpipes. At ground floor, there is a rectangular doorway next to the main block, fitted with a modern glazed and panelled door set in the original moulded surround. To the left of this are two French windows comprising new glazed doors with small panes set in plain unmoulded reveals, and further to the left are five rectangular windows, all new four-light side-hung casements set in plain reveals with projecting concrete cills. At first floor there are seven windows of varying size, all new, rectangular timber, and all incorporating small-paned casements.

The east gable of the return is two storeys with a flush verge to the roof. The wall is rendered as before. There is one window to the first floor, a rectangular timber small-paned casement, new. At ground floor there is a large segmental arched opening in brick containing double doors of diagonal tongued-and-grooved boards, which lead into an open-roofed yard area.

The rear elevation of the front block on the south side has a lower single-storey flat-roofed projection containing a rectangular window of small-paned casements with a projecting concrete cill. The flat roof forms a roof terrace approached from the first floor of the rear return. The slated roof above carries one chimney matching those previously described, and one hipped dormer to the right of the chimney similar to the front dormers.

The south elevation of the return is two storeys in part, but with a deep roof sweeping down low to single-storey height in section. A large conservatory with glazing flush with the slated roof has been added, enclosing part of the two-storey elevation of the return, so that former exterior windows and cills are now contained within the conservatory. To the right of the conservatory is a new chimney detailed as before, a modern flush rooflight, and modern flush glazing over a covered yard area. The walling is rendered as before. The windows are rectangular timber casements, but all new.

SETTING

The house stands in its own grounds set well back from the main road, with an attractive, well-kept garden and lawns to the north. A tarmac driveway sweeps round to the rear, with a concrete cobbled driveway branching off to the front and continuing to the south side. An extensive timber pergola lies immediately to the south of the house. Curved screen walls, rendered to match the house, project back from the end gable of the rear return to form a rear yard, enclosed on the east side by a two-storey range of outbuildings, much modernised and remodelled, with a partly walled garden beyond. To the west and south, downhill from the house, lies an extensive former mill complex.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The house is shown on J. Lendrick's map of County Antrim of 1782 as the residence of Rowley Heyland, who built the adjacent flour mills in 1765. By 1817 it had become the residence of James McCawley (as the name was then given), and by the 1830s that of his son Robert Macauley. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland and other sources from the 1830s describe the house as having been built shortly after the mills. From 1861 the lease of both house and mill was held by James Hunter, a flour miller with property also in Dunmurry and Antrim, until his bankruptcy in 1871. In 1886 the house and mill property was taken over by the Ulster Woollen Company, later Ulster Woollen Mills Ltd, which retained it until 1971. During the 1970s the property was owned by Silentnight Ltd of Colne in Lancashire, following which it was taken over by the owner who carried out the reconstruction described above.