Clotworthy House, Randalstown Road, Antrim, BT41 4LH

Clotworthy House is an early Victorian building in the Tudor Revival style, constructed between approximately the late 1830s and early 1840s as the carriage house and stables for the Viscount Massereene of Antrim Castle. It appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857. The building was later converted to residential use following the destruction of Antrim Castle by fire in 1922, then converted to an arts centre between 1975 and 1981, and refurbished again in 1992. Despite the loss of its original interiors, it retains most of its original exterior features and remains an integral part of the diminished Antrim Castle demesne. It is considered a particularly handsome and impressive example of its type in Northern Ireland.

The building is arranged as a quadrangular group of four wings, rising to one and two storeys. The main entrance faces approximately south.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The south elevation is a symmetrical composition centred on a Tudor-arched gabled gateway, flanked by two-storey square towers. These are linked by screen walls to two-storey gabled end wings. Roofing throughout is Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses. The walling is coursed basalt rubble with granite dressings, granite quoins at the extremities of the end bays and towers, projecting granite stringcourses, and granite copings.

The end bays are particularly richly detailed. They have large ashlar granite corbelled kneelers of square section with chamfered edges, sunken panels, and weatherings. The gables are stepped and curvilinear, surmounted by large shaped openwork granite finials. Each end bay has two windows to the ground floor and one to the first floor: all are rectangular timber mullioned and transomed windows containing four lights of nine panes each, set in block surrounds with a keystone; the ground floor windows have relieving arches of rubble. At the apex of each end wing gable is a small narrow unglazed lancet with two large carved head label stops, depicting in each case a blind man and an 'ugly' woman.

The screen walls are ramped at each end. The central gateway has a moulded recessed four-centred arch with keystone, surmounted by a stringcourse and shaped gable containing a modelled coat of arms of the Massereene family with coronet, and the family motto — misspelled at the time of erection as 'Per Augusta Ad Augusta' rather than the correct 'Per Angusta Ad Augusta', meaning 'Through hard times to prosperity'. The flanking square towers have rectangular ground floor windows containing timber louvres set in block surrounds, and semi-circular arched first floor windows with similar louvres in raised surrounds. The outer faces of the tower first floors have similar round-headed windows. The tower roofs are ashlar granite, of square ogee cupola design, surmounted by wrought iron finials. The entrance archway contains a set of four rectangular ledged timber doors boarded in a herringbone pattern, with a two-light timber trellis fanlight over.

WEST ELEVATION

The west elevation is a long, plain two-storey wall of similar stonework to the entrance front. It contains one doorway: a pair of rectangular ledged timber doors opening outwards, with a blind fanlight above, and a concrete ramp to the doorstep. The roof is slated as elsewhere. There is a moulded cast iron gutter and two downpipes.

NORTH ELEVATION

The north or rear elevation consists of a long single-storey range with two-storey gabled end wings, with walling and roofing as elsewhere. The right-hand wing has two windows to the ground floor matching those on the entrance front; the first floor has a similar block-surround opening with a relieving arch, containing a rectangular timber tongued-and-grooved sheeted panel. The apex of this gable contains what appears to be a modern circular louvred ventilator opening. The left-hand wing is similar, except that one ground floor window has been enlarged at a later date to form a doorway containing a pair of rectangular ledged timber doors with a two-light small-paned fanlight over, and a paved doorstep; the first floor window opening is blocked with basalt rubble.

Between the end wings is a single-storey wall of coursed basalt rubble with a moulded granite cornice, a black-painted timber fascia or eaves board, and a moulded cast iron gutter with a cast iron downpipe at each end. This wall contains a doorway with a pair of rectangular ledged timber doors set in a granite block surround, approached by a long concrete ramp across the face of the building with modern tubular steel railings. To the right of the doorway is a small rectangular timber nine-pane horizontally pivoting window, set in concrete block surrounds without a keystone.

EAST ELEVATION

The east elevation is two storeys, with similar walling and roofing to the other elevations. Two chimney stacks sit on the ridge, appearing to be of ashlar granite, with four chimney bases to each stack marked by stop chamfering; the pots have been removed. The first floor has four rectangular timber two-light windows, each light twelve panes, set in block granite surrounds without keystones. The ground floor has one rectangular timber two-light casement window, fifteen over fifteen panes, set in granite and smooth cement-rendered block surrounds with a granite keystone and concrete cill. There are moulded cast iron gutters and cast iron downpipes.

COURTYARD ELEVATIONS

The courtyard south side is single storey. Walling is of roughly coursed basalt rubble with granite dressings to the gabled gateway and what appears to be cast stone dressings to the flanking canted bays. The gateway contains a tall chamfered Tudor arch flanked by weathered diagonal buttresses, with shaped kneelers to the gable, a moulded coping stepping up and ramping over a blind oculus at the apex. The arch contains a set of four doors and trellis fanlight similar to those on the main entrance front. Short link blocks and canted bays contain a Tudor-arched doorway and two windows in block surrounds: small-paned timber windows, a door, and a sidelight.

The courtyard north side is a single-storey lean-to block. The roof is slated as elsewhere, with one modern flush rooflight. Walling is of coursed basalt rubble with granite dressings to openings, a white-painted timber eaves board, and a moulded cast iron gutter and downpipe. The openings from left to right are: a rectangular two-light six-over-six casement window set in block granite surrounds without a keystone; a wide full-height recess, brick paved, with painted roughcast side and rear walls, a smooth plastered ceiling, and a modern flush timber door to the left; a rectangular doorway containing a rectangular ledged timber door with a four-pane fanlight over, set in a chamfered block granite surround; a similar doorway containing a two-light small-paned window with a plain panel below; and a modern full-height glazed timber doorway and glazed timber screen recessed slightly behind a circular cast iron post, with a four-light small-paned window set in rubble walling to the right.

The courtyard west side is two storeys, with similar roofing and walling. The first floor has six rectangular timber coupled twelve-pane casement windows set in block granite surrounds without keystones, and a larger opening containing a tongued-and-grooved sheeted panel and a modern dovecote. The ground floor has two four-light windows matching those on the entrance front, and two doorways with paired sheeted doors. There are cast iron rainwater goods throughout.

The courtyard east side is two storeys, with similar roofing and walling, and cast iron rainwater goods. The first floor has six windows matching those on the west side. The ground floor has a Tudor-arched arcade of four openings dressed in granite. The two central arches contain modern timber-framed fixed-light glazing with modern two-tier concrete cills. The two outer arches contain modern glazed timber doors set in timber-framed glazed screens, with paved ramp access.

HISTORICAL NOTES

The building was constructed as the carriage house and stables for the Viscount Massereene of Antrim Castle. No precise date is recorded, but it appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and is stylistically datable to the period from the late 1830s to the early 1840s. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1838 had described the offices a little to the north of the castle as "suitable as to size but in other respects unworthy of notice and in bad repair," suggesting this new complex was built shortly afterwards. Originally, the east wing functioned as the coach house, with four large entrance arches, while the west wing comprised loose boxes on the ground floor with a hayloft and tack room above. There was also originally a clock in the north gable of the gateway, a louvred ventilator turret on the ridge of the roof above the clock, and prominent chimney pots on the two-storey wings. The chimney pots on the east wing are presumed to be original to the building; those on the west wing, along with their stacks, are presumed to have been later additions made when the stables were converted to living accommodation in the 1920s.

After the fire that destroyed Antrim Castle in 1922, the Massereene family converted the complex — by then known as Clotworthy House — to residential use, living there until the death of the 12th Viscount Massereene in the house in 1956. It was subsequently occupied for thirteen years by Canon Collis and his family, before being converted into an arts complex over the period 1975 to 1981 and refurbished again in 1992.

SETTING

The building stands within the former demesne of Antrim Castle, to the west of the formally laid out gardens, facing the Six Mile Water river and set back from it with grassed areas to the front and east, and mature trees to the sides and between the building and the river. There is a car park to the west and a tarmac yard to the north, which contains a number of single- and two-storey outbuildings of no special quality. A single-storey outbuilding is connected to the north-west corner of the building externally. A storey-height screen wall of basalt rubble containing two open doorways projects from the east elevation into the yard. A paved path runs across the front face of the building, with an axial path from the main entrance to the riverside walkway. A modern ramp access projects from the rear north elevation. The internal courtyard is surfaced with concrete paving surrounded by gravel borders.