Crookedstone, 1 Ballyarnott Road, Aldergrove, Crumlin, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT29 4DT

Crookedstone is a 17th century two-storey thatched vernacular house of considerable national and international architectural significance, located at the end of a long private lane off the Ballyarnott Road near Aldergrove International Airport, facing south-west. It is thought to have originated as a single-storey dwelling in the 1620s and to have been raised to two storeys towards the end of that century, as recorded on a painted datestone of 1699 set in the wall above the entrance porch. The house retains three features of exceptional importance: its thatched roof, the traditional jamb wall layout to the ground floor, and the exposed original cruck roof trusses. These cruck trusses are a rare survival anywhere in Ireland; only two other examples of the same type are known in Northern Ireland. Their significance extends well beyond the local to the national and international level. The building has been extended and has lost some original features through a number of alterations, but its most important elements survive intact. It enjoys a largely unspoiled rural setting.

EXTERIOR

The main body of the house is two storeys, with harled walls and a thatched roof. At one end is an L-shaped gabled extension with a tiled roof, connected by a single-storey flat-roofed link block. A small tiled porch projects from the entrance front.

The entrance front faces south-west and is five openings wide, with two windows on each floor to either side of an off-centre porch. The walls are finished in wet dash render painted white, with a battered profile at the base and a black-painted plinth, and a projecting plain eaves course. The thatched roof rises between gable upstands with painted concrete copings; both ridge and eaves are protected by chicken wire, with three rows of scallops at the ridge and one row at the eaves. There are three chimneys, one on each gable and one in an intermediate position, all rendered to match the walls.

Ground floor windows on the entrance front are rectangular timber sliding sash windows, vertically hung, 6-over-9 panes with horns, set in exposed sash boxes recessed in smooth rendered reveals with recessed cills. First floor windows are rectangular timber 18-pane side-hung casements set in exposed timber frames in similar reveals.

The porch is rectangular with flush rendered walls without batter, a lean-to roof of red tiles, a PVC gutter returning to the left-hand side with a PVC downpipe, and a rectangular timber 6-panel door. The painted datestone inscribed 1699 is set in the wall directly above the porch.

The right-hand gable is two storeys, rendered as the entrance front. At ground floor level there is a single semi-circular arched neo-Georgian style timber fixed light of 16 panes with a radial fan, set in smooth rendered reveals. At first floor level there are two rectangular timber 12-pane side-hung casements set in exposed frames in similar reveals.

The rear elevation is two storeys, with walls, roof, and gable copings matching the entrance front, but without a projecting eaves course. A projecting single-storey flat-roofed porch stands to the right-hand side of the rear. At first floor level there is one window, sashed as the ground floor windows of the entrance front. At ground floor level there are three windows, from left to right: a tall narrow 10-pane casement; coupled two-light 8-pane casements; and a 12-pane casement, all with exposed frames set in smooth rendered reveals. The rear porch has flush rendered walls and a corrugated perspex roof with a smooth rendered parapet above; an open shelter with steel posts and timber beams and fascia embraces it.

The left-hand gable is rendered to its upper portion above the single-storey link block connecting to the new house. The new house is two storeys and gabled with a red tiled roof; its walls are finished in roughcast render, and its windows are mainly rectangular timber sliding sashes of similar pane size to those in the old house.

SETTING

The house stands in a rural area in its own grounds, hidden from public view at the end of a very long private lane. The lane ends in a tarmac forecourt in front of the house, enclosed by a low wall of large boulders linked to a single-storey rendered and slated garage or outbuilding facing the house. A detached rubble stone outbuilding with an asbestos slated roof stands to the south side of the forecourt, with a single circular conically capped whitened rubble stone gate pier adjacent. Beyond the forecourt, to the front of the house, is an expansive lawn. To the rear there is a tarmac area with gardens beyond. Barns and other outbuildings stand well to the south. Along the base of the entrance front and the right-hand gable are flower beds. A pair of tapering Tardree granite bollards stand immediately outside the front porch but are not fixed in position.

HISTORY

The house is believed to have been built for the Cunningham family, who moved to Antrim from Ayrshire at some point during the 17th century. The datestone of 1699 is thought to record the raising of an earlier single-storey structure, begun around the 1620s, to its present two storeys.

The Cunninghams occupied Crookedstone throughout the 18th century. Thomas Cunningham, who died around 1727, was followed by his son Samuel, who in 1739 took a lease with a clause for perpetual renewal of the lands in the townland already occupied by him. Samuel was in turn followed by his own son of the same name. It was possibly this Samuel, or his son — also named Samuel — who obtained a renewal of the lease from William Hartson Williamson of Kells in May 1811. This later Samuel Cunningham appears to have died in the later 1820s. Although Barber Cunningham of Belfast secured a further renewal of the lease — from Hartson Williamson's successor, James Owens of Holestone — in November 1830, the family appear to have vacated the house either before or shortly after this point and allowed the lease to revert to the Owens family.

The property is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and recorded in the 1835 valuation as a very old thatched dwelling in good condition, graded quality letter 2C+, measuring 47 feet by 23 by 13½ feet. Old thatched outbuildings to the north-west were recorded at dimensions of 33 by 17½ by 6½ feet, 53 by 20½ by 10 feet, and 39 by 20 by 7 feet, together with a slated office measuring 22 by 20½ by 13 feet. The occupant at that time was recorded as William Strain. By around 1860 the property was in the hands of an Andrew Davidson, with John Owens named as lessor. Two further slated outbuildings had been added by that point, one measuring 29 by 16 by 8 feet and a relatively newly built one measuring 68 by 16 by 10 feet. The rateable value at this stage stood at £10. In 1880 the house became vacant and remained so until around 1935, when it was repossessed by the Cunningham family and restored from a derelict state.

The restoration of around 1935 reportedly involved the partitioning of the north end of the ground floor and the insertion of the Georgian style sash and casement window frames. A photograph taken prior to this restoration shows that the chimneys were of brickwork, the porch had a slated lean-to roof and a sheeted timber door, and the first floor windows were sashed 6-over-3 without horns. A photograph taken prior to the 1966 extension shows that by that time the porch roof had been tiled, the front door had been replaced by a panelled one, and the first floor sashed windows had been replaced by casements. In 1966 a large extension was added, doubling the size of the property.

The present hearth and chimney in the central rear room — which was the original kitchen — replaced an original clay-plastered wattled chimney canopy.

During the 18th century the Cunningham family built up wide-ranging commercial interests, not only in south-west Antrim but also in the West Indies. One member of the family, identified as one of the Samuels, established himself as a merchant in Martinique in 1792. Letters dating from 1792 to 1797, written by various members of the family living at Crookedstone and now held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland as part of the Cunningham Manuscripts (PRONI D.1108), concern the family's business ventures in the West Indies.