Woodbank House, 24 Mettican Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 5HS

Woodbank House is a detached, symmetrical, two-storey over basement, three-bay Georgian-style farmhouse built around 1822–23 by Robert Ogilby, with extensions carried out in the late 19th century and further additions in the mid to late 20th century. It stands on a prominent, elevated site to the north-west of Garvagh, set back to the western side of Mettican Road, and is approached via a long sweeping, hedge-lined drive. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1836 describe it as a "good and well-built house," noting that the site was "remarkably well chosen, being on a commanding bank clothed with a natural growth of oak and birch," and that the grounds had "been planted with much taste by Mr Ogilby." The house is L-shaped on plan, with a two-storey return extending to the rear to the west.

EXTERIOR

The roof is a hipped U-plan in slate with lead-covered ridges (re-laid), with a gable to the south-west bay. The roof of the main return is partially gabled to the south and merges into the pitched roof of the modern extension to the north. Two re-rendered chimney stacks — one to the south-west gable and one to the north-east ridge — carry six painted octagonal decorative pots, some of which are replacements. The eaves overhang a timber-sheeted fascia and are served by a combination of half-round and ogee rainwater goods, generally in replacement metal or uPVC.

The external walls are painted roughcast overall, with a contrasting projecting basement and a stone string-course above. The central bay of the rear wall has ruled-and-lined-rendered walling. Windows are generally square-headed plain openings with projecting stone sills. The majority of windows are largely original timber sliding sashes without horns: 6/6 panes to the ground floor and 6/3 to the attic, unless otherwise noted. Some replacement casements of various 20th-century dates appear to the return and rear elevation.

The principal elevation faces east and is three bays wide, with openings vertically aligned about the central doorcase. The central main door is an original six-panelled, woodgrained timber door flanked by decorative side-lights and surmounted by an enriched late Georgian fanlight over the porch roof. To the basement left-side is an original six-pane casement; to the right is a replacement multi-pane timber and glazed double-leaf door. A flat-roofed glazed porch dating from around 1965, which had obscured the original doorcase, was removed in 2014 to reveal the fanlight and side-lights.

The south elevation is symmetrical, with two windows to each level and a single 20th-century casement to the basement. The west elevation is asymmetrical: the right gabled bay contains a single twin-paned replacement casement window. The central bay is lower and contains two six-pane original or replacement casements to the lower levels and an original oval window to the first floor with an asymmetrical web-motif glazing pattern. The left bay contains a projecting rear return with two windows to the first floor over an advancing gable to the left, which has a large transomed and mullioned replacement casement window with a segmental pane to the head. The right side of this bay is abutted by a mono-pitched single-storey extension with a modern window and door extending south, with a similar abutment; these are of no further interest.

The asymmetrical right cheek of the main return faces south and contains irregular 6/6 sashes to the first floor, a six-light replica or replacement casement to the left with a replacement timber sheeted door below, and two mid-20th-century casements to the right. The left cheek is abutted by a gabled mid-20th-century two-storey-with-attic extension having attic dormers and timber casement windows, which is of no interest.

The north elevation has two openings at each level. The top right window is a mullioned and transomed multi-light hinged timber casement. Below it is a repaired timber panelled and plain glazed double-leaf door, with a mullioned eight-pane casement below that. To the left of the basement is a repaired timber sheeted and braced door with a plain glass insert.

INTERIOR

The building's interest is significantly enhanced by a very fine interior, though the listing record does not provide a detailed room-by-room description.

SETTING AND OUTBUILDINGS

The house stands in extensive grounds overlooking mature farmland and forms part of a farm complex. A concreted yard lies at basement level to the rear, bounded by a large two-storey rendered rubblestone wall that abuts the western return of the house and is accessed via concrete steps to the south-west. A rubblestone wall abuts the south elevation and extends south and west, formerly enclosing a large mature garden that contains a pair of beech arches, supposedly planted in the year of the Battle of Culloden, around 1746. A pointed brick arch pierces the north side of this wall, and there is an original timber gate to the eastern side. A channel runs at basement level with an array of concrete steps leading down or up to ground-floor doors.

The L-plan historic outbuildings to the immediate west and rear are of considerable interest, as are a number of original rubblestone walls. The principal outbuilding is a two-storey uncoursed rubblestone gabled structure with brick dressings to camber-arched openings. Its roof and floor structure has been replaced in recent decades and the interior has been largely refurbished for modern farm purposes. It has replacement timber sheeted doors and multi-light casement windows; a central opening has been enlarged and reinforced with concrete. Upper levels retain timber louvres, and a small bell projects from the northern gable; some timber sheeted walls, ceilings, and clay floor tiles survive. A mono-pitched single-storey roughcast structure abuts the outbuilding to the south-east, constructed on top of the perimeter rubblestone wall, but is of little interest.

The house and its L-shaped outbuilding to the rear were already shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, with tree planting in the grounds.

HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS

Woodbank was built around 1822–23 by Robert Ogilby. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Ogilby subsequently let the house to William Orr — who later lived at nearby St Margaret's — in the 1830s, and built a separate house for his own use in the grounds, known as Woodbank Cottage.

The property passed to the McCausland family, who appear to have been relatives of the Ogilbys. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, Mary Anne McCausland is listed as resident. The house and offices, leased from Lady Garvagh, were valued at £26 and situated in over 51 acres of land. The house subsequently passed to Oliver P. McCausland in 1878, and then to Lieutenant Colonel Redmond Conyngham Samuel McCausland in 1902. The 1911 census records the Lieutenant Colonel living at Woodbank with his wife, two adult children, a cook, and a parlour maid, in a house designated first class with twenty-one rooms.

Lieutenant Colonel McCausland had a distinguished military career. Educated at Haileybury College and Sandhurst, he served in the Afghan War of 1879–80, receiving the Ali Musjid medal and a mention in dispatches. Owing to ill health following the Afghan campaign, he stepped back from active service and became Cantonment Magistrate to stations in the Punjab before retiring. He was of Scottish ancestry, and it was said that a piper of the clan McCausland came annually from Scotland to Woodbank to pipe around the grounds and present the Colonel with an eagle's feather, acknowledging his claim to headship of the clan. He lived at Woodbank until his death in 1935.

His son Oliver joined the Royal Irish Rifles during the First World War and was killed in action on 9 May 1915, aged nineteen. His daughter Dorothea became a noted philanthropist and served as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment during the war. She saw service in Mesopotamia and was torpedoed aboard the RNSP Aragon in the Mediterranean, receiving the Croix de Guerre with Palm and a mention in dispatches. In 1932, she founded the first branch of the Women's Institute in Ireland, at Garvagh.

The dwelling house continues in domestic use.