34 Glasgort Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 5AF

Former dwelling, Glasgort Road, Coleraine, built around 1820

This is a detached, rendered red brick two-storey former dwelling with a further single-storey red brick structure to the southeast. Both buildings are rectangular on plan and currently boarded up. They sit at the end of a long lane to the west of Glasgort Road, forming part of a wider group of historic buildings on the site. The buildings are vernacular in character and are notable for their use of red brick — a material that was once produced extensively in this area until the 1880s. The record is not listed, being considered not of sufficient interest to warrant listing.

Two-storey house

The two-storey house has a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a pair of rendered brick chimneystacks at both gable ends. The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined cement render over the underlying red brick. Window openings are square-headed with painted concrete sills, and all windows are boarded up. The front elevation is three windows wide, with an off-centre square-headed front door opening featuring a stop-chamfered timber frame and a flat-panelled timber door.

The south gable has partially exposed red brick walling, revealing a Flemish bond of hand-made bricks. At ground floor level there is a single square-headed window opening retaining an original 2/2 timber sash window with an exposed sash box; above it, a further square-headed opening at attic level contains a steel casement window. The rear elevation is three windows wide with fully exposed red brick walls laid in English garden wall bond. All window openings here have timber lintels, with 2/2 timber sash windows retaining exposed sash boxes. A central square-headed door opening to the rear has a timber frame and a sheeted timber door. The north gable is blank and is abutted by a derelict, roofless brick structure.

Single-storey house

The single-storey structure to the southeast has a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a pair of red brick chimneystacks at both gable ends. The walls are of hand-made red brick laid in English garden wall bond throughout. The front west elevation is three windows wide with an off-centre square-headed door opening. Window and door openings are formed with gauged brick flat arches and have no sills; windows are boarded up and the door is sheeted timber. The rear elevation is two windows wide with diminutive square-headed window openings having timber lintels, no sills, and boarded-up windows.

Setting

The buildings form part of a collection of 19th-century structures on the site, which also includes a red brick firing range wall, a thatched red brick former dwelling, and a pair of mid- to late-20th-century dwellings.

Historical background

The two-storey house predates the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, and originally stood adjacent to another house to the north, which has since been demolished. The building incorporates brick of at least two different types and sizes, reflecting the local tradition of brick production that dated back to at least the early 17th century. In 1615, George Canning, the agent of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, recorded the manufacture of bricks at a kiln across the River Bann from Agivey, where they were to be used to complete the upper floors of a stone-built castle for the Ironmongers. Brick production flourished in the area, and the first edition Ordnance Survey maps of the 1830s show brickfields all along the River Bann south of Coleraine, including in the townland of Glasgort. A pottery is also marked in the same townland. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs comment on the brick made in the parish of Agivey, which was used to construct local vernacular housing; bricks were brought up the River Bann to Coleraine and sold for 10 shillings per thousand. The Parliamentary Gazetteer of 1846 reports that coarse earthenware, bricks and tiles were made in considerable quantity from the clay which was abundant in Agivey. A Potters Kiln and Potters Field are shown on the second edition map of the 1850s in a settlement called Brick Hill at Mullaghmore in Agivey parish. Clay of two colours — reddish and bluish-grey — was used to make bricks, tiles and flower pots in the townland of Glasgort during the 1880s. Brick production appears to have gradually declined during the second half of the 19th century, though brick kilns and clay pits are still shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey maps of around 1900 in the wider area around Agivey. Brick has been the predominant building material for both vernacular and more formal housing in this area, where rubblestone might otherwise have been expected, and this is a distinctive local characteristic.

The house does not appear in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40, presumably being of too low a value to record. By Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, it is listed as the dwelling of Hugh Henry, who leased it from the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers; the house and outbuildings were valued at 10 shillings. The property passed through the Henry family to Robert Henry in 1891 and David Henry in 1895. The 1901 census records David Henry as a farmer living there with his baby son, his uncle, brother, and sister, who worked as a seamstress. The six-room slated house was designated second class. By 1911 the occupants were John McCann, a farm labourer, his wife, who worked as a general servant, and their two young children. Valuer's notes from the 1930s give the occupier as John Mitchell and record the accommodation as two bedrooms, a reception room, kitchen and pantry; a plan from this period shows a single-storey return to the rear, which has since been demolished. The house was described as in fairly good repair and was valued at £4, with 10 shillings for agricultural outbuildings.

The single-storey brick structure to the southeast first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904 but does not feature in valuation records, having perhaps escaped the attention of valuers. The brick used in this later structure appears to be of a more uniform character than that of the main house.