Strawbridge House, 39 Bushfoot Road, Portballintrae, County Antrim, BT57 8RR

Strawbridge House is a compact, formal, two-storey double-fronted house with gabled ends, believed to have been built in 1862. It stands within a small, somewhat isolated cluster of dwellings of various ages known as Bushfoot, at the end of Bushfoot Road just to the east of Portballintrae. Attached to the east gable is a slightly lower two-storey annex, which may represent part of an earlier structure that was retained and adapted when the main house was built. To the rear there is a range of single-storey outbuildings. The house has retained much of its original external appearance, internal layout, and considerable decorative detailing — a degree of preservation that is increasingly rare in buildings of this age.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The house is roughly rectangular on plan, with a short two-storey return projecting from the centre of the rear elevation. For ease of description, the front elevation — which actually faces north-west — is referred to throughout as the north elevation, with all other elevations named accordingly.

The exterior walls are finished in painted roughcast. Both the main block and the lower annex have gabled, slated roofs; the lower section has clay ridge tiles, and the main block appears to have clay ridge tiles also. Each gable of the main block carries a rendered chimneystack; the stack of the lower annex abuts the east stack of the main block. All stacks have moulded bases, corbelled caps, and decorative clay pots.

The north front of the main block is symmetrical, with a central doorway flanked by flat-headed window openings on the ground floor and three matching openings above at first floor level. The door surround is formed in brick (revealed by a small break in the render) and consists of plain pilasters supporting a projecting cornice surmounted by a blocking course. All doors and window openings are currently boarded over, but the window frames are visible internally; they are predominantly one-over-one timber sash windows, with some frames to the rear having margin panes.

The west gable has four evenly spaced flat-headed window openings. To the right side of this gable there is an almost full-height screen wall, stepped and tapering in a series of curved sweeps. Within the screen wall is a flat-headed window opening that lights an open porch. The boundary wall to the yard meets the gable at its centre.

The rear elevation has a central two-storey projection. To its left, a lean-to slated roof spans between the screen wall and the projection, sheltering the small open porch beneath. The projection itself has two flat-headed window openings: the ground-floor opening is boarded over, while the first-floor opening retains a one-over-one timber sash with margin panes. To the east side of the projection there is a small lean-to boiler house. To the right of the projection are two further flat-headed window openings: the ground-floor one is boarded over, and the first-floor one has a one-over-one timber sash with margin panes.

THE EAST ANNEX

The lower annex to the east matches the main house in depth and roof pitch, though its ridge sits a little lower. Its north-facing front openings are flat-headed and boarded over; the frames visible from the interior are tripartite, with a two-over-two sash, an eight-over-eight sash, and a two-over-two sash arrangement. The east gable has a number of window openings in no regular pattern, some retaining sash frames and some fitted with modern fixed lights. To the right side of the annex's rear elevation is a single-storey hipped-roof porch. To the left of this porch there is a flat-headed window opening, and roughly in the centre of the first floor there is a further opening with a tripartite arrangement matching that of the front: two-over-two, eight-over-eight, and two-over-two sashes. The sash window frames throughout the annex have relatively plain, thick glazing bars, which suggests they may be of more recent date. Local information indicates that the annex may be a modern extension constructed using salvaged materials, including the windows.

SETTING

To the side and rear of the house lies a large yard enclosed by a wall with a pair of round pillars and wrought-iron double gates, which are in poor condition. To the rear of the house is a small garden leading into a large gravelled yard, beyond which stands a further row of single-storey outbuildings. These are built partly in rubble and partly in brick, with slated gabled roofs and regularly arranged flat-headed window openings and doorways. Beyond the outbuildings, a grassed lane gives onto a rear lane. To the north of the site is the golf club car park; to the west are fields; across the lane to the south are various sheds; and the other buildings in the small Bushfoot group bound the site to the east.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

A building is shown on this site on Ordnance Survey maps of 1832 and 1857, but its plan does not appear to match that of the present structure. The first valuation of 1833 records the site as occupied by a relatively old single-storey thatched dwelling in the hands of a William Thompson. The revised map of 1857 shows a plan similar to that of 1832, and the 1859 valuation lists no dimensions, making it uncertain whether significant changes had occurred in the intervening years.

In 1862 a new house is recorded as having been built within the Bushfoot grouping; rated at £10, this suggests a fairly substantial building of perhaps two storeys. The valuation referencing system for this particular area is not clearly documented on the accompanying map, making it difficult to identify with complete certainty which building in the cluster is being described, but the external appearance of the current structure and its internal detailing are consistent with a house of the early 1860s. The new house appears to have been built on the site of two separate dwellings previously recorded in 1859 as occupied by a Barbara Haughey and Thomas Haughey respectively; by 1861 these had become a single property in the hands of Thomas Haughey, who is noted as the original occupant of the house built the following year.

Whether the lower annex to the north-east was part of the property from the outset, or a separate dwelling, is not conclusively established. Its internal detailing and external finish suggest it was integrated with the main house from an early stage, but its lower roofline may indicate that it incorporates an older structure that was retained and adapted. The documentary record does not resolve this question. The current owner states that the annex was at some point a separate property, while local information suggests it was a later extension built using salvaged materials.

Members of the Haughey family appear to have continued living in the house until 1947. After that date it may have been occupied by a Mary Carson, who — if the identification is correct — remained there until approximately 1987. A Robert G. Patterson may then have been resident, followed by a C. Crooks in 1990. The property was vacated some time after 1993.