Walworth House, 11 Walworth Road, Ballykelly, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 9JU

Walworth House is a Grade B+ listed building comprising an early 18th-century house, bawn wall, and flankers, situated 500 metres north-west of Ballykelly village along the river bank. It represents one of the few remaining examples in County Londonderry of a London Companies 17th-century bawn with surviving flankers, erected by the Fishmonger's Company.

The original bawn, established between 1617 and 1631 when occupied by James Higgins and George Downing (later by Captain Lane in 1654), originally consisted of a three-storey house within walls 3.6 metres high enclosing approximately 1500 square metres, with four flankers at the corners. Nothing remains of the original house and little of the enclosing walls. The present house was substantially rebuilt in 1730, which resulted in the demolition of the west and south walls of the bawn and the south-west flanker. Three flankers remain standing: the north-west, north-east, and south-east.

The house is a good example of early provincial Georgian style. The main block is two storeys with five bays and a centrally placed entrance door, with a single-storey adjunct in line forming the principal facade facing south onto a sweep of lawn bounded by high trees. The ground floor has sliding sash windows with 12 panes and the first floor windows are similar but with 9 panes. A steeply pitched natural slated roof contains attic accommodation with windows in the gables on either side of the chimney stacks. The south front has a harled finish; elsewhere the rendering is smooth and has been renewed periodically. The roofs of the return wing have asbestos slates. Guttering is half-round metal on the south and PVC elsewhere. The main facade features painted sandstone quoins and the wall top is finished with a simple sandstone cornice with cyma recta moulding. The doorway fanlight divides into three lozenge shapes. A long two-storey return wing extends to the east and north-west, with a one-and-a-half-storey section on the west side, almost reaching the north-west flanker.

The three remaining flankers are still standing. The north-west flanker is circular, built of rough whinstone and sandstone pieces, 3600 millimetres high, with a faceted natural slated roof forming a ten-sided pyramid. It has an upper floor with curving external steps and fixed sash windows at first and ground floor levels. There are no gutters and the slates overhang the top of the wall which has a slight corbel. The north-east flanker is polygonal with five sides, built of rough whinstone walls with sandstone quoins; as the ground rises the external wall height varies. Two walls are stiffened with battered brick buttresses and topped with a five-sided pyramid roof. A window has been inserted in one wall and it appears to have only one floor. The south-east flanker is similarly built to the north-west with narrow access at ground level, no windows, and a faceted slated roof. Above the door is an opening for pigeons or doves to gain entry. The wall between the north-east and south-east flankers, built of brick, is unlikely to be original. Long sheds run from the east wall and from the south-east flanker, the latter parallel to what would have been the north wall of the bawn but set back several metres, making the north-east flanker appear isolated. The northern bawn wall is missing. The L-plan house completes the enclosure of the bawn on the south and west sides.

North-west of the north-west flanker stands a large walled garden covering 0.8 hectares, surrounded by a stone and red brick wall 3000 millimetres high. The walled garden was replanted seven years ago and is impressive.

A plan prepared by Robert Given in 1823 shows the general disposition of elements as they appear today, though it differs in many respects in detail, including the main block plan, particularly the staircase arrangement, room proportions, and the orientation of the south-east flanker shed. Historical occupancy includes James Stirling as agent in 1823, Arthur Sampson in 1858 according to Griffiths Valuation, the Ingram family until circa 1930 (Maud Alice Ingram died there on 11 January 1931), and the Brown family since then. The site occupies a flat, secluded aspect surrounded by trees and shrubs, and has remained largely undisturbed over the past two and a half centuries despite proximity to a World War II airfield. Private housing development has approached the site but the immediate adjoining land has resisted encroachment on the house and extensive gardens.