22 Agherton Road, Portstewart, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT55 7PH

22 Agherton Road is a one-and-a-half-storey, three-bay detached Georgian house built in random rubble stone, predating 1830 and located on the north side of Agherton Road to the southeast of Portstewart town centre, in the townland of Ballyleese North. It has been sensitively refurbished using materials of appropriate quality and style, and despite modern additions to the rear, the principal road-facing elevation remains unaffected and the original proportions are retained. The listing extends to the house itself, the stone walling, gate-piers, and gates.

Architectural Description

The house sits on a rectangular plan with a modern two-storey return and a single-storey extension to the rear, both of little architectural interest, along with a small single-storey annexe to the east. The plan form is asymmetrical, which is characteristic of its vernacular Georgian type.

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles. Rendered chimneystacks with concrete coping rise from the gables. Aluminium rainwater goods are carried on projecting eaves with timber fascia boards.

The walling is random rubble built to rough courses with some snecking. The gables and rear elevation are finished in smooth painted render.

All windows are replacements: 6/6 timber sash with horns, set beneath flat red-brick arches with slightly projecting cement render reveals and projecting stone sills, except where noted otherwise.

The principal, south-facing elevation is typically Georgian in character. It is asymmetrically arranged, with an elliptical-headed doorcase positioned to the right of centre, flanked on either side by two windows, those to the left being more widely spaced. The entrance door is a raised-and-fielded seven-panel timber door with a brass knob, accessed via a stone step. It is surmounted by a radial fanlight with a red-brick head.

The west elevation has two diminutive 1/1 timber windows at attic level and is partially abutted on the left by the modern rear extension. The north (rear) elevation has a mid-20th-century timber casement bow window to the left. The two-storey modern return abuts to the right of centre, itself abutted to the west by the single-storey modern extension. The east elevation has a diminutive 1/1 timber window at attic level to the left, with the single-storey rubble stone annexe at ground floor level; the annexe has a 3/3 window on its south elevation.

Setting

The house sits on an extensive plot, set slightly back from and facing the road, with a large lawned garden to the rear bounded by mature trees, hedgerow, and a modern mortared stone wall to the west. The small front yard is finished in slab paving and enclosed by rubblestone walls. A full-height wrought-iron latch gate to the west gives access to a walled garden enclosed by high rubblestone walls.

To the northwest stands a painted rubblestone slated barn with raised stone verges, abutted by the modern extension and fitted with a modern up-and-over garage door on its east elevation. Also to the northwest is a single-storey rubblestone outbuilding with a corrugated tin roof and a timber-sheeted door to the centre of its west elevation.

At the southeast, two harled Ulster piers support the original wrought-iron entrance gates, with a gravelled driveway leading to a gravelled parking area to the rear. To the east, a refurbished single-storey vernacular dwelling — converted from the original single-storey outbuilding that stood here from before 1830 — faces east and adds to the quality of the overall setting.

Historical Notes

The cottage was built prior to 1830, when it was first recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map alongside the single-storey outbuilding to its east. It was not included in the contemporary Townland Valuations because it did not meet the minimum £5 value threshold for inclusion. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of around 1860, no discernible alteration had been made to the cottage or its eastern outbuilding, though two outbuildings to the northeast and northwest had been added since 1830 and have since been taken down.

The property was first formally valued in Griffith's Valuation of 1857, which recorded it as let by John Cromie of Cromore House to James Black, a local blacksmith. Black's cottage and outbuildings were valued at £5 15s. According to the Ordnance Survey memoirs of around 1830, James Black was a prominent local figure who contributed by subscription to organisations including the Erasmus school. Black continued to live at the cottage until his death on 24th October 1865, when the property passed to his son Samuel Black, a local farmer.

The 1901 Census records Samuel Black (aged 68, Methodist) living at the cottage with his wife Jane (aged 60) and their three adult daughters. The census building return described it as a second-class dwelling of eight rooms, with a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, boiling house, and barn in the surrounding outbuildings. Samuel Black died around 1910, at which point his widow Jane was recorded as occupant in the Annual Revisions. In the year of her husband's death, Jane Black purchased the cottage outright from the Cromore Estate, but she died the following year, leaving ownership to her children. The 1911 Census recorded the three daughters — Ellen (aged 40), Mary (aged 39), and Catherine (aged 27) — living at the site and maintaining the farm. By 1911 the census building return had upgraded the cottage to a first-class dwelling. Ellen Black continued to reside at No. 22 Agherton Road until at least the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

Prior to the 1966 edition of the Ordnance Survey map, very little had changed to the layout of the site. By that year, however, the northwestern outbuilding had been taken down and replaced with a smaller northwestern outbuilding, now connected to the cottage via the modern extension. In 1972, Girvan described the dwelling as "a one-storey cottage with attics, five bays wide, of rubble basalt with brick surrounds, Georgian-glazed" and noted that it had recently been renovated. The two-storey return and modern kitchen extension were added to the rear later in the 20th century. Despite these additions, and the conversion of the eastern outbuilding into a separate dwelling, the original Georgian character of the group as a whole has been maintained.