29 Main Street, Castlerock, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4RA

29 Main Street, Castlerock (also known as Craglea House, Nos 27–31 Main Street)

This is a symmetrical, split-level red-brick house built around 1890, situated on the north side of Main Street in Castlerock, in the townland of Freehall Watson, overlooking Castlerock Beach and the Irish Sea. Originally a single substantial private dwelling, it has since been divided into three apartments (numbered 27, 29, and 31). Number 29 itself occupies the ground and first floors of the northwest gable and the interlinking bay between the gabled ends, accessed via the conservatory to the southwest. The building is of some architectural and historic interest but has not been listed, partly due to inappropriate replacement materials and internal alterations.

The building is rectangular on plan, rising to three storeys on its northeast elevation and two storeys over a basement on the southwest entrance elevation. At each end are projecting gabled bays with two-storey canted bay windows. To the southeast is a two-storey L-shaped gabled wing, to the southwest is a refurbished flat-roofed conservatory, and to the northwest is a modern uPVC conservatory. The roof is covered with natural slate — half-hipped to the central gable at the southwest — with blue-black angled ridge tiles and red-brick chimneystacks with some clay pots. Timber bargeboards on brackets with timber-sheeted soffits incorporate quatrefoil detailing. Plastic rainwater goods are carried on modillioned timber eaves with timber-sheeted soffits.

The walls are laid in Flemish-bond red brick with channel-rusticated strip render quoins to the gabled bays and a continuous sill course running between floors. The canted bays and conservatory are finished in painted smooth render. Windows are generally uPVC. At ground floor they are segmental-headed in plain reveals with lugged painted render surrounds; the same treatment applies to the two-storey canted bays at the northeast. At first floor, windows are pointed-headed — paired to the gables and set into segmental-headed reveals — with red brick voussoirs and decorative polychrome hood moulds. Some original segmental-headed 2-over-2 timber sash windows with horizontal glazing bars and horns survive at basement level. The southwest conservatory has replacement timber-framed windows with leaded and stained glass toplights.

The southwest entrance elevation is symmetrically arranged, with a central entrance bay flanked by slightly projecting gabled end bays, all set above a red-brick basement and abutted by the refurbished conservatory, which provides access to numbers 27 and 29. The two gables are connected by a narrow interlinking bay with replacement leaded and stained glass windows at each floor. Each gabled bay has paired windows at first floor over two windows at ground floor. The right gable has an early 20th-century double-leaf glazed timber door with a two-paned transom light at basement level. The left gable has a 2-over-2 sash window at the right and is abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed extension, lit by 2-over-2 timber sash windows and with a replacement glazed timber door providing access to number 31. The central entrance bay is two windows wide at first floor. The conservatory features channel-rusticated corner piers rising to parapet piers with a partially intact timber balustrade with turned balusters, lit by timber-framed windows with a continuous sill course and moulded apron panels below, and opening to the southwest through a set of replacement glazed timber doors. At basement level the conservatory has two replacement timber-sheeted doors to the northwest and one to the southeast, alongside a 2-over-2 sash window.

The northwest elevation has a square-headed window at first floor centre over two at ground floor. At basement level it is abutted by the modern uPVC conservatory, with a 2-over-2 timber sash window to the left.

The northeast elevation is three storeys and symmetrically arranged. The central bay has two square-headed windows at second floor and two sets of paired windows at both first and ground floor. The flanking gabled bays each have a window at second floor above two-storey canted bays.

The southeast elevation is abutted by the two-storey L-shaped gabled wing. The northeast gable of this wing has a pointed-headed window over a canted bay with a leaded roof, and a flat-roofed entrance porch to the right providing access to number 31. This porch has double-leaf bolection-moulded three-panel timber doors with a transom light and sidelights incorporating margin panes and coloured glass panels. The southwest gable of the two-storey wing is abutted by a single-storey red-brick extension connecting to a modern two-storey red-brick dwelling that is under separate ownership.

The building sits on a rectangular plot. The basement on the southwest side of the house is enclosed by Flemish-bonded red-brick walls with painted coping stones topped by original decorative wrought-iron railings, the yard laid with concrete and accessed from the northwest through a segmental-headed opening with a timber frame. The garden to the southwest is laid with modern paving and gravel, while the garden to the northeast is lawned; both are bounded by rubblestone walls. At the southwest entrance stand a pair of square painted render piers with pointed caps supporting original iron latch-gates. A modern two-storey red-brick building has been built directly to the southeast. A tarmacadamed driveway from Main Street leads to the entrance to number 31.

Historical background

Nos 27–31 Main Street was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1889, when it was occupied by Samuel Fletcher, described as a gentleman and former treasurer of Castlerock Golf Club. The property, valued at £22, was leased by Fletcher from the estate of Sir H. Bruce. The original construction comprised the main two-storey red-brick block; in 1894 the two-storey red-brick gabled wing to the east (now part of number 27) was added, raising the property's rateable value to £25.

The 1901 census records that Samuel Fletcher and his wife were not present on census night, though his sons Herbert (aged 20, Church of Ireland) and Edmond (aged 18) were. The census building return classified it as a first-class dwelling with 21 rooms — the largest building along Main Street in Freehall Watson at the time — and noted the eastern stable block as its sole outbuilding.

The house, also known as Craglea House, first appeared on the third edition Ordnance Survey maps in 1906, depicted in its current layout including the extension linking the main house to the 1894 stable block, suggesting that little has changed in the intervening century. Although the single-storey conservatory to the southwest does not appear on Ordnance Survey maps between 1906 and 1950, it is shown on an Annual Revision town plan dated 1911 to circa 1935, confirming it was in place by at least the early decades of the 20th century. Between 1901 and 1907 the rateable value of Craglea House rose considerably, from an unspecified level to £73, without explanation in the valuer's notes; it is presumed that a major renovation took place during this period.

Samuel Fletcher continued to live at Craglea until his death in 1909. His widow Eliza then took possession of the property. The 1911 census records Eliza (aged 59) living there with her son Edmond, employed as a journalist, and her daughter Elise. The building description was unchanged from 1901, though by 1911 the stable block was being used as a turf house and shed.

By the time of the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland in 1935, the formerly single private dwelling had been subdivided into three sections, all leased by Eliza Fletcher. The Fletcher family continued to occupy the largest portion (number 27), while the central apartment (number 29) was occupied by a Mr E. McNutt and valued at £30. No further revaluation was undertaken for over two decades owing to the Second World War. The Fletcher family most likely finally vacated Craglea around 1941 when Eliza Fletcher died; her son Edmond had predeceased her in 1938. By the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the house remained divided into three dwellings with a combined rateable value of £104. Although they no longer occupied the property, the Fletchers retained ownership until the 1960s, when each portion was purchased outright by its tenant. Number 29 was occupied by a Mr Walter G. Bradley in 1956; by 1967 it had been taken over by the Reverend Dr Wallace, who continued to reside there until the end of the revaluation period in 1972.

The construction of Craglea House is closely connected to the development of Castlerock as a Victorian seaside resort, itself made possible by the laying of the railway line through the village and the establishment of Castlerock railway station in 1873–75 by John Lanyon. The Londonderry and Coleraine Railway Company actively encouraged resort development by offering ten years of free first-class rail travel to anyone who built a seaside villa in the village. Craglea House, along with Seawell House and Atlantic Lodge, is recorded as likely having been built as a result of this initiative.