House adjacent to Aghanloo Church, Aghanloo Road, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 OHX

House adjacent to Aghanloo Church

This early 19th-century house, built between 1820 and 1839, stands on Aghanloo Road near Limavady in County Londonderry. It occupies a prominent position next to Aghanloo Church in a setting that once complemented the ecclesiastical building, though it has since been substantially altered.

The house is a two-storey, three-bay structure with a basement that steps down the sloping site, creating an exposed three-storey elevation to the rear. The building is approached via a drive lined with mature trees, and a blocked entrance to the churchyard stands nearby. A modern farmyard with a date stone of 1938 wraps around a courtyard at basement level to the north and west.

The exterior has been completely renovated in recent decades with white dry dash rendering, PVC windows, and modern rainwater goods. A flat-roofed glazed front porch bridges over lightwells to the basement. The front (east) elevation displays three square windows at first-floor level, equally spaced, with two double square windows at ground-floor level flanking the porch. The rear (west) elevation has nine windows of varying sizes. One double square window on the south gable sits 600mm above the front ground-floor windows. A kitchen return extends across two-thirds of the rear elevation at basement level, with a toilet extension above at ground-floor level in the central bay. The north gable has no windows. Slate roofs with overhangs and a chimney at each gable complete the exterior. The house was extended to the rear by approximately one metre as the roof pitch was altered.

In 1970, the building was described as a storey-and-a-half brick house over a basement with distinctive period features: a recessed entrance in a square opening flanked by four-pane side lights and surmounted by a rectangular fanlight. Large double-hung sashes divided into two panes vertically flanked the entrance, and each opening on the front elevation was surmounted by a semi-circular window glazed with curvilinear astragals (these semi-circular features were later identified as blank painted recesses). The building was approached over the basement by a curved brick-walled flight of steps. The roof was subsequently raised and the building renovated by the present occupants approximately ten years before the 1997 survey date.

Historical records suggest the building may have been constructed as a warden's house at the same time as Aghanloo Church and later operated as a farm. The 1830 Ordnance Survey map shows the property with its tree-lined entrance avenue splitting in two, one branch leading to the church as its main approach. By the 1848 survey, the entrance arrangement had changed to the present separate configuration. The present warden's house across Aghanloo Road first appears on the 1848 map. The Church family of Drumbane, mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs, held the church land property of Drumbane, Shanvey, Rathfad and Ballybrissel, though no specific church duties are documented. The building shares similarities with another structure at Freehall Road (reference HB02/11/009).

The Thompson family acquired the house in the 1890s, though earlier ownership history is unclear. A colour photograph taken by a former occupant was recorded in archival slides.

While the building retains historical interest through its relationship to Aghanloo Church and its documented evolution from the early 19th century onwards, unsympathetic modern renovation has significantly compromised its architectural character. It remains of value primarily for its historical associations and surviving interior detailing.