Chapelfield House, 59 Laurel Hill Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 3AY

Chapelfield House is a replacement building constructed on the site of a former Georgian house that stood on Laurel Hill Road in Coleraine. The original pre-1830s rendered house was demolished around 1999, and a new structure was subsequently built to replicate the primary elevations and external detailing of its predecessor.

The original house, as recorded in a 1972 survey, was described as a two-storey, three-bay dwelling with a slated roof and rendered chimneys on either gable end. The façade was rendered with quoins dressing the extremities, while the remainder of the building was pebble-dashed. Unrecessed Georgian glazed windows were set in square moulded surrounds, with bracketed cills on the upper storey. The entrance was flanked by panelled pilasters rising to a consoled head.

The replacement building replicates the main elevations of the original house, featuring a pitched slate roof with black angled ridge-tiles, pebble-dashed chimneys to gable-ends, and replacement metal ogee rainwater goods. The walling is smooth rendered and painted to the east with painted and raised rusticated quoins to the edges; other elevations are pebble-dashed, all having a projecting painted plinth. Replacement 6/6 timber sash windows serve the main building, with multi-pane modern timber casements to rear extensions. The main elevation faces east and comprises a replacement timber and glazed entrance door slightly offset to the left of centre with an entablature over, supported on panelled pilasters rising to consoled heads. The five windows have painted, projecting moulded architraves with bracketed cills to first floor level, with the right bay being slightly wider than the left. The south and north elevations each have two windows on both floors in plain reveals with projecting concrete cills. The west elevation is blank and almost entirely abutted by a series of gabled modern extensions, including a two-storey bow window to the south. Substantial modern extensions have been added to the rear.

The house is located to the west of Laurel Hill Road, facing east and sited within a mature, elevated setting. A stepped and rendered wall bounds the main road, with access via a bifurcated bitumac drive extending to the rear. The main entrance has squared, rendered and pebble-dashed piers supporting replacement metal gates bearing the 'CHAPELFIELD' insert. A roughcast wall and garage complex encircle the rear yard, with two timber sheeted and braced doors providing access. The property includes a grass lawn around the house with mature planted perimeters.

The original house was built around 1830 as the Glebe House for St John's Parish Church of Killowen. The building first appears, captioned 'Chapelfield', on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830, showing an L-shaped plan with a return to the rear extending to the west. By the second edition map of 1849, the building had been modified to comprise a rectangular plan with a central rear return. The building ceased its function as a glebe house at some point during the mid-19th century. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856, the house was valued at £16 10s and was under the ownership of James Torbitt, with Isabella Lang as occupant. By the 1870s, ownership had passed to the Hughes Brothers, with Hercules Hughes taking up occupancy in 1887. According to the 1901 Census Records, Hercules Hughes was a master butcher and resided in the eight rooms of the house with his four daughters, a servant and a housekeeper. The 1911 Census recorded thirteen rooms within the house, possibly resulting from an addition that infilled the re-entrant angle to the north-west, as illustrated on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904, which also shows the construction of an additional outbuilding. The building remained the residence of the Hughes family until at least 1935, and the footprint did not alter until the end of the twentieth century.

The original house was illegally demolished in 1999. The case was taken to court and the defendant pleaded guilty and was fined. The replacement house was constructed to conform to the external style and proportions of the previous building, though much of the detailing has been replaced with modern replicas, such as concrete sills.