'The Hill' 11 Curlyhill Road, Strabane, Co Tyrone BT82 8LP

'The Hill', 11 Curlyhill Road, Strabane

This is a substantial two-storey, hip-roofed detached house with various square and canted bays, largely built in 1894, possibly incorporating the fabric of an earlier single-storey dwelling. The property has an interesting developmental history, though it is of limited architectural interest. It sits within spacious grounds to the south of Curlyhill Road, accessed via a long curving drive to the west.

The building is broadly square in plan, with a large two-storey lean-to projection to the rear and various bays to the north, south and west. The front elevation faces roughly west and is symmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor is the main entrance, now enclosed within a modern multi-faceted PVC-u porch and conservatory with a hip roof and tall rendered base. A doorway on the south side of the porch is reached via a flight of splayed stone steps with a metal handrail. Positioned closely on either side of the porch is a single-storey, square, flat-roofed bay, each with a large six-light timber mullioned and transomed window to the front face and a much narrower two-light transomed window to the side. Both bays have cill courses and pronounced cornices, and their roofs appear to be covered in lead. At first-floor level across the front elevation there are three windows with horned timber sash frames, each with one pane over one.

On the north façade of the main section, there is a ground-floor window to the left, matching those on the first floor of the front elevation but with the lower half covered by a crudely made security grille. To the right of this a wall abuts the façade, and beyond it is a single-storey canted bay with a slated hipped roof and a similarly styled window to each face. At first-floor level there are two widely spaced windows matching those elsewhere.

On the south façade, a flat-roofed square bay — matching those to the front — sits to the right, with a window directly above it. Further right is a full-height canted bay, similar to that on the north façade but slightly larger, two-storey, and with cill courses. To the far right the façade merges with the south face of the rear lean-to projection. This has a squat window with a recent-looking timber casement frame set at a high level on the first floor, with a smaller window above, broadly similar to those on the first floor of the front elevation. On the east-facing rear wall of the lean-to, there are two slightly larger ground-floor windows to the right, also similar in character but with security grilles or boards over them, and two matching windows at first-floor level without grilles. At the far right of this elevation a large square gate pier abuts the building. On the north face of the lean-to there is a timber door at ground-floor level with a window above at first floor. On the exposed right-hand portion of the rear wall of the main section there is a window with a recent timber frame. The entire exterior is finished in plain painted render.

The hip roof has a slight overhang and is slated. There is a hip-roofed dormer set into the roof of the lean-to on the east side, fitted with a timber casement window. Two rendered chimneystacks rise from the roof. Rainwater goods are a combination of cast iron and aluminium.

To the north of the house is a relatively large yard with single-storey outbuildings, which have whitewashed rubble walls and slated gabled roofs. To the west and south is a large garden with some mature trees.

The site has a well-documented history. An earlier house of different plan is shown here on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34, labelled 'Curly Hill'. Valuation records of 1832–34 describe it as a single-storey slated property with an attached addition and smaller returns, rated at £7 14s 0d and noted by the valuers as being at least twenty-five years old at that time. The occupant in 1832 was one James McCullough. The orientation of the earlier house is uncertain: the 1833–34 map suggests it may have faced east, though a drive following the line of the present one appears on the revised map of 1857, which may indicate otherwise; if it did face west, the frontage must have been irregular. The same or a related James McCullough appears again in the 1860 valuation, with the representatives of a Mrs Skipton recorded as the lessor. The 1857 valuation, however, lists a Gustavus Syan as occupant, suggesting the property was not in McCullough hands throughout this period. The McCulloughs reappear by 1860, and by 1873 a Miss McCullough is recorded. In that same year the rateable value rises by nearly £5 — from £7 15s 0d to £12 5s 0d — implying a significant extension or rebuild, though the valuers make no explicit comment. By 1885 the value had fallen back slightly to £10 5s 0d.

The most significant change recorded is in 1894, when the valuers describe the house as 'down', with the outbuildings transferred to a new building held by an Andrew J. Brown. This appears to suggest the original house was demolished and replaced, yet a valuer's notebook entry of 1910 specifically refers to the main portion of the then-current dwelling as 'old', with one valuer adding the note 'house old and badly built', implying that part of the original structure was in fact retained within the new building. The notably thick ground-floor walls of the present building, consistent with rubble masonry construction, lend some support to this interpretation.

The house — by then named 'Sans Souci' — appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1905 in a form broadly similar to the present, but without the square bays to the front or the canted bay to the south. The 1910 valuers' notebook records that the two-storey side bay was added in that year, and refers to the front bays as having been 'improved' rather than entirely new additions. The same entry notes that the house at that time contained three reception rooms, four bedrooms, a servant's room, a bathroom, a water closet, and out offices.

Andrew J. Brown sublet the property to one H. W. Pollock from 1894 to 1896, then to a J. Chambers. By 1901 the lease had reverted to the representatives of Mrs Skipton, with a Thomas Dillon as tenant. In 1909 a Jonathan Stewart Harpur became the occupant, acquiring the freehold in 1917. The house was sold in 1935 to a W. Stevenson, with whose descendants it has remained. At some point between 1935 and 1968 the name of the property was changed from 'Sans Souci' to 'The Hill'.