Oatland Cottage, 6 Lower Ballinderry Road, Upper Ballinderry, County Antrim, BT28 2EP

Oatland Cottage, Upper Ballinderry

Oatland Cottage is a two-storey, three-bay house situated on the north side of Lower Ballinderry Road, centrally placed in Upper Ballinderry, in the townland of Ballyscolly. It originated as a Georgian single-storey villa erected around 1800, was possibly remodelled in the mid-19th century, and then had a first floor added around 1905 to designs by the Belfast-based architect William Fennell. The exterior has remained unaltered since that Edwardian addition, retaining the characteristics and style of both distinct periods. The interiors are finished to a very high quality and are also largely unaltered. The juxtaposing styles produce an interesting visual contrast between the two periods of construction and represent an unusual approach to alteration in response to changing needs and fashions.

Form and Plan

The building is rectangular in plan, with two long one-and-a-half-storey returns to the rear, flanking a central gabled abutment.

Roofing and Rainwater Goods

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with crested terracotta ridge tiles. Decorative rafter ends are exposed, and the timber bargeboards have simple mouldings. Rainwater goods comprise ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering with box-section downpipes and semi-octagonal hopper heads.

External Walls and Materials

The ground floor is built of galletted coursed basalt walling. The first floor is finished in dry-dash with timber-frame-style gables. A moulded string course, which may originally have been the eaves detail of the single-storey cottage, separates the two floors. Long-and-short quoins and a plinth course are also present. The chimneys are replacement red brick.

Windows and Doors

Ground floor windows are six-over-six timber sliding sashes without horns, set in rough red-brick surrounds that have been painted to appear more regular, with large rectangular masonry cills. First floor windows are bipartite, segmental-arched steel-framed casements with single-brick segmental arched heads, masonry cills, and associated timber louvered shutters.

The front door is a timber four-panelled door flanked by decorative sidelights, preceded by four Ionic columns rising to cornice level and surmounted by an elliptical arched bat-wing fanlight. The whole entrance is enclosed by an elaborate 20th-century brick and timber-framed glazed porch with decorative coloured and etched glazing to the gable ends.

Principal (South) Elevation

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged. The front porch is centrally placed at ground floor level with two windows to either side. At first floor, there are six windows in total: two on either side positioned directly above the ground floor openings, with a pair closely positioned in the central bay, which rises to a gable above.

Left (East) Gable

The left gable is symmetrically arranged with a central ground floor window and a tripartite window comprising a two-over-one sash flanked by four-over-one timber sliding sashes. These replaced an earlier oriel bay around 1960.

Rear Elevation

The rear elevation is flanked by two long one-and-a-half-storey gable-ended returns with a central gabled abutment between them. The central single-bay return has a door set into a round-headed arched opening with a fanlight over, flanked at ground floor level by two elongated rectangular windows, and above by a pair of camber-headed one-over-one timber sliding sash windows with leaded and stained glass.

Right-Hand Return

The right-hand return is three bays deep and principally matches the front façade in its detailing. The west face has three ground floor windows and three first-floor dormers containing one-over-one camber-headed timber sliding sash windows. The north face has a single centrally positioned matching one-over-one timber sash window at first floor level; at ground floor, a single-storey lean-to outbuilding abuts this face. The east face is rendered and has two enlarged tripartite timber casement windows at ground floor and a pair of dormers containing two-over-two camber-headed timber sliding sash windows with horizontal glazing bars.

Left-Hand Return

The left-hand return is also three bays deep and principally matches the front façade detailing. The east face has three ground floor windows; the first floor was raised in 1998 and now has three uPVC double-glazed windows. The rendered gable end is asymmetrically arranged with a large tripartite ground floor window and a diminished first floor window to the right of centre. The rendered west face has a rear door to the right of centre, a bipartite timber casement window to its right, and a matching tripartite window to its left, with two two-over-two timber sliding sash windows with horizontal glazing bars at first floor level. The right gable matches the left.

Setting

The house is well secluded from public view, largely screened by tall mature trees bounding the site to the front. The site is accessed via wrought-iron gates and robust chamfered piers with plinth and cornice surmounted by a reeded cap, adjoined by a curved low-rise matching parapet wall. Gardens to the south, east, and west comprise lawns and mature trees. Lamp standards stand on the front lawn. To the north is a courtyard enclosed by an asymmetrical two-storey galletted-rubble outbuilding with red-brick surrounds, a hipped natural slate roof with clay hip and ridge tiles, timber fixed and casement windows with astragals, steel-framed rooflights, and timber sheeted doors including an elliptical-arched coach entrance; the roof of this outbuilding was raised by two brick courses around 2000. A single-storey mono-pitch stable block with a clay-tile roof and matching stonework also stands here; both structures possibly date from the same period as the original cottage and were also re-roofed around 2000. Beyond the immediate surroundings is a wooded area with a small pond. To the north-east is a basalt-walled garden. The adjacent woodland and outbuildings to the rear add to the character and setting of the house.

There is also group value with the gate lodge, constructed during the mid-19th century, which is listed separately.

Historical Background

Oatland Cottage was built around 1800 and was recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 as an oblong building with two north-facing returns and a rectangular out-office to the north. Around 1830, the Townland Valuation recorded it as occupied by Mr Thomas Walkington, a gentleman, and described it as a first-class-plus dwelling measuring 63 feet by 25 feet and 15 feet in height, valued at £10 18s. 2d. alone and £20 6s. including its extensive out-offices.

By 1857 an extension had been added to the north side linking the cottage to the adjacent out-office, which was used as a stable range, with the attached northern outbuilding serving as a coach house or farm building; both still survive. This extension increased the property's value to £40 in Griffith's Valuation of 1859.

Thomas Walkington was a prominent local figure — already the lessor of many properties in Upper Ballinderry, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Ballinderry and contributed to local projects. In 1861 he provided Ballinderry Parish Church with a new organ purchased solely at his own expense, an act appreciated by the local community, who sent a deputation of clergy and other important residents to Oatland Cottage to express their thanks (Belfast Newsletter, 29 January 1861 and 1 February 1861). Thomas Walkington died on 5 June 1874, leaving Oatland Cottage and effects of around £3,000 to his relative Samuel Walkington. In 1889 the house was reduced in value to £38 following the removal of its gate lodge to a separate valuation record. Samuel Walkington purchased the cottage outright in 1893.

Around 1903, under Octavia Walkington (by then widowed), the second storey of the house and an additional store were added, greatly increasing the property's value to £64 by 1908. The additional floor was designed in a Norman style, its windows fitted with casements and shutters in stark contrast to the Georgian ground floor — an unusual design that gave rise to a rumour that a French architect had been employed. In fact, Octavia Walkington had engaged the Belfast-based architect William Fennell, who had designed the Mater Infirmorum Hospital in Belfast and had restored Ballinderry Middle Church in 1902. Shortly after the construction of the second storey, Henry and Maria Walkington came into possession of the house. The 1911 Census records Henry Walkington (aged 33) residing at the cottage with his wife Mary Jane (aged 35) and their two daughters, and describes Oatland Cottage as a first-class dwelling consisting of 13 rooms. The Walkington family continued to occupy the house until the 1950s, when the last of the family sold it.

C. E. B. Brett noted that Thomas Walkington, the first recorded occupant, owned a number of corn mills, and that his descendants invested in railway and banking enterprises through which they became wealthy.