Stratherin, 59 Belfast Road, Carrickfergus, Co.Antrim, BT38 8BY

Stratherin is a detached three-bay two-storey Edwardian house built around 1905, located on an elevated site to the north of Belfast Road in Carrickfergus. The house remains largely unaltered and retains many important design features of the period and much original fabric, including original fenestration.

The building is rectangular in plan with a two-storey tower to the left, a two-storey canted bay to the right with pitched roof, and two single-storey returns to the rear. The roofs are pitched and slated with terracotta ridge tiles, deep overhanging sheeted eaves on moulded timber brackets, and plainly detailed bargeboards. Three roof-lights punctuate the rear slope. Smooth rendered corbelled chimney-stacks rise to the gables. Rainwater goods comprise cast-iron with ogee profile gutters and round downpipes, though some replacement aluminium rainwater goods are present. The walls are smooth rendered with a deep moulded string course and plinth visible on the front elevation only.

Windows throughout are square-headed 1/1 timber sliding sashes with horns, all with smooth rendered architraves and masonry cills unless otherwise stated.

The principal elevation faces south. The central section contains the principal entrance to the right, surmounted by a Wyatt window within a segmental-headed opening. A single window sits to the left at ground floor, surmounted by a segmental-headed casement at first floor. The two-storey tower to the left corner has a slated bell-cast pyramidal roof with lead finial to the apex, moulded eaves, and three windows at each floor. The two-storey canted bay to the right features a gable-fronted wall-head with slated pitched roof; segmental-headed Wyatt windows to each floor flank single windows to each cheek. The entrance is recessed within a segmental-headed opening with deep moulded architrave. The three-panel door is offset to the left with a fixed sidelight to the right and plainly detailed fanlight above, accessed by five masonry steps.

The left gable is abutted by the two-storey tower to the right corner. The exposed section has central plainly detailed glazed doors surmounted by a round-headed stained-glass casement, with single windows to each side at ground and first floor. These doors are accessed by three semi-circular pre-cast steps.

The rear elevation is abutted by a single-storey return to the left with mono-pitched slated roof and a single-storey timber conservatory to the right with mono-pitch roof. The conservatory further adjoins a single-storey outbuilding with slated roof to the left. The exposed section displays replacement timber doors with two windows to the right and one significantly larger window to the left; four windows light the first floor, those to the centre being diminished. The right gable has two windows to each floor. The single-storey return to the west has two timber-sheeted doors with two windows between (a sliding sash to the right and timber casement to the left); all other elevations are blank.

The single-storey timber conservatory has casement windows throughout, is supported on a plinth wall and masonry cills, and retains an original timber-panelled door to the north gable comprising two glazed panes over a single fixed panel. An abutted mono-pitch outbuilding to the east contains a single door to its south side.

The house is preserved in its original setting within mature gardens to the south. A gravel driveway accesses the property via an alcoved entrance comprising a plinth wall, square pillars with plinth and bell-cast caps. Original painted cast-metal entrance gates remain intact.

Historical Context

The building first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1920. Comparison with the 1902 Ordnance Survey map suggests that Stratherin replaced an earlier, larger building on the site. At that time the surrounding land was undeveloped, and it seems likely the plot was redeveloped at the same time as the surrounding area in the early twentieth century.

Valuation Revisions dating from 1884 to 1894 detail the previous building as a Bathing Lodge and gardens, valued at £17 and occupied by Alex Rodgers in 1886. The first reference to a house in the Valuation Revisions appears in 1912, listing an office, yard and garden all valued at £24 5s. The first recorded occupier was R. Forbes, leasing from John Cavanagh. Two other properties were entered around the same time: a house, office and land occupied by Daniel McNeill with a building valuation of £23, and a house and garden added in 1911 leased by John Cavanagh valued at £22 5s with occupier J. McNeill.

The current owner purchased the property in 1942 following the death of Robert Vint, who according to the current owner was responsible for erecting the house. The current owner claims the land was purchased in 1901 and the dwelling completed around 1903 by Mr Vint, a Carrickfergus businessman who produced jams, preserves and confectionery in the town. Vint was a relative of William Vint, apparently proprietor of a substantial jam-making factory in Unity Street near Carrick Hill in Belfast, remembered for introducing a food token system used by mill owners to pay their workers.

No known architect is recorded, but the current owner believes the builder to have been a local man named Henry Laverty, who was also responsible for building St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast. If this attribution is correct, it is likely the brick used was obtained from the nearby Laverty's brickworks.