The Valley, 15 Valley Road, Crevilly-Valley Td, Ballymena, BT42 2LX

The Valley is a relatively small, one-and-a-half-storey picturesque early Victorian country house of around 1840, set in extensive mature grounds approximately 3 kilometres west of the village of Kells, to the south-east of Valley Road. The listing covers both the house and its freestanding stable block. A large but well-mannered single-storey extension was added in 1982 to designs by architect Joe Kerr. The house is a well-preserved example of a small early Victorian country residence: its external character has been maintained, its internal layout remains discernible, and most of the original detailing survives. Properties of this type represent an important element in the Ulster countryside, reflecting the rural dimension of Victorian expansion in the region.

PLAN AND LAYOUT

In plan, the original house is essentially rectangular. To the north-east there is a one-and-a-half-storey rear return, which may be partly original but appears to have been largely rebuilt around 1900. To the front there is a small projecting flat-roofed porch. The 1982 extension lies to the east and features a large canted bay to the front. To the north, a two-storey stable block is connected to the rear of the house by two-metre-high walls that enclose a brick-paved yard. A stone wall extends eastward from the stable block, to which a later lean-to roof has been added, creating a long range now used as open car ports and garden stores.

For ease of description, the front elevation — which actually faces south-west — is referred to as south throughout, with all other façades named accordingly.

EXTERIOR

Walls are finished with roughcast render over a projecting plinth. The front walls are flanked with clasping pilasters, and there is some carefully manicured ivy to the south façade. Roofs are pitched and covered with blue-grey slate. Eaves and verges overhang and are boxed. Two half-dormers are present: one centrally placed on the south face and one on the west face of the return. There is a gabled dormer on the left of the south face of the extension, with a further three dormers on the north face. Rendered chimneystacks rise off the gables, set on the line of the ridge, and are finished with corbelled caps and matching clay pots. Rainwater goods appear to be uPVC.

Window openings are generally flat-headed, with two exceptions: directly above the porch there is a gothic-style opening, and the window lighting the landing on the rear north façade has a semi-circular-headed opening. All openings are framed with raised moulded surrounds and rest on painted sills. Window frames are all painted timber; the majority are six-over-six sash. To the north side of the extension, some ground-floor frames are top-hung, and some first-floor dormer frames are side-hung casements. Ground-floor window openings flanking the front porch are surmounted by a blocking course and frieze with a projecting cornice.

SOUTH (FRONT) FAÇADE

The south front of the original house is symmetrical. The main entrance is centrally positioned within the porch and features paired timber-panelled doors surmounted by a plain fanlight and flanked by plain clasping pilasters; to each side wall of the porch there is a fixed-light window. To either side of the ground floor there is a flat-headed window with a six-over-six timber sash. Directly above the porch, set within the half-dormer, is a Tudor-type arch window with a Gothick sash frame: the upper sash has six panes surmounted by intersecting tracery. To the east of the front elevation the 1982 extension is set back; to its left side is a French window and to its right side is an outsized canted bay.

WEST FAÇADE

The west façade of the main house merges with the one-and-a-half-storey return. Window openings are irregularly arranged, with three at first-floor level and one on the left side of the ground floor. The return connects with the yard wall, which projects forward and has a central gateway with double timber gates.

REAR (NORTH) FAÇADE

The rear north façade is informal in arrangement. To the right is the return, to the centre is the rear of the original house, and to the left is the rear of the extension, which is set forward and overlaps the original rear wall. Window openings are irregularly arranged: those to the rear of the extension have top-hung frames; the first-floor window of the main house is semi-circular arched with a fixed multi-paned frame; the remainder have six-over-six frames.

EAST FAÇADE

The east façade of the original house is largely obscured by the extension; one six-over-six first-floor window is visible to the left side. The east façade of the extension has two six-over-six windows, one to either side.

STABLE BLOCK

The stable block is two-storey and lies to the north of the house at the north end of the yard. Walls are random rubble, largely obscured by trimmed ivy and other climbing plants. To the centre of the north façade is an elliptical-arched coach opening with paired timber sheeted doors; this archway divides the ground floor in two and leads through to the patio area beyond. Window openings are quite regularly arranged, all with smooth render surrounds; frames are all timber, a few being six-over-six sash but most top-hung. On the east façade there is an external staircase set at an angle, rising to an external landing and then to the first-floor interior; the treads are finished with ceramic tiles and have modern wrought-iron balusters and handrail. The roof is pitched and covered with blue-grey slate. The ground-floor areas are used for storage; the first floor is a single large room currently in use as a gymnasium.

SETTING

The house is set in mature grounds entered via a gravelled drive leading from a modern period-style gateway consisting of wrought-iron railings, a curving gate screen, and matching gates. The grounds retain remnants of the original formal layout, principally the mature trees and the line of the drive. There is a gravelled forecourt, then a lawn with mature trees beyond, with further gardens to both sides. The site backs onto fields to the north, and the Kells Water river bounds the site to the east.

HISTORY

The main block of the house, along with the porch, the north-east return, and the freestanding stable block, are all shown on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1857, where the property is marked as "Crevilly Valley". In the 1859 valuation it is recorded as the home of Jesse Miller; the valuer described it as "a very neat cottage, well built and finished and in excellent repair," with offices noted as "all good." Jesse Miller was at that time the owner of beetling mills located to the east-south-west of the house beside the Kells Water river. At least some of these mills had been in operation since at least 1818, and are noted in the first valuation of 1836 as being in the hands of David and William Miller. The date of construction of the house and the identity of its architect are not known.

By 1875 both the house and the mill were in the hands of William Kirk. William died around 1890, and in 1893 a Loughlin (or Lachlan) Arthurs is recorded as leaseholder. In 1917 the whole concern was acquired by Joseph O'Gorman, and it was probably around this date that the north-east return was either totally rebuilt or extended, as it appears much as it does today on the Ordnance Survey map of 1921. The next owner was John (or Jack) McAllister, a reputed gambler said to have bought the house with a single day's winnings. Mr McAllister sold Crevilly to the present owner in 1982, who added the extension in the same year. The mill was sold off as a separate concern around 1945 and is recorded as the property of Tapestry Weavers Ulster Ltd from 1947 until at least 1972.

The property originally possessed a gate lodge, noted in the 1859 valuation, though it does not appear on any Ordnance Survey maps and is not mentioned in J.A.K. Dean's Gate Lodges of Ulster.