Ballyronan House, 133 Shore Road, Cookstown, Co Londonderry, BT80 0AZ

Ballyronan House is a detached two-storey dwelling, possibly built in the late 18th century, and is an unusual example of a house of that period set within a village context. Its modest but well-proportioned street-facing exterior belies the size of the building and the social standing of its original occupants. The house is long and linear in plan, with a series of returns forming an overall L-shaped configuration. The outbuildings to the rear add further interest. The house is understood to have connections with 17th century French Huguenot immigrants.

Situation and Setting

Ballyronan House stands at the junction of a small street running perpendicular to the Shore Road, in the centre of Ballyronan village. The east elevation overlooks the quay at Ballyronan and Lough Neagh beyond.

Exterior

The south-facing front elevation faces directly onto the street and is nine bays wide. It comprises three distinct sections: a three-bay main house to the right, a four-bay wing to the centre, and a two-bay outbuilding to the left. All share the same continuous roofline, which is pitched with natural slate and red ridge tiles, and there are four simple brick chimneys to the roof. External walls throughout are painted roughcast render.

The main house to the right has a square-headed doorway at the centre, flanked on each side by a square-headed window. The door is a nine-light glazed and timber door with carved timber pilasters resting on cut-stone pad stones, and a rectangular overlight above. Ground and first-floor windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash set on painted cut-stone sills; the ground-floor windows extend down to street level. The first-floor windows to this section are notably larger than those in the remainder of the first floor, setting them distinctively apart from the continuing fenestration line.

The central four-bay wing has square-headed 6/6 timber sliding sash windows throughout, following the same pattern as the main house, with classical proportions reducing toward the upper levels. There is a square-headed door at ground-floor level containing glazed panels.

The outbuilding to the left has two openings at ground-floor level: a square-headed carriage door to the left and a segmental-headed coach arch to the right. The west side elevation of this outbuilding is gable-ended with no openings, and has a brick chimney at the apex of the gable. The east side elevation is also gable-ended and contains a large tripartite window at both ground and first floor, with timber sliding sash frames; the ground-floor window extends down to meet ground level. All windows have painted cut-stone sills. The side of the rear return is visible to the right of this elevation.

The rear north elevation of the main building is largely obscured by the returns. The outbuilding to the west is visible, with the segmental-headed coach arch continuing through to the left.

Returns and Rear Yard

A pitched return runs parallel to and directly abuts the main house, creating a double-pitched roof. A further double-pitched return extends to the rear north, fronting onto the quay. Together the house and its returns enclose a rear yard to the north. The north elevation of the parallel return has an assortment of timber casement and replacement uPVC windows, and a timber and glazed door to the west.

The north-facing double-pitched return has square-headed openings with 6/6 timber sliding sash frames set on cut-stone sills to its east elevation. The west elevation of this return contains a mixture of square-headed timber sliding sash and replacement uPVC windows, along with a timber and glazed door surmounted by an open porch supported on timber corbel brackets. The north elevation has two gable-ends: to the left gable there is a large double door with side panels at ground-floor level, and a square-headed replacement uPVC window to the first floor.

A wall in the rear yard contains a round-headed opening leading into a garden to the north.

Outbuildings

The rear yard contains a hipped outbuilding to the northwest, adjacent to the coach arch, and two single-storey outbuildings arranged in an L-shaped form to the rear northwest. Both outbuildings have a regular arrangement of high-level square-headed windows and pitched roofs of natural slate. External walls to the outbuildings are rubble stone with red brick dressings. There is a further metal-roofed outbuilding to the north with similar openings.

Historical Background

The village of Ballyronan was established around 1788 by a merchant named David Gaussen, who took a lease of land from the Salters' Company with the intention of creating a trading centre. He constructed a pier and extensive stores dealing in grocery, spirits, timber, iron, coal and grain, chiefly supplying shopkeepers in the neighbouring towns. In 1824 his sons David, Charles and James added a distillery to the south of the village, and around 1828 to 1830 a brewery just to the southwest of the pier, exporting much of their produce to Belfast. Both ventures were relatively short-lived, closing before around 1857. By 1852 the lease of Ballyronan had reverted to the Salters' Company. The anticipated improvements to the village and connection to the emerging railway network, which Samuel Lewis had written of in 1837, never came to pass, and the village stalled. By 1857 valuers were recording it as being of no good for trade on any commercial basis, and in the following decades Ballyronan was overtaken by other centres with easier railway access and never grew beyond its pre-1830s bounds.

Ballyronan House was originally David Gaussen's own home and was probably one of the first, if not the very first, dwelling built in the village. It is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. The contemporary valuation book records it as a house described as "not new" but in good condition, then in the hands of David Gaussen's eldest son, David Gaussen of Lake View House. The building's measurements are listed as 58½ feet by 34 feet by 17 feet, with a shop of 30 by 22 by 8½ feet and a porch of 14 by 5 by 5½ feet; an undated annotation to the valuation book, probably dating from around 1856, records that the shop and porch were subsequently demolished. The remainder of the property at that time comprised numerous outbuildings, with recorded dimensions including structures of 39 by 22 by 6½ feet, 34 by 19 by 14 feet, 29 by 11 by 5½ feet (a shed), 20½ by 19½ by 12 feet, 14 by 8 by 10 feet, 32 by 9½ by 3 feet (a piggery), 23 by 13 by 5 feet (a thatched shed), 28½ by 6½ by 9½ feet, 18 by 12 by 6 feet, and 99 by 19½ by 15 feet, with a later annotation showing this last building was reduced to 75 feet. On the opposite side of the road to the south stood the brewery complex, which the valuers included as part of this same property.

In 1853 the lease passed to one of David Gaussen's younger sons, William, and by the time of the second valuation in 1857 the building appeared to have been divided into four separate occupancies: the main southern section occupied by William Gaussen himself, with a David Duncan, an Edward McCann and the local Constabulary Force occupying the northern portions. By 1860 the Constabulary Force is recorded as having use of the whole building, though from 1864 until 1890 William Gaussen is recorded as the sole occupant. In 1890 the property passed to William's son Arthur, with a George Rogers also listed as a resident in the same year. Part of the building, which had formerly contained a small dwelling, was demolished in 1908, at which point the same valuer noted that in addition to the main dwelling section at the south end there were two further, much more modest, dwellings. At some point between 1929 and 1935 a William McLean acquired the freehold of the whole building. By 1936 the main southern section was listed as a house with a petrol pump, offices and weighbridge, with the two smaller dwellings leased separately to a Robert Wylie and a John Greer respectively, Greer's lease taking in not only a dwelling but some of the outbuildings. This situation remained current until at least 1957.