274 Glenshane Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached four-bay two-storey rendered former post office, built c.1830, with attached two-storey section and single-storey wing to the north-west and a flat-roofed return to rear. Rectangular on plan, facing south-west and set back slightly on the north-east side of Glenshane Road in landscaped grounds. The building is now divided into two dwellings.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, rendered chimneystacks with painted clay pots, decorative timber bargeboards (south-east section only) and cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets and cast-iron downpipes. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling with rusticated rendered quoins to the south-east section only. Windows are replacement 3/6 timber sliding sash with partially exposed sash boxes and ogee horns set on painted masonry sills within square-headed window openings unless otherwise noted.

Front (south-west) elevation is seven windows wide, with the south-east section being four windows wide and positioned slightly forward from the north-west section being three windows wide. The south-east section has a flat-roofed entrance porch with cast-iron columns and flat-panelled timber panelled door to the left cheek with brass door furniture. The north-west section has paired windows to the first floor and a central former door opening now used as a window and flanked by diminutive square fixed single paned sidelights.

North-west gable is abutted by a single-storey wing to ground floor at right angles to the main block; exposed section is blank.

Single storey wing has a pitched natural slate roof with cast iron rainwater goods, raised skews and a chimneystack rising from the north-east gable. North-east gable elevation has a six pane timber window to left, north-west elevation has four 2/2 timber sliding sash windows, south-west gable elevation is symmetrical and has two windows and the south-east elevation has a single window.

The rear elevation to the north-west section has randomly placed window openings with multi-pane timber casement windows. A round-arched door opening to the left functions as the principal entrance to the north-west section having timber replacement panelled door and sidelights. The rear elevation to the south-east section is abutted by a flat-roofed two-storey return, generally glazed with multi-pane timber casement windows.

The south-east gable is blank with rusticated rendered quoins to the south-west corner of the elevation.

Setting:
Located on a mature landscaped site to the north-east of Glenshane Road enclosed to the road by hedging with a steel pedestrian gate to front garden and further pair of steel gates hung on sandstone piers providing vehicular access to the north-west of the site.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Painted ruled-and-lined render
Windows Replacement timber sliding sash (timber casements to rear)

Historical information

A building on this site appears on the 1830 Ordnance Survey map. It is also featured on the 1853 Ordnance Survey map where it is identified as a Post Office. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1858) the property was in the possession of George Kennedy and comprised a house, offices, public house, shop and garden. The buildings were given the valuation of £6 10s. The Valuation Revision Books show that the value of the buildings was increased to £9 10s due to improvements (not specified). The 1905 Ordnance Survey map marks the building, but it is no longer identified as a Post Office.

In the House and Building Return of the 1901 census the building was listed as a public house; there were seven windows in front and ten rooms in occupation. The equivalent return from the 1911 census states that the building was a private dwelling with seven windows in front and ten rooms in occupation. In the late 1920s the description of the buildings in the Valuation Revision Books was changed to house and offices and the valuation was reduced to £8 10s. Also at this time George Kennedy was changed to Wallace Kennedy. There were in fact two George Kennedys, father and son. George senior died in 1878 and George junior in 1925.

The Kennedy family remained in possession of the building into the second half of the twentieth century. It was subsequently acquired by the Nutt family and a Post Office re-established here; it has since closed. In 1985 a fire resulted in damage to the roof of the house. Renovations were carried out to the building in 1987-8. In the early 1990s further repairs were undertaken.

References

Primary sources

1. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/22/1
2. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1853 – OS/6/5/22/2
3. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1905 – OS/6/5/23/3
4. PRONI, Griffith’s Valuation, 1858
5. PRONI, Valuation Revision Books, 1860-1929 – VAL/12/B/32/4A-F
6. PRONI, Annual Revisions List of the First General Revaluation, 1936-57, VAL/3/C/6/8
7. NIEA, First Survey Card
8. NIEA, HB Records

Online sources
1901 and 1911 census returns: www.census.nationalarchives.ie
PRONI, Will Calendars: www.proni.gov.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Detached four-bay two-storey rendered former post office, built c.1830, with attached two-storey section and single-storey wing to the north-west. The building ceased to be used as a post office by 1901 by which time it was used as a public house. It was converted to a single dwelling in the late 1920s and reused as a post office in the second half of the twentieth century before its closure and conversion to two dwellings. Much original fabric survives, including details from the early twentieth-century associated with its history of changing use. Its original setting survives with a small front garden and extensive gardens to the rear. This is a good example of the type, well-detailed and representing the changing commercial and social history of the locale and of the countryside as a whole.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R-Age, S-Authenticity, T-Historic Importance