94 Victoria Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1905, used as a B&B in the 1950s and 60s, extensively damaged by fire c.1990s and refurbished c.2005. T-shaped on plan facing south-west and located on the north-west side of Victoria Road with enclosed front garden and three ranges of modern rendered outbuildings to the east.

Pitched fibre cement slate roof with replacement rendered chimneystacks having octagonal clay pots. uPVC down pipes and extruded aluminium gutters supported on uPVC box fascia to eaves. Ruled-and-lined cement rendered walling with rusticated cement quoins. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills and uPVC windows.

Symmetrical front elevation is three windows wide with a central segmental-arched door opening having uPVC door and doorcase.

Gabled north-west side elevation has a single window opening to the ground floor far right and two windows to the first floor, one to far right and one to far left.

Rear elevation is abutted by a two-storey single-bay return. Exposed section to left has a window to each floor, exposed section to right not viewed at time of survey.

Gabled south-east side elevation has a central window and a window to far left to ground floor and a single window to first floor far right.

Setting:
Located on the north-west side of Victoria Road on a mature site with utilitarian concrete farm buildings to the rear. To the front garden is a pair of decorative cast-iron gates hung on rendered piers.

Materials:
Roof Fibre cement slate
RWG uPVC down pipes and extruded aluminium gutters
Walling Cement render
Windows uPVC

Historical information

A building on the site of the present house is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1830 and Valuation map of 1856. On both maps the structure is represented as a simple oblong with no rear return. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1858) the property was in the possession of James Crawford. The building was given the valuation of £3 10s. The Valuation Revision Books show an increase in the value of the buildings on two occasions in the 1860s. In the first, undated, but 1860-65, the valuation increased by £1 to £4 10s. The second increase occurred in 1868 and saw the value rise to £6 10s. No explanations were given for the increases.

According to a history of the area (see below), the present house was built in 1905. No indication of this is given in the Valuation Revision Books where there is no change to the value of the buildings in the early twentieth century. However, the footprint of the house on the 1925 Ordnance Survey map is different from that shown on earlier maps. The main block is smaller, while there is also a rear return. At the very least this is suggestive of a major renovation.

Further evidence for a reconstruction of the house is provided by the House and Building Returns from the 1901 and 1911 censuses. The House and Building Return from the 1901 census indicates that there were eight windows in the front of the house and nine rooms in occupation. The equivalent return for the 1911 census noted five windows in the front of the house and 15 rooms in occupation.

The Crawford family remained in possession throughout the latter part of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. James Crawford died in 1897. In 1901 the household was headed by his widow Anne, while in 1911 their son James was the head of household. In 1940, John A. Roulston acquired the property. In the 1950s and 1960s a bed and breakfast was run from the house. A photograph of the house from the 1960s appears in the local history already referred to. In the early 1990s, when the house was vacant, it was burned, but it was subsequently refurbished c.2005.
Enforcement action on the inappropriate works was considered in April 2014. It was noted that the house had been damaged beyond reasonable restoration in the 1990s and it was decided that enforcement action should not proceed.

References

Primary sources
1. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/20/1
2. PRONI, Valuation map, 1856 – VAL/2/A/5/20A-B
3. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1905, OS/6/5/22/3
4. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1925, OS/6/5/22/4
5. PRONI, Griffith’s Valuation, 1858
6. PRONI, Valuation Revision Books, 1860-1929, VAL/12/B/32/7A-F
7. PRONI, Valuation map, 1895-c.1915, VAL/12/D/5/20D
8. PRONI, Annual Revisions List of the First General Revaluation, 1936-57, VAL/3/C/6/9
9. NIEA, HB Records

Secondary sources
1. In the Shadow of the Tail of the Fox: A History of New Buildings & District (2002)

Online sources
1. 1901 and 1911 census returns: www.census.nationalarchives.ie
2. PRONI, Will Calendars: www.proni.gov.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1905, used as a B&B in the 1950s and 60s, extensively damaged by fire c.1990s and inappropriately refurbished c.2005. The complete modernisation of the interior including replacement fibre cement roof, cement rendered walling and uPVC windows and doors throught has adversely affected its character and it does not meet the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.