Former Station

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one- and two-storey station building comprising (1) a station master’s house and (2) public waiting room, both of which have been integrated into a single dwelling after the station’s closure.

1. Station master’s house
A double-pile, two-storey building aligned E-W, with the N pile advanced beyond the S pile on their W gables.
Pitched artificial slate roof with serrated terracotta ridge tiles and replacement brick chimneys (one to N slope of N pile, and one to S slope of S pile). Ogee cast-iron rainwater goods, and rectangular cast-iron and round steel downpipes. Walls of red brick, with slightly advanced chamfered base courses. Purple-brick platbands at cill level and at window drip mould level on both floors. Wallheads to sides and gables comprise a line of serrated red brick over which are moulded yellow-brick specials, over which is a course of plain red brick; cut stone shoulder stones.
Windows are modern painted timber-framed 1x4-pane replacements with horizontal glazing bars. The window openings have shallow segmental heads with purple and red brick embellishment and yellow-brick hood mould over; also rounded red-brick jambs and flush-mounted dressed sandstone cills.
The N elevation of the N pile is abutted at ground floor left by the waiting room, but is otherwise blank. The W gable of the N pile has a window to each floor. The exposed portion of the N pile’s S elevation has a window to GF left, and shallow porched doorway at right. The porch has a monopitched natural slate roof with ogee cast-iron gutters, walls as the main house, and a replacement painted herring-bone pattern timber door with segmental overlight.
The W gable of the S pile is as the N pile. The S elevation of the S pile is abutted by a single-storey annex, but is otherwise plank. This annex has a flat felted roof, boxed eaves, and ogee plastic gutters. Its side walls are a continuation of the S pile, but its end wall is cement rendered. There is a small cantilevered canted window to its W elevation, small (modern?) and window to its S side; blank to E side. Beyond this annex is an original pedestrian archway between the front and back of the building.
The rear gables of both piles form a symmetrical façade. A down pipe from their shared roof valley runs into an ogee cast-iron gutter running horizontally between the floors and which is supported on pairs of yellow-brick brackets. There is a window to each floor of each pile, and a pair of small staircase lights directly below the roof valley at FF level.

2. Waiting room
A single-storey building abutting the N end of the N pile of the station master’s house. Roof and gutter detailing as adjoining station house, with two replacement brick chimneys. Walls and windows likewise.
W elevation has a reconfigured doorway to middle. It comprises a double-leaf varnished timber doorway with side- and overlights set into a flat-headed opening (with purple-brick trim).
N gable has window with vertical, as well as horizontal, glazing bars (i.e. 2x4).
E elevation is abutted by a single-storey modern extension of similar size to the original platform canopy. This extension has a flat felted timber roof, red brick walls and French doors and multi-bay glazed window to its E elevation. The exposed part of the original building at right has a window and brick-infilled doorway.

Setting
The station is accessed by a short private driveway off the main road. The ground on the road side of the station has been paved, beyond which is a planted garden. Ornamental gaslamp standards, salvaged from elsewhere, have been erected in this area. At north is a large mid/later 20th century shed, with original water tank to one side (HB03/01/031B). No traces of the original platform survive at the rear of the building, where there is now a planted garden, demarcated along its SE side by a painted concrete block wall. To the south of the station is an early 2000s two-storey dwelling in the style of the original.
At the rear of the station, on the opposite side of the former track (behind the garden wall), was another platform, goods shed and signal box, no traces of which survive. A short distance to the north, the main road crossed the line on a metal girder bridge. This bridge is long removed and the road made level.

Schedule:
Roof: Artificial slate
Walling: Polychrome brick
Windows: uPVC
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Kilrea Railway Station lies on the Derry Central Railway (DCR) which ran between Magherafelt and Macfin Junction. It was designed by James Barton, the DCR’s architect/engineer. A contract for its construction, along with stations at Maghera, Upperlands, Garvagh, Aghadowey and Macfin, was signed with Messrs Dixon & Co in April 1879. The station and line opened in February 1880.
The line was worked by the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway as it connected its Belfast-Londonderry line near Coleraine with its Antrim-Cookstown Branch at Magherafelt.
This station complex is depicted on the 1905 OS 25-inch map; it is also on the 1853 six-inch map, but the line was obviously engraved on the original plate in the 1880s.
The BNCR acquired outright possession of the DCR’s assets in 1901 and was in turn taken over by the Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1903. This company was reconstituted as the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1923. At nationalisation in 1949, the line was taken over by the Ulster Transport Authority. All services were axed in 1950 except for goods traffic on the Magherafelt-Kilrea section which survived until 1959.

The station building eventually fell empty and was restored by its present owner and her husband in the 1970s. The associated signal box was relocated to Garvagh Museum and restored as an exhibit.

References - Primary sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/5/27/2, Second edition OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 27 (1853).
2. PRONI OS/10/5/27/6/1. First edition OS 25-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 27-06 (1905).

References – Secondary sources:
1. J.R.L. Currie, The Northern Counties Railway, vol.1, p.173 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1973).
2. S. Johnson, Johnson’s Atlas & Gazetteer of the Railways of Ireland, p.107 (Leicester: Midland Publishing, 1997).
3. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, p.173 (Belfast: HMSO, 1980).
4. ‘Kilrea signal box restored to former glory’, in Coleraine Times, 29/06/2009.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A one-and two storey station building of 1879-80 designed by James Barton for the Derry Central Railway. The building has been sucessfully refurbished as a dwelling and the interior extensively altered. Although it is of local historical interest as a former station of the Derry Central Railway, and still retains much of its external railway character it is not of sufficient interest to warrant listing.