5 Crevolea Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached two-storey rendered late Georgian house, built c.1810, extended by a full bay to the south and to rear c.1975. T-shaped on plan facing east onto Crevolea Road with yard and outbuildings to the north.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, rendered chimneystacks and timber fascia to gable ends. Cast-iron guttering on steel brackets to rendered eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Painted rendered walling throughout. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes (multi-pane timber casement to rear and side elevations).

Front elevation is six windows wide with an off-centre flat-roofed canted entrance porch. Round-headed window and door openings to the porch having replacement glazing, panelled door and fanlight. Door opens onto large slate flag-stone into front gravel area.

Gabled south side elevation with a door opening having glazed French doors.

Rear elevation abutted by two-storey extension, detailed as per side elevation.

Gabled north side elevation fronting into gravel yard and abutted by a rendered elliptical arch to the northeast corner.

Setting

Located on the west side of Crevolea Road and to the west of Drumcroon Road (A29). Front gravel area enclosed by replacement cement balustraded wall. Landscaped gardens to south and west with a rectangular yard to the north enclosed to the west by a range of rendered outbuildings with a two-storey central block abutted by external stone steps and having natural slate roof and vertically-sheeted timber doors. To the north end the single-storey section is abutted by a further rendered arch. The east side of the yard is enclosed to the road by a further single-storey range of outbuildings with corrugated iron roof.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Cement render
Windows Replacement timber sash / replacement timber casement

Historical information

‘Blackhill House’, a Georgian dwelling house and former licensed premises, pre-dates the first ordnance survey of 1831-2 but was extended in the 1970s. An outbuilding to the north is also pre-1831-2 in date.

A dwelling house and outbuilding are shown on the site on the first edition OS map of 1831-2 but by the second edition of 1849-52 the house appears somewhat shorter in length. The third edition shows an extension to the rear and captions the building ‘Blackhill House (P.H)’.

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) records the occupier as Robert McMath, who leases the house from the representatives of John B Stirling. The house and offices are valued at £3.10s and situated on a plot of over 19 acres. The valuation was raised to £5.10s c1863, probably reflecting the extension of the building to the rear. In 1880 part of the building became a licensed house and shop under the proprietorship of Catherine McMath, while the dwelling house was occupied by her son Robert Alexander McMath. Robert McMath became the owner in fee in 1908 and the house/pub was taken over by Robert McIntyre in 1929. Robert Alexander McMath is listed in the 1901 census as a merchant and farmer living with his mother Catherine who was a licensed publican and his wife and two children. The family employed a farm servant, a 14-year-old boy. The twelve-room house was designated first class and is described as a public house in this census and the next. By the time of the 1911 census, Robert McMath had become the publican. The McMath family is commemorated in the nearby McMath Memorial Orange Hall, dated 1907, and located to the north of ‘Blackhill House’. The orange hall replaces an earlier building (now gone) which was situated closer to the present dwelling.

By the 1930s the house was no longer a licensed premises and is recorded as a house and offices occupied by William McIntyre. Valuer’s notes list the accommodation as four bedrooms, a reception, kitchen, scullery and pantry and give a plan of the house with attached outbuilding and greenhouse (now gone). Uses for all the outbuildings are recorded: to the rear of the house is a turf house and to the north, a cart house, pigsty, cart shed, byre and stable with loft. The former orange hall was by this time in use as an outbuilding.

Blackhill House was extended to the south by two window bays c1975, the rear extension was replaced and the front porch is also a recent addition.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/11/1 First Edition OS Map 1831-2
2. PRONI OS/6/5/11/2 SecondEdition OS map 1849-52
3. PRONI OS/6/5/11/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/11/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. Griffith’s Valuation online (1856-1864)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/1A-FAnnualRevisions (1864-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/1First General Revaluation 1933-57
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/A/4 First General Revaluation 1933-57

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A detached two-storey rendered late Georgian house, built c.1810, extended to the south and rear c.1975. The external proportion of this house has been doubled in the recent past, although a simple palette of materials has been employed it has been too much altered to be of sufficient interest for listing.