73 Straid Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single-storey, vernacular dwelling of pre-1832 construction, which retains its original roof timbers (and some thatch) beneath the present corrugated metal covering.

The front façade faces roughly east and is asymmetrical. To the right of centre is a shallow projecting open porch. This is of relatively recent construction and is brick or block built with lean-to metal roof. The doorway within is flat-headed and has a replacement flat-panelled door. To the right of the porch is a single window opening, whilst to the left there are two further openings set at a slightly lower level. All are flat-headed and have replacement window frames of varnished timber with top openers.

To the south gable there is a mid to later 20th century lean-to garden shed/workshop. This is concrete block and brick structure with a corrugated-iron roof, which retains a small section of rubble walling belonging to a previous structure on this site. To the upper level of the south gable of the main house there is a flat-headed window opening with a 1/1 timber sash frame (suggesting the presence of a loft level at some point.)

The rear (west) façade has four flat-headed window openings; these are similar except that the second from the left side is slightly smaller. All frames are as front.

The north gable also has a lean-to shed (of possible early 1900s construction), with a corrugated-iron roof. To the upper level of the gable itself, there is a flat-headed window opening with a two-light timber frame.

The main roof is pitched and covered with corrugated-iron; there are two squat replacement chimneystacks, one roughly to the centre, the other to the north gable, the former in brick, the latter rendered.

The walls finished with whitewashed (now painted) roughcast-render with smooth vertical bands to each edge.

Setting

The house is set in a well-tended garden, to the south side of the Straid Road, approximately 1.7km south-east of Ahoghill, between the roadside and a small stream. There is a pre-fabricated, flat-roofed dwelling behind the house that appears to be the main residence at present. Surrounding countryside comprises fields in pasture and some ribbon development of houses of various ages.

Historical information

A building of similar size and orientation as the present house, but with another structure of similar length abutting it at a right angle to the north-east, is shown on the OS map of 1832. Unfortunately, neither structure was of sufficient rateable value to be included the valuation of the same year. A building of similar plan is shown on the revised OS map of 1857, and noted in the valuation of c.1860 as the home of a William J. Nicol with Rev. R.W. Rowan the immediate lessor, and the rateable value a relatively low 15/-. The long range attached to the north-west is recorded as containing three dwellings at this point, occupied by Ester Boyd, Samuel Hood and John Duohy respectively, with David Clarke the immediate lessor and each dwelling rated, like their neighbour to the south, at 15/-. In 1884 two of the dwellings within the northern section are recorded as ‘down’ and the third drops out of the valuation shortly after this, suggesting that it too had neither been demolished or had fallen derelict.

In 1886 a Henry James Clarke is listed as the occupant of the present dwelling, with J.J. Rowan the immediate lessor. Mr. Clarke acquired the freehold in 1906 and was still living in the house up until c.1930. By 1935 Samuel Robinson was in residence, leasing the property from David Cameron. Eliza A. Robinson followed Samuel in 1938, but by 1941 the house was vacant. The house was either bought, or passed to, James Connor in 1943 and either he or a relative of the same name was still living there in 1972.

References- Primary sources

1 PRONI VAL/2A/1/37A OS map, Co. Antrim, sheet 37, with valuation
references, 1857(-c.60)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/3/38A Second valuation, Ahoghill parish, 1859
4 PRONI VAL/12B/3/1A Annual valuation revision book, Ahoghill Electoral District, 1865-79
5 PRONI VAL/12B/3/1B Annual valuation revision book, Ahoghill Electoral District, 1880-89
6 PRONI VAL/12B/3/1C Annual valuation revision book, Ahoghill Electoral District, 1890-1900
7 PRONI VAL/12B/3/1D Annual valuation revision book, Ahoghill Electoral District, 1901-12
8 PRONI OS/6/1/37/3 OS map, Co. Antrim, sheet 37, 1903
9 PRONI VAL/12B/3/1E Annual valuation revision book, Ahoghill Electoral District, 1913-29
10 PRONI VAL/3C/1/8 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ahoghill electoral district, 1936-57
11 PRONI VAL/4B/3/2 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ahoghill electoral district, 1957-72

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Single-storey, vernacular dwelling of pre-1832 construction, which retains its original roof timbers (and some thatch) beneath the present corrugated metal covering. Despite some changes, it retains much of its original appearance and setting also. Once common, houses such as this are fast disappearing, now numbered in the few hundreds rather than the thousands. The survival of the original roof is of note and adds much to its special interest.