28 Deerpark Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one and a half storey, four bay direct entry thatched house with harled and whitened stone walls

The house faces south-west overlooking the roadway to Bellaghy from the Toome/Castledawson road with the turn-off to the north-west made about two miles from Toome. The site is located three quarters of a mile from the centre of Bellaghy.

The roof is thatched with flax between cement skews and there are four chimneystacks with narrow projections set midway between the level of the ridge and the top. A stack rises on each gable, there is one above the position of the kitchen hearth, with a single pot, and the other is over the left-hand wall of the pair of bedrooms to the left of the kitchen.

The entrance door is timber sheeted with 2x3 glazing in the upper part. There are three 6/6 vertically sliding windows to the left (north-west) of the entrance and one to the right. The sashes are provided with stops and sills are of traditional depths.
There are two small top-hung casement windows without sills in the right-hand (north-east) gable lighting the upper accommodation. The opposite north-west gable is blank.

At the rear the sequence of openings from the right-hand (north-east) corner is as follows: -
A 2x3 metal framed window, a timber sheeted door, a 2x3 metal framed window and a 8/8 vertically-sliding window at upper level. These openings are without sills. At this point occurs a lean-to scullery with corrugated iron roof, a timber sheeted door on the north-west side and a top-hung timber window with sill of traditional depth on the north-east side. Beyond this feature there is a top-hung metal framed window without a sill and with sashes divided into two vertically. A toilet in a lean-to corrugated iron roof structure abutting the south-east gable of the house is lighted by a plain-sashed top hung timber-framed window without a sill.

The outbuildings have walls similar to the dwelling and having corrugated iron roof finish on timber rafters. There are three Ulster pillars and two traditional wrought iron blacksmith made gates, one a farm gate and the other a garden gate.

Historical information

A building, (without the enclosure), is shown on this site on the OS map of 1830, but not recorded in the (near) contemporary valuation. The revised map of 1856-57 shows what appears to be the same building, with the enclosure but no outbuildings. The front wall of the contiguous store at the northwest end of the house is shown set back, but otherwise the house is as present. The valuation of 1856 records the occupants as John and Patrick McKenna, with Sir Henry H. Bruce the immediate lessor, and the rateable value £1.

The house was re-thatched in 1979 by Gerry Agnew using wheat straw, with repairs to the thatch undertaken in 1985, 1989 and 1990. Re-thatching was carried out again in 1991, (with a repair in 1996), and 2001; flax was used on these occasions.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/5/42 OS map, County Londonderry sheet 42, with valuation
references, (1830-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/5/42 Revised OS map, County Londonderry sheet 42, with valuation references, (1856 / 57)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/5/29B Second valuation, Ballyscullion, (1856)

Secondary sources
1 Pierce, Richard, Cooey, Alistair and Oram, Richard, ‘Taken for Granted…’ (Belfast, 1984), pp.80-81

Other references
1 EHS Survey of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick, 1992
2 EHS Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick, 15 June 1994
4 Various reports by EHS architects in EHS file.
5 Pierce and Coey, Taken for Grabted.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Located about threequarters of a mile south of Bellaghy,this is a one and a half storey, four bay direct entry thatched house with harled and whitened stone walls.
The appearance from the front is unchanged including early style small-paned sash windows. As is normal the rear has evolved and advantage has been taken of the availability of metal-framed windows at one period.
The layout has been altered a little, as has the detailing but the basic intention of the builders remains clear. Internally retention of features such as the kitchen fireplace, although modified, plank doors and the upper rooms is important.