20 Tamlaghduff Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The house faces east a little distance to the rear of a thatched outbuilding and a stretch of lawn. The site is approached by travelling about three-quarters of a mile to the north-west of Bellaghy and then forking to the right (north) for a further mile before joining the A54 towards Portglenone.
A single storey roughcast and whitened house with black base of slight projection. The roof is thatched between parapet gables and rendered corbelled chimneystacks, with two plain pots to each, rise above the kitchen fireplace and above the wall between the living room and the bedroom.
On the front a timber framed and sheeted half door with a six pane glazed panel in the upper part is flanked to the left (south) by two and to the right (north) by three pairs of plain glazed vertically sliding timber windows with central mullions. Frames are exposed, sash stops are moulded and sills are of traditional depths at the leading faces.
There is a similar window in the right-hand (north) gable and the sequence of openings at the rear starting from the left-hand (north) end is as follows: -
A vertically sliding window of increased width, a pair of vertically sliding windows, a timber sheeted door with a six pane glazed panel in the upper part, two pairs of vertically sliding windows, a door similar to that already described and a pair of vertically sliding windows. All of the widows have features similar to those at the front.

Historical information

What appears to be the present house, and the structure at the front on the roadside, are shown on the OS map of 1830, but not recorded in the (near) contemporary valuation. The same arrangement is shown on the revised map of 1856-57, but with a small extension to the south end of the house and another to the rear of the roadside block. The occupant is recorded in the 1858 valuation as Patrick Scullion, with Sir John Pares the immediate lessor and the rateable value a modest 15/-.

Mr Patrick Scullion, the father of James Henry Scullin (sic), Prime Minister of Australia 1929-31, was born in the house and emigrated from Ireland to Australia as a railway worker in 1848 at the age of twenty. He married within two years of landing and his son, the future Prime Minister, was born on 18.9.1896 near Ballarat, Melbourne. He became Prime Minister on 22.10.1929. On a visit to Ireland in 1933 he paid a visit to his father’s birthplace.

Inappropriate windows were installed with NIHE grant assistance
Grant for re-thatching was paid in 1994.
Grant was paid for replacement windows and for doors in 1996.

Grant for the re-thatching of the building was paid in 1994, with a further grant for the replacement of doors and windows, (the latter installed through an earlier NIHE grant), in 1996.

Until early 2006 there was a thatched barn in front of the house and between it and the Tamlaghtduff road. It is now demolished.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/5/37 OS map, County Londonderry sheet 37, with valuation
references, (1830-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/5/37 Revised OS map, County Londonderry sheet 37, with valuation references, (1856 / 57)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/5/29A Second valuation, Ballyscullion, (1856)

Other references
1 EHS Letter from Brian Gunn-King, Principal Planner, to EHS, 30 October 1990
2 EHS Report from Jim Savage, 29 June 1992
3 EHS Survey of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick, 1992
4 EHS Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick, 1 June 1994

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Facing east and located about a mile and threequarters north of the village of Bellaghy this is a single storey, four-bay, direct entry, rendered and whitened house with thatched roof between parapet gables. The fenestration consists of paired vertically sliding windows and the doors are timber sheeted. The father of a Prime Minister of Australia was born in this house.