Prospect House,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey three-bay detached house built c.1860, currently in use as a dwelling. It is finished with painted render with a hipped slated roof. It faces southeast and has a large gable-ended two-storey return to the rear, a smaller hipped-roofed single-storey return to the side and a collection of agricultural buildings to the rear. The combination of L-shaped house and outbuildings forms an enclosed yard to the rear.

The front southeast elevation is painted render with chamfered and painted stone quoins and a central semi-circular headed undecorated door opening. Within the opening is a replacement timber door set, comprising a central square-headed timber paneled door with sidelights and a fanlight. The lower panels of the sidelights are timber. To each side of the doorway is a square-headed window opening with painted cut-stone sill. The windows are two-over-two timber sash with two-over-two sidelights. The main panes are split horizontally. The first floor has three windows as before. To the right of the main entrance is a cast-iron bell pull set vertically into the wall, with a weathered timber frame. The door is reached via two low wide cut-stone steps with rounded nosings. To the left is a cast-iron bootscraper on the lower step. A small cast-iron stub on the upper step suggests this may have been relocated.

The side southwest elevation is painted render with quoins and four symmetrically placed windows, two to each floor. These are as before but without sidelights. The two-storey return is in line with and slightly behind this elevation.

The rear northwest elevation is painted render without quoins and with five window openings as before, in various sizes and all but the smallest having the unusual two-over-two timber sash windows. The smallest is one-over-one. The cast-iron soil stack is on this elevation, next to a cast-iron downpipe. The two-storey return projects from the right hand side of this elevation and the single-storey return is to the left, in line with this elevation.

The side northeast elevation is painted render with quoins to the left side only. It has two window openings as before to the upper level with two-over-two timber sash windows, and one similar identical window to the left of the ground floor. To the right the single-storey return projects. A cast-iron downpipe descends in the centre of the elevation, meeting the gutter at the eaves of the return.

The two-storey return has a pitched slated roof with wide projecting eaves and two brick chimneystacks, one at the gable and one to the centre. It is painted render with quoins to the southwest corner. The southwest elevation is two-bay with a square-headed door opening to the right of the ground floor and a replacement uPVC patio door. There is a square-headed window opening as before to the left and two more above, all with two-over-two timber sash windows. This elevation is recessed slightly behind the southwest elevation of the main house.

To the gable of the return has a central single-storey projecting gable-ended porch with a slate roof. It has a single square-headed door opening right of centre to its gable with a replacement tongue-and-groove timber door. There are four symmetrically placed square-headed window openings to the main gable of the return, two to each floor. These are square-headed with cut-stone sills. They are of various sizes. The top right is a two-over-two sash window as before and the others are timber casement. A storey height wall projects to the left in line with this gable.

The northeast elevation of the return has two square-headed door openings with replacement timber doors. The door to the left has a rectangular light over; that to the right has a square-headed window opening with a painted cut-stone sill and timber casement window to the left. There is a large square-headed window opening with a painted cut-stone sill and replacement timber casement window left of centre to the ground floor, and three more similar window openings to the upper floor, in various sizes. There is an assortment of cast-iron rainwater and sanitary drainage on this elevation.

Single-storey return:
This return projects to the northeast and is in painted render with quoins to the southeast (front) corner and a slated hipped roof. The front southwest elevation has a single square-headed window opening with painted cut-stone sill and timber casement window. The side northeast elevation has a single similar but smaller window. The rear northwest elevation has a single square-headed door opening to the right with a timber door. A storey height stone wall projects to the left from the corner of this elevation, forming part of the farmyard enclosure.

External walls are painted roughcast render. The roof is slate and hipped to the main house and single-storey return, gable-ended to the main return. There are two chimneystacks to the main roof, one to the apex of each hip. There are two more to the main return. These are all tall and rectangular, in red brick with unpainted cut-stone capping. There are four clay chimney pots to each, arranged in a line. Rainwater goods are cast-iron.

Setting:
The house is set well back from the Coagh Road, up a long tarmac lane. The lane forks in front of the house and the right fork skirts the house to the east, heading for the farmyard to the north of the house. The left fork widens into a gravel turning area at the front of the house. A hedge forms the eastern boundary and mature trees form the boundary west of the garden. To the end of the lane at the Coagh Road is a pair of square rendered gateposts with wide set smaller flanking piers and a connecting wall. All four piers have cut-stone coping, with a low, almost flat profile. The connecting wall on each side has a step in height from the taller inner pier to the smaller outer one. There is cut-stone coping to the wall. Piers and walls are finished in painted render. There are no gates present. A bungalow, built c. 2000, is just inside the gate to the right of the lane.

To the west of the house, at the rear, is a temporary type sectional building in use as an office.

The house is ‘L’ shaped and together with its outbuildings to the north encloses a concrete yard to the rear of the house, the spaces between the buildings being walled in. These walls are of rubble and partially rendered. Areas have been repaired and there are projecting stones forming a serrated coping. The main access to the yard is from a painted cast-iron gate in the northeastern wall. The rails are flat in profile, with decorative twists to the top. Further agricultural buildings enclose a second yard to the north of the first. The farm buildings mostly have pitched slate roofs with gable ends and dashed rendered walls. They have timber windows, and some cast-iron rainwater goods.

To the northwest of the house is an ornamental garden with a lawn, mature shrubbery to the borders and a brick paved patio with a small pebble lined pond. Garden paths around the western side of the house are brick paved and widen into a patio area adjacent to the southwest elevation of the two-storey return. The garden to the front of the house has beds with mature shrubs and specimen trees, and an ornamental boulder.

Historical information

This house was built between 1860 and 1863 for a Frederick Harris, on land he leased from the See of Armagh. It replaced an earlier single-storey dwelling, recorded in the first valuation of c.1833 as the home of a John Mann [or Main]. A faint pencil note in the margin of the valuation book gives the dimensions of the new house as 53ft x 32 x 26, with a return of 28 x 25 x 24.

Frederick Harris died in 1897 or 1898 and the house is recorded as being in the hands of his ‘representatives’ until 1950, when the lease was sold, or passed to, a William Armstrong. James Armstrong acquired the freehold in 1953 and is noted as owner / resident up until at least 1972.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1B/611 First valuation, Donaghenry parish, c.1833
2 PRONI VAL/1A/6/39 OS map, Co Tyrone sheet 39, with valuation
references, 1833-34(c.38)
3 PRONI VAL/2A/6/39A OS map, Co Tyrone sheet 39, with valuation references, 1857(-58)
4 PRONI VAL/2B/6/11A Second valuation, Donaghenry parish, 1859
5 PRONI VAL/12B/37/20A Annual valuation revision book, Stewartstown ED, 1860-63
6 PRONI VAL/12B/37/20B Annual valuation revision book, Stewartstown ED, 1864-78
7 PRONI VAL/12B/37/20C Annual valuation revision book, Stewartstown ED, 1879-81
8 PRONI VAL/12B/37/20D Annual valuation revision book, Stewartstown ED, 1882-92
9 PRONI VAL/12B/37/20E Annual valuation revision book, Stewartstown ED, 1893-1901
10 PRONI VAL/12B/37/20F Annual valuation revision book, Stewartstown ED, 1902-11
11 PRONI VAL/12B/37/20G Annual valuation revision book, Stewartstown ED, 1912-29
12 PRONI VAL/3B/7/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Stewartstown ED, 1935
13 PRONI VAL/3C/7/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Stewartstown ED, 1936-57
14 PRONI VAL/4B/6/6 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Stewartstown ED, 1957-72

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This house is a well proportioned, substantially original example of an mid-nineteenth century strong farmer’s house. It has many original features, including internal doors and staircases, although the window frames appear to have been replaced in the early twentieth century. The setting is also well preserved. Early farm out buildings are also preserved; combined with the house this gives adds group value to the house.