54 Mullanahoe Road, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, BT71 5AT

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached two-storey three-bay Victorian farmhouse and former rectory, built 1858, with associated farmyard and outbuildings.

The house faces east towards the road. The front east elevation is coursed rubble with cut-stone quoins. The square-headed doorway is to the centre. It is replacement uPVC with overlight and red brick surround. The doorway is flanked by two square-headed windows with replacement uPVC windows, stone sills and red brick surrounds. There are three similar windows to the upper storey. Over the door a plaque set into the wall reads, “built by the Rev. Charles Montague P.P. Ardboe 1858”.

The south gable elevation is a mixture of stone and red brick with one window as before and a smaller one to the attic. There is a red brick chimney to the apex.

The rear west elevation is stone with cut-stone quoins as before. It has a segmental-headed door opening with replacement uPVC door and a variety of window openings with surrounds and replacement windows as before. These are segmental-headed to the ground floor.

The north gable elevation is similar to the south, with two window openings as before. It has a small concrete boilerhouse attached.

External walls are coursed rubble throughout with some red brick in the gables, cut-stone quoins to all corners and red brick surrounds to all openings. The roof is pitched with slate. There is a red brick chimney with two clay pots to each gable. Rainwater goods are plastic. An Ordnance Survey benchmark has been carved into one of the lower quoins on the southeast corner.

Outbuildings

To the rear of the house is a small single-storey rendered outbuilding with a monopitch corrugated metal roof. To the south of the house are further outbuildings, generally with rendered walls and corrugated metal roofs. In one of these the original six-over-six timber sash windows from the house have been stored.

Setting

The house is adjacent to the road and faces it, with a small garden to the front and outbuildings to the south side. There is a road junction immediately to the north, with a side road extending to the west alongside the house. There is a side garden to the north, separated from the front garden by a stone wall. The front is enclosed by a timber fence, the side by a hedge. There is a cast-iron pedestrian gate to the front Mullanahoe Road with rendered piers, and another to the side road with cast-iron piers. This leads to a path through the garden to a similar gate leading into the yard. There is a rear garden to the west behind the house.

Historical information

A longer building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1833-34 and recorded in the first valuation of the same date as an old thatched house, occupied by a John Purvis and measuring 53ft x 17 x 7½, with ‘offices’ of 17 x 18½ x 5½ and 34 x 15 x 8. The building was initially rated at the modest sum of £2-4-0, but declared exempt from valuation in the revision of 1838.

In the second valuation book of 1859 a Rev. Charles Montague PP is listed as the occupant, with a John Mackey the immediate lessor; clearly the property was acting as a parochial house. The valuers state that the ‘house [was] ‘in progress’ (i.e. being rebuilt) at this point. The following year the new dwelling was complete, its rateable value, £8.

Rev. Charles Montague died c.1893 and the house appears to have lain vacant for a period. In 1903 a Daniel O’Donnell is noted as the tenant, followed by a William J. Ferguson in 1906. Mr Ferguson acquired the freehold sometime between 1929 and 1935 and was still in residence in 1957.

Primary sources

1 PRONI VAL/1A/6/40 OS map, Co Tyrone sheet 40, with valuation
references, 1833-34
2 PRONI VAL/1B/618 First valuation, Arboe parish, 1833-34
3 PRONI VAL/2A/6/40B OS map, Co Tyrone sheet 40, with valuation references, 1853-57(-59)
4 PRONI VAL/2B/6/18E Second valuation, Arboe parish, 1859
5 PRONI VAL/12B/37/10A Annual valuation revision book, Killycolpy ED, 1860-63
6 PRONI VAL/12B/37/10B Annual valuation revision book, Killycolpy ED, 1864-79
7 PRONI VAL/12B/37/10C Annual valuation revision book, Killycolpy ED, 1880-81
8 PRONI VAL/12B/37/10D Annual valuation revision book, Killycolpy ED, 1882-96
9 PRONI VAL/12B/37/10E Annual valuation revision book, Killycolpy ED, 1897-1912
10 PRONI VAL/12B/37/10F Annual valuation revision book, Killycolpy ED, 1913-29
11 PRONI VAL/3C/7/5 First general revaluation, Killycolpy ED, 1936-57

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey three-bay Victorian farmhouse and former rectory, built 1858, with associated farmyard and outbuildings. This house has a certain charm in its proportions and materials but it is a common type and relatively late and the inappropriate alterations have further compromised its worth.