40 Carn Road,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-bay two-storey mid nineteenth-century house, located on the west side of Carn Road. Rectangular on plan with central lean-to porch.

Roof is pitched natural slate with roll-moulded clay ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks to gables. Rainwater goods are half-round cast-iron (partially detached), over stone eaves corbel. Walling is pebble-dashed over random coursed rubble with rusticated smooth render quoins. Windows are vestiges of 3/6 and 6/6 sashes with smooth rendered reveals having decorative heads. Sills are concrete.

Principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged about the central lean-to porch, which has ruled-and-lined rendered walls and a concrete slab roof. Door has four bolection moulded panels with central bronze knob and rectangular geometric fanlight over.

Left gable is blank and is abutted by the vestiges of a lean-to byre, now roofless and with random rubble stone walls. It has a single window opening to west, with stone lintel and sill.

Rear elevation is abutted by a central lean-to extension with corrugated metal roof. There is a small window to either side at ground floor (windows gone) and first floor has two metal-framed 8/16 pivot casements. Windows to extension are gone.

Right gable is blank.

The house occupies a mature farmyard
setting with two-storey barn to rear. There are a variety of single-storey stone outbuildings to south, with remains of pitched natural slate roofs and timber sheeted stable doors. It is accessed by a mature grassed lane from north-east.

Roof: Pitched natural slate
Walling: Pebble-dashed rubble stone
Windows: Vestiges of timber sashes; metal-framed pivoting casements
RWG: Half-round cast-iron

Historical information

A structure first appears on the site on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853, which may form the basis of the current house. Further buildings appear to the west by the third edition of 1904-5 and to the south of the main house by the fourth edition of 1951.

Griffith’s Valuation (1859) lists a ‘house, offices and land’ with buildings valued at £2.5s. It is occupied by William Sproule and leased from Sir Robert Ferguson. In 1862 the lessor changes to William Knox and the valuation is reduced to £2. The property remains in the Sproule family throughout the period of Annual Revisions (1860-1929).

By 1933 Samuel Sproule has become the owner in fee under land purchase legislation of the early twentieth century. The valuation subsequently increases to £5 and 15s for outbuildings, suggesting a rebuilding or remodelling of the main house in the preceding years. The hearth and thick walling visible on the ground floor are suggestive of an earlier single storey structure that has been raised and remodelled in the early twentieth century.

At this time the house comprises a kitchen, porch, three rooms and four bedrooms. The valuer remarks that clean water is distant from the house. A plan and dimensions are given for the house and the lean-to structure at the rear. The house and lean-to are both of rubble masonry, while the house is slated and the lean-to is roofed with corrugated iron.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/15/1 – First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/15/2 – Second Edition OS Map (1853)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/15/3 – Third Edition OS Map (1904-5)
4. PRONI OS/6/6/15/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map (1951)
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/6/15 – Townland Valuation Map
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/630A-B – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7. PRONI VAL/2/A/6/15 – Griffiths’ Valuation Map
8. PRONI Printed Griffith’s Valuation, Union of Castlederg (1859)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/35/16A-F – Annual Revision Records (1860-1923)
10. PRONI VAL/3/D/7/1A/2 – Valuers' RV Binder (1933-57)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey farmhouse typifying the transition between vernacular and formal styles characteristic of the nineteenth century. The house has traditional elements such as thick rubble stone walls and a substantial stone hearth, and retains evidence of timber shutters. Although of interest the building's character has been degraded due to the loss of historic fabric and detailing and is not worthy of listing.