97 Lettercarn Road,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay single-storey direct-entry formerly thatched vernacular dwelling, built c.1840, located to the south side of Lettercarn Road. Rectangular-on-plan with windbreak porch to east; attached shed to south; attached byre to north.

Roof is pitched corrugated metal; lime-rendered chimneys (that to north is cement rendered). Walls are lime-rendered over rubble construction. Windows are timber-framed 2/2 sliding sashes with exposed sash boxes; painted masonry sills.

Principal elevation faces east; left and right bays each contain single window; central bay contains single window at left flanked at right by windbreak porch with concrete roof containing door opening (door removed).

South gable abutted by rubble shed containing large square-headed opening to east; further abutted by remains of rubble outbuilding.

West elevation contains two windows to central bay and one to right.

North gable is abutted by byre containing square-headed vertically-sheeted timber door and timber casement window to east and west elevations; further abutted to north by lean-to shed.

Set within yard with detached single-storey farm building to north, detailed as house; building appears to have been extended to the west and is abutted at north by lean-to. Site accessed from road at north, with road through yard to farmland beyond.

Historical information

Buildings first appear on the site on the second edition of 1855, however, both field and map evidence would suggest that the current dwelling on the site has been extended to the south in the early twentieth century. An attached outbuilding also seems to date from this period. A separate outbuilding to the north of the house has been present from the second edition and also seems to have extended or rebuilt in the early twentieth century.

A ‘house, offices and land’ is listed in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64), buildings being valued at £1.5s, later reduced to £1. Samuel McKeon Junior leases the property from Audley Caldwell. The lessor becomes Sarah Caldwell in 1862.

Samuel McKeon purchases the house in 1909 under land purchase legislation of the early twentieth century. Post 1933 the valuation of the house is raised to £1.10s and 10s for outbuildings. The house comprises a kitchen, two rooms and one small room with an earth floor – this is later altered to ‘concrete’ but the change is undated. In 1933 the house was of rubble masonry and thatch measuring 47x20x11. A plan is given. The valuer comments, ‘Water close. House recently repaired…reroofed’, indicating that the house has been roofed with corrugated iron, but the change is, again, undated.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/24/2 – Second Edition OS Map (1855)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/24/3 – Third Edition OS Map (1905)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/24/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map (1939-50)
4. PRONI VAL/2/A/6/24 – Griffiths’ Valuation Map
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/37B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/35/4A-F – Annual Revision Records (1860-1924)
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/7/1F/2 – Valuers’ RV Binder (1933-57)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A detached three-bay single-storey direct-entry vernacular dwelling with attic, built c.1860, located to the west side of Bolaght Road. This simple building form has been extended in a linear pattern, in a typical development of this building type. The building retains original external fabric including doors and render, and is enhanced by attached byre and barn, which have been built simultaneously, however the setting has been adversly altered with the erection of a more modern outbuilding . Whilst reasonably intact there are better examples of the type.