55 Corlagh Road,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey house, dated 1836, located to the east side of Corlagh Road. Rectangular-on-plan with single-storey lean-to addition to north.

Roof is pitched natural slate with blue/black clay ridge tiles over brick corbelled eaves; raised stone verges; roughcast brick chimneys with replacement clay pots. Walls are lime-rendered; west gable is roughcast. Windows are timber-framed 6/6 sliding sash with exposed sash boxes at ground floor; 2/2 sliding sash with exposed sash boxes at first floor; all have sandstone sills.

Principal elevation faces south and consists of central round-arched entrance containing vertically-sheeted timber door with fanlight flanked by window at each side; three windows at first floor.

West gable is blank.

North elevation is abutted at centre by red brick lean-to; exposed section at left contains 2/2 and 4/4 sliding sash windows; exposed section at right contains 3/3 sliding sash window; two small 2/2 sliding sash windows at first floor. Lean-to is partially derelict (roof collapsed); fixed glazed window with timber lintel to east.

East gable is blank.

Setting

House is set within farmyard with single-storey rubble stable block with pitched corrugated metal roof abutted at west by remains of rubble building. To north-east, two-storey lime-rendered building with pitched natural slate roof. Site accessed from lane at west; remains of rubble boundary wall to south with stone stile to upper level; circular rubble gate pier to south-east.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Lime-render
Windows timber-framed
RWG Cast-iron

Historical information

The building is first shown on the second edition OS map of 1853, with some outbuildings present on the earlier edition of 1833.

The house bears a datestone of 1836, but cannot be positively identified in the Townland Valuation. Griffith’s Valuation records a ‘house, office and land’, valued at £4, which is occupied by John Deazley and leased from Charles Deazley. The property valuation is increased to £4.5s in 1865, with the occupier listed as William Deazley at this time. In 1904 the occupier is revised to John Warnock in fee and the valuation decreases slightly to £4.

It would appear from a marriage settlement of 1853 that a daughter of the Deazeleys, Catherine, married Alexander Warnock and this is how the house came to pass to the Warnock family.

John Howard Deazeley, a Rector in Donegal, and a possible descendant of this family (d.1924) was a published poet and translator of the classics.

After 1933 the house is occupied by James Whitaker and then leased by him to Owen McGoldrick. At this time the house comprises a kitchen, three bedrooms and a p[antry?] on the ground floor and four bedrooms on the first floor. The valuation is raised to £5 and £1.10 for outbuildings. The valuer notes, ‘occupied by James Harnigan as herd’. A plan and dimensions are given.

The house is decorated with Masonic symbols which would suggest that the Deazleys had a Masonic background. However, no sources have been found to verify this.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/41/2-4 - Ordnance Survey Maps (1833, 1853, 1905, 1939)
2. PRONI VAL/1/A/6/41 - Townland Valuation (1820-1840)
3. PRONI VAL/1/B/629 - Townland Valuation (1820-1840)
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/31A - Griffith’s Valuation (1858)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/41/25A-F - Valuation Revisions (1860-1929)
6. PRONI D/3774/1/1 – Marriage Settlement Warnock/Deazeley (1853)

Secondary Sources

Deazeley, J.H. “Poems”, London Literary Society, 1883
Deazeley, J.H. “A Selection of Songs and Verses”, 1909
Deazeley, J.H. “The Odes of Horace, Books I and II. Done into English verse with Andromeda, Ariadne and Jason”, Henry Frowde, 1894
Deazeley, J.H. “The Odes, Books III and IV, Epodes and Carmen Saeculare. Translated into English Verse” Henry Frowde, 1895

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

A detached three-bay two-storey house, dated 1836. Most of its original fabric and character survives, including ornate detailing such as plasterwork and wall-hearth to kitchen. The building retains its robust character and original simple plan form consisting of principal rooms accessed from central stair hall which remains intact. The setting, including rubble outbuildings to the north of the house itself, also survives. It is a substantial example of a type that is still being lost.

General comments

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