126 Drumlegagh Church Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1890. Rectangular on plan facing west with front entrance porch, single-storey rear return and corrugated iron structure to south gable. Range of two-storey stone outbuildings to north forming informal rear yard.

Pitched natural slate roof, brick chimneystacks rising from either gable end, black clay ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods to wrought-iron brackets. Steel rainwater goods to rear. Ruled-and-lined cement render and rusticated quoins to front elevation, rough-cast lime over rubble stone to other elevations. Square-headed window openings, concrete sills, and 2/2 horizontally-glazed timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and concave horns.

Three-bay front elevation with central shallow lean-to windbreaker porch having concrete roof and replacement hardwood glazed door opening onto a concrete step.

Blind north gable.

Three-bay rear elevation with central single-storey rear return having pitched natural slate roof, steel rainwater goods, timber casement window to gable and vertically-sheeted timber door to the north opening onto a stone flagged rear area.

Blind south gable.

Setting

Set on an elevated site overlooking a valley to the east side of Drumlegagh Church Road.

There is a detached multi-bay two-storey rubble stone outbuilding is set perpendicular to the rear of the house on a rectangular plan. Pitched roof, natural slate to the west with black clay ridge tiles, corrugated iron to the east end. Cast-iron rainwater goods on iron brackets. White wash over rubble stone walling. Square-headed window and door openings with stone and concrete lintels, vertically-sheeted timber doors, steel casement windows to the ground floor, timber shutters to the first floor.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Cement render/lime rough-cast
Windows Timber sash
Rainwater goods Cast-iron

Historical information

The current house is first shown on the fourth edition of the OS map (1939-50). A house is present on the same site from the first edition OS map of 1833, and part of this earlier building may be included in the present structure. Some lime mortar can be found to the side and rear elevations covering rubble stone, perhaps indicating that the cement render to the front elevation was part of a remodelling process, explaining the crudely inscribed date '1912'.

In Griffith’s Valuation (1858) and in Annual Revisions the property is occupied by the McElhill family and leased from Sir James M. Stronge BT. In 1914 the building valuation increases from £0.15s to £2.5s and a plan and measurements are given for the new building.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/24/1-3 - Ordnance Survey Maps (1833, 1855, 1905, 1939-50)
2. PRONI VAL/2/A/6/24 - Griffith’s Valuation (1858)
3. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/37A-B - Griffith’s Valuation (1858)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/35/4A-F - Valuation Revisions (1860-1923)

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
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Detached three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1890. While this modest dwelling does not fit neatly into the vernacular tradition because of its more formal composition, the level of intactness is of particular note. Details throughtout are simple, robust and unaltered. In its picturesque setting, the house constitutes an example of a once common late nineteenth-century rural house that is rare in its survival and completeness.