52 Glassmullagh Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one-and-a-half- storey four bay thatched house. Of rubble stone, rough cast rendered and painted to front with smooth rendered lime wash to rear. Building faces north onto Glassmullagh Road. It is situated at the edge of the road with a small farmyard containing corrugated metal and concrete block outbuildings to west and the rear.

Glassmullagh Road slopes along the front of building falling to the west. A smooth rendered plinth course is horizontal as are windows and the roof. The house is gabled with two brick chimneys equally spaced rising to the ridge from internal walls. Simple matchboard entrance door to west side of central bay with two over two sash to east. Similar window aligning in centre of upper bay to east. Two similar windows aligning in bay to west. Painted stone cills.

The roof is currently finished cut perpendicular to the slope with a single hazel rod (ligger) securing the eaves. The roof is a scallop thatch with a wrap over ridge flush with the rest of the slope. Two liggers secure the thatch along the ridge. Natural colour sand cement parging at gables and chimneys. Thatch sits up from gable by approximately 100mm. The gable has a simple cement coping which projects to form a drip at eaves level.

The rear façade facing south has an irregular window layout. A small, tin roofed concrete block and sand cement rendered return projects from the eastern end of the elevation and covers part of the end and central bays. A casement kitchen window is centred on the end gable. Adjacent to the west of the return, a top hung casement lights the living room in the central bay. A small sash aligns above. Further to the west, two windows in the lower bay a one over one sash and a smaller casement. Between these at first floor a one over one sash.

The east gable has a single two over two sash at high level, placed centrally. It is blank below, to the rear a small flat roofed extension abuts the return. The is a single small casement window.

Behind the building and almost perpendicular is a 'sister' building once of very similar appearance but now heavily remodelled. The two houses are separated by a small stream.

Historical information

The house is indicated on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map along with a parallel barn to the rear (still existing) and a small barn to the south-east (now gone). A perpendicular house to the north-west, closer to the house than the current neighbour, is also indicated. The building was recorded in the contemporary valuation as a ‘house and offices’ occupied by a Richard Philips, with the relatively high rateable value of £4-2-0. Richard Philips (or a relative of the same name) is listed as the occupant in the second valuation of 1862, with the Earl of Erne recorded as the lessor. By this point the rateable value had dropped slightly, to £4.

The cross roads north-west of the house were constructed between 1834 and 1857. The building is associated with a farm of 35 acres originally leased from the Crom estate. The current family acquired the farm in 1928. The work to the roof trusses was carried out in 1950. The front roof was rethatched in rye straw in 1992 . Repairs were carried out to the rear slope in 1993 in the same material. Repairs to windows and some internal items were carried out in 1995. Further repairs to the rear roof in rye were carried out in 1997. In 1999, further repairs were carried out after storm damage. In 2002, repair works were carried out to the thatch mainly to the rear and also to the front under the chimneys. This work was carried out in wheat straw.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/4/39 OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 39, with valuation
references (1834 / 35-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/413 First valuation, Kinawley (c.1835)
3 PRONI VAL/2A/4/39A Revised OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 39, with valuation references (1857-c.62)
4 PRONI VAL/2B/4/8D Second valuation, Kinawley (1862)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Lobby entry thatched house near a road junction. High front wall due to its storey-and-a half -arrangement. Historic plan and roof structure remain and have unusual and interesting variations from standard types.