Barn

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Unusual, barn-like two-storey shop and store of 1927, with corrugated-iron clad walls and curved roof. The building is set in an isolated rural location on the south side of the A47, close to the shores of Lower Lough Erne. The building is set back from the road with a metalled forecourt, and, to the a parking / loading area to the east.

The main structure has a rectangular footprint but to the rear there is a small two-cell lean-to within which is a dry closet and a small store. The building is barrel-vaulted and presents a gable to the road.

The north front façade is symmetrical with a central paired timber sheeted door, surmounted by a plain over-light and flanked either side with plain shop windows. The windows have timber-sheeted shutters with metal handles, and are removable. The first floor is devoid of openings.

The eastern side of the main structure is also symmetrical with a central door and single windows openings either side; at first floor there are three evenly spaced similar window openings.

The south façade has a single-storey lean-to addition to the left side but is otherwise featureless. The addition has one door to the east gable and one to the left side of the south face.

There are no openings to the western face. To the centre of the first floor there is a bracketed arrangement that supports a galvanised metal water cistern.

The roof and the walls are covered with galvanised corrugated-iron. The rainwater goods are galvanised steel and some sections are now missing. The shop windows each have two panes with a central mullion. The window sill is cow-nosed and ‘wrapped’ in galvanised metal. The windows to the east side are timber sash (two over two) with margin panes with timber sills.

Historical information

The building is first recorded - as a 'shop and store'- in an entry in the valuation book dated 1927. So it was either built within that year, or possibly that immediately preceding. The person responsible for its construction was Samuel Quinn, who had acquired the wider plot of land from the Malley family in c.1911 and built a new house at the end of the lane to the south in 1912. According to his grandson (who currently owns the property) Samuel made his fortune in America, and shortly after returning home, built the shop (perhaps, one wonders, based on similar adaptations of 'farm' structures he had seen in the US). He also states that the shop thrived on business brought to the area by the railway, the line of which ran just south of the building; however there never appears to have been a halt or station within the vicinity.

The shop later passed to Samuel Quinn's son, also named Samuel, who ran it until the late 1970s.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/27/3A-E (1864-1929)
2 OSNI OS10-4-4-14-1 (1905)
3 PRONI VAL12A/4 /20 (1912)
4 PRONI VAL12F/5/3/2 (1930)
5 PRONI VAL3B/5/5 (1935
6 PRONI VAL4B/4/8 (1956-72)

Secondary sources
1 Information supplied by owner (2011.12.15)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This unusual two-storey shop of 1927 represents an innovative use of building materials and techniques more associated with the construction of barns and other early to mid 20th century farm buildings. Largely intact both inside and out, it is a notable local landmark, and of its type, possibly unique within Northern Ireland.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age and S - Authenticity also apply to this building.