Ederney Post Office

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Ederney Post Office sits half-way down its gently sloping main street. Although not outstanding individually, all of the other buildings in the street have an integrity of scale which reflects a rural village. To the rear of the building there is an overgrown garden.

The building itself is three-bay, two storey, with pitched roof of natural slate, fine ashlar sandstone chimneys, cast iron rainwater googs to the front and plastic rainwater goods to the rear. The street façade faces due West.

The three upstairs windows to the front have exposed weight boxes, six over six sashes with fine glazing bars. They appear to be original. One uostairs rear window has the exposed weight boxes but has no glazing bars. Two of the other upstairs rear windows have six over sixashes and fine glazing bars but no exposed boxes. The remaining two rear windows, one large downstairs and one small and narrow upstairs are metal, modern.

On the Main Street façade, in the centre of the centre bay is the main door into the Post Office. The door is sheeted and both it and the fanlight above are recent but reasonably appropriate.
On either side of the front door are fixed windows, with twelve panes each, three wide by four high.The window to the right, with very fine glazing bars, appears to be much older and has a red post box fitting into one quarter. The window to the laft is recent and has chunky glazing bars.

The House door, at the extreme right-hand side of the front, appears to be original with its sheeting, heavy transome and very fine light above.

At the extreme left-hand side of the front is an open entry with a segmental arch and bedrooms above, the arch interrupting the plaster quoins of the building.

The entire front is rendered in wet dash, probably recent , in sand/cement. The openings, including the arch all have 50mm plain plaster bands. Cills are stone, painted.

The rear still has its lime wet dash. The rear arch of the entry is also segmental. There are no plain plaster bands to the rear.

Historical information

Although this side of Main Street had been developed by the 1830s (at least), the valuation records of 1834 show that this development consisted of a mixture of relatively old single to one and a half storey dwellings and public houses (some thatched), the tallest of which appears to have measured 12½ft. Moreover, the plots as shown the c.1838 village plan do not appear to match anything we see today.

A building is shown much as present on the village plan of 1859 and recorded in the contemporary (1858-60) valuation as a 'small drapery shop' measuring 11yrds x 8 x 2(storeys or 19ft high), leased by a John Monaghan to a Catherine Sweeny, and possessing the respectable ratable value of £8. Monaghan was also the lessor of the neighbouring property to the south: given the similarities between both buildings it is feasible to suggest that he may have been responsible for their construction. At this point the village post office was located within a building a few doors south of this, in what is now a public house [?no.13 Main Street].

In 1889 a Thomas Drury took over the tenancy, followed in 1919 by a Catherine Drury. The valuations do not make it clear when the property became the village post office, but the interior detailing suggests c.1920s-30s.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1B/418 First valuation, Magheraculmoney parish, 1834
2 PRONI VAL/1D/4/2 Valuation plan of Ederney, c.1838
3 PRONI VAL/2B/4/13A Second valuation, Magheraculmoney parish, 1858-60
4 PRONI VAL/2D/4/3 Valuation plan of Ederney, 1859
5 PRONI VAL/12B/27/7A Annual valuation revision book, Ederney ED, 1854-76
6 PRONI VAL/12B/27/7B Annual valuation revision book, Ederney ED, 1877-81
7 PRONI VAL/12B/27/7C Annual valuation revision book, Ederney ED, 1882-89
8 PRONI VAL/12B/27/7D Annual valuation revision book, Ederney ED, 1890-98
9 PRONI VAL/12B/27/7E Annual valuation revision book, Ederney ED, 1899-1913
10 PRONI VAL/12E/134/1 Valuation plan of Ederney, 1904-08
11 PRONI VAL/12B/27/7A Annual valuation revision book, Ederney ED, 1914-29
12 PRONI VAL/3G/104/1 Valuation plan of Ederney, 1937 (with annotations up to 1956)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Ederney Post Office is a rare survival of an early 20th century social institution in a mid 19th century building.
It is an unspoiled building in a relatively unspoiled street with the survival of fine windows, doors, fanlight, ashlar chimneys and arched entry.