120 Coa Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The description below was recorded prior to the building being demolished during the listing process in November 2020.

Relatively large, hipped roof bungalow of 1925, of corrugated-iron construction with verandah to front and four brick chimney stacks. Located on the north-west side of Coa Road, approximately 8km from the centre of Enniskillen, on a raised site with views from front across countryside towards the south-east.

The building was constructed with a rectangular footprint; a small lean-to rear porch has been added to the north-west rear façade, off-centre.

Extending across the full width of the front south-east façade is an open veranda; this is supported on a series of square timber posts with horizontal brace members between. A flight of three concrete steps rise to the centre of the front façade, to a replacement uPVC door screen with sidelights and overlight. Two window openings flank the door screen. The two windows on left side are replacement uPVC, and the two on right side are Crittall-style and formed in galvanised steel, with six panes and a two-pane side-hung opener.

The south-west side façade has six window openings, two per room, all replacement uPVC with painted timber cills and surrounds.

The north-west rear façade has had a plain rendered lean-to porch added to right of centre. Window opening on right side of porch is replacement uPVC, that on far left of porch is crittal, and two windows on immediate left side of porch are uPVC.

The north-east side façade is similar to the south-west façade except that is has five window openings instead of six, all six-pane crittal-style.

Roof
The roof is pitched. The front south-east section is symmetrical and is hipped. The rear north-west section is also symmetrical; here the roof is double-piled with a central valley gutter, the north-west face is gabled. The roof is covered with corrugated-iron. Eaves are overhanging and have sloping, timber clad soffits. Verges are also overhanging and have timber clad soffits. The soffit to the veranda is also timber clad.
There are four evenly-spaced chimney stacks, two located on each long ridge. These are constructed in straw-coloured clay brick and have corbelled caps and matching plain clay pots.

Materials
Walls - corrugated-iron cladding on a shallow rendered plinth.
Windows – of the 20 openings to the main block (19 windows & 1 door), 8 no. are Crittall-style and formed in galvanised steel, and 12 no. are replacement uPVC. All window openings have raised timber, architrave-style surrounds, timber sills and straight heads.
Front door - uPVC replacement.
Rear porch door in extension – timber frame with upper and lower glazed panels.
Rainwater goods – painted metal downpipes & gutters to main block, uPVC/metal to rear porch.

The site is entered through a symmetrical curved gate screen. This is formed in red clay facing brick and framed with square concrete gateposts. Those to the centre are panelled and have corbelled caps. The panels and caps have 'domino'-style decoration. The gate screen is set to the left of centre of the 'main axis'; a vehicle drive extends up to the rear, small rendered out-building to rear W corner.
Set on the 'main axis', directly in front of the house and following the contours of the land, is a flight of external steps. The foot of the steps is marked with flanking square concrete posts, similar to those at the main entrance but smaller. The steps are guarded on the left side with a tubular steel handrail.

Setting
Located on the north-west side of Coa Road, approximately 8km from the centre of Enniskillen, on a raised site with views from front across countryside towards the south-east.

Historical information

The present no.120 Coa Road was built in 1925 for Mrs. Sarah Wilson, on land which the valuation records state had been in the family’s possession since at least 1864. According to her grandson, Sarah is said to have requested the house as retirement residence from her son William, who at that time ran a timber firm in Dublin that specialised in the manufacture of kit-form bungalows for export throughout the British Empire as residences for British administrators. The kit, which is thought to have been originally destined for Darjeeling in India, was delivered by train to Enniskillen and transported from there to the present site on a horse-drawn wagon. At a time when the vast majority of new private domestic dwellings in Northern Ireland were constructed with traditional construction techniques using either brick or block and render, this formally designed corrugated-iron kit building was, at very least, highly unusual.

The property appears remained with the Wilson family (or at least someone of the same name) until the 2010s and was sold c.2019.

The building is specifically recorded in the valuations in 1925 as a ‘bungalow’, still something of a novelty at this date. A ‘shop’ is also noted as sitting within the same plot- possibly within a separate outbuilding, although this is difficult to verify.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/26/2E (1910-26)
2 PRONI VAL12F/5/2/1 (1930-35)
3 PRONI VAL3B/5/2 (1935-36)
4 OSNI OS11-211-4-1 (1957)

Secondary sources
5 Loeber, Rolf, et al, ‘Architecture 1600-2000 – Art and Architecture of Ireland Volume IV’, (RIA, 2014), pp.77-78
6 Information form Dr. Barry O’Reilly, September 2020
7 “Darjeeling Bungalow still home to many memories” in ‘The Impartial Reporter’, 14 September 2020
(see also https://www.impartialreporter.com/news/18711346.fond-memories-uniquely-special-darjeeling-bungalow-heart-fermanagh/)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed
Not listed
Not listed
Not listed
Not listed

Evaluation

No.120 Coa Road was a substantial, corrugated iron constructed, hipped roof bungalow with veranda front, built in or just shortly before 1925 on a rurally located raised site. It was a highly unusual structure for a number of reasons, for not only is it a rare early 20th century instance of a wholly corrugated iron dwelling house, but it [was] also a comparatively large one - said by Dr. Barry O'Reilly (who has made a study of these buildings) to be the largest of its kind on the island of Ireland. In addition to this, it represented an early use of prefabricated ‘kit’ construction, a method that in the context of Northern Ireland at this time, was basically unknown in the sphere of domestic buildings. Due to the use of this technique the dwelling [had] a formal appearance, distinguishing it from its corrugated contemporaries, (which generally followed simple linear vernacular idioms), whilst its decidedly ‘colonial’ look itself was also noteworthy, the house is believed to have been manufactured as a residence for a British colonial administrator in India.

Despite the relatively recent replacement of some of window frames and the entrance with PVC, the building was largely original both externally and internally, and the site, which includes a memorable gate screen with domino-like motifs, remain[ed] similarly untouched. Corrugated iron domestic structures were never a common type in Northern Ireland, and pre-WWII examples are now extremely rare; no.120 Coa Road [was] one of this small number, and given its exclusive combination of additional attributes, made it a building of special architectural and historic interest.

Unfortunately, the building was demolished during the final stages of the listing process.