40 Derrylileagh Road, Craigavon, BT62 1TG

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long, single-storey gable-ended, corrugated-iron over thatch, mud-walled vernacular dwelling of largely pre-1833 construction, with late Victorian or Edwardian ‘picturesque’ embellishments including a porch and window surrounds. The property is set in rural surrounds on the west side of Derrylileagh Road, roughly 11.5km northwest of Portadown town centre. To the front, separating the house from the road is a small garden, with a much larger garden to the rear, to the north end of which is a metal-sheeted mid-20th century barn.

Set on a north-south axis, the building is basically rectangular in plan, with the gabled porch to the north of centre at the front, and a small rear flat-roofed extension to the south of centre at the rear. The front and end walls are finished in painted roughcast with decorative smooth render surrounds to the windows, whilst the porch has a dry-dash finish with similar bands to its openings and to the wall edges. The rear façade is partly finished in roughcast, partly lime-washed, with the northernmost bay part cement rendered and part bare rubble. The extension is plain rendered. The roof of main section and the porch are covered in corrugated-iron, with decorative pierced timber bargeboards (with star motifs) to the latter. The main roof has three chimneystacks to its ridge, two finished in render, the other in painted brick. The roof of the extension is covered in a more recent corrugated sheeting. Outside of the recent extension, the windows are all relatively small and have two over two timber sash frames, with one over one frames in those to the porch. All windows are single-glazed. Painted stone sills. uPVC RW goods.

The east-facing frontage is asymmetrical. The gabled porch is to the right of centre and has a doorway to its front-facing gable with panelled timber door, overlight and sidelights. To both side faces of the porch is a window with three more unevenly-spaced windows to the left of the porch and two more to the right.

The N & S gables are blank.

To the rear there are two 2/2 timber sliding sash windows to the left of the extension, and one on the right. Evidence suggests that an opening to the far left has been blocked up. There is a doorway with plain-sheeted door to far right.

The extension has a doorway with part glazed door to the north face, and a window with modern frame to the south.

MATERIALS:
Roof: Corrugated iron over thatch
RWGs: uPVC
Walls: Painted roughcast over mud, smooth rendered surrounds, dry-dash to porch, lime-wash to rear
Windows: painted timber sliding sash with single-glazing / top-hung timber to extension

Historical information

A slightly shorter structure, which probably equates to the present house in some form, is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834-35. This building is not recorded in the near contemporary first valuation, so it is difficult to tell whether it was actually smaller than the current dwelling, or whether this is simply an inaccuracy in the cartography (as was sometimes the case). On the revised map of 1859 the building is shown much as today and this is recorded in the c.1860 valuation as the home of Robert Stinson, with Joseph Nicholson the immediate lessor and the property rated at £1-10-0.

Like many vernacular dwellings it is difficult to ascertain a date of construction for this building. Rocque’s detailed County Armagh map of 1760 shows Derrylileagh townland as a largely boggy expanse devoid of roads or buildings with Derrylileagh Lough itself the only conspicuous feature. The smaller scale 1785 ‘O’Neill’ map of the Lough Neagh hinterland shows a similarly undeveloped landscape. It is likely that the house dates from the very end of the 1700s or the early 1800s, a time of rapid population increase throughout Ireland which witnessed the building on more ‘marginal’ areas of land in general. Population in this particular area of north Armagh also benefitted from the growth in the linen manufacturing, a trend which witnessed the building of new dwellings, many intended to house a loom as well as a family.

In either 1872 or 1876 (the valuation book is not entirely clear), John Hutchinson took on the lease, and in 1879 the rateable value was raised to £3-10-0, suggesting that the new tenant may have carried out some improvements around this date, although this was lowered to £2-00-0 in 1884 implying (perhaps) that these improvements were relatively minor. Hutchinson was followed by William Stewart in 1883 and George Brown in 1887. Thomas Brown (presumably a relation of the latter) acquired the freehold from the Nicholson estate in 1895, and in the same two properties are recorded for the first time, with the larger rented initially to Thomas Matchett and from 1901, Robert Stevenson, with the smaller house, (which took up the single bay to the south end and was entered via a back door), occupied by Thomas Venart. Stevenson was succeeded by Mary A. Neill in 1910, then William J. Hinds in 1911 and Samuel Wylie in 1912; in the same year Henry Neill. The valuations state that both Wylie and Neill were still living there in 1929. At some point, (probably not long after this date) the southern end of the building ceased to be used as a separate dwelling.

A projection is shown on the 1954 and 1967 maps, but the present flat-roofed extension appears to be slightly larger and may be post-1967.

The current owner states that at some point the house belonged to (or was occupied by) a leading local member of the Masonic Order; this could account for the star motif on the bargeboards.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Survey of the County of Armagh’ by John Rocque, 1760
2 Map of ‘Lough Neagh and country adjacent..’, 1785
3 OS maps Six-inch County Series –Armagh sheet 5 - 1834-35, 1859, 1905, 1954
4 PRONI VAL2B/2/21B Second valuation, c.1860
5 PRONI VAL12B/14/15A-F Annual valuation revisions, 1864-1929

Secondary sources
6 Information from owner (February 2019)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
Z. Rarity
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

No.40 Derrylileagh Road is a relatively large, well-preserved, pre-1833 part mud-walled vernacular dwelling with some late Victorian / Edwardian embellishments and sparse fenestration. Located in an unspoilt setting, it retains its original roof structure with roughly hewn timbers, scraws and thatch, now covered by a corrugated iron roof. It retains much of its internal layout, with the original plan-form as a hearth-lobby type still legible despite some changes. Whilst the porch is a later and somewhat more formal addition, its naïve picturesque detailing is very much within the vernacular idiom. Larger mud-walled dwellings in this state of preservation are comparatively rare, and as well as being a very good example of the genre this particular building is also a distinctive local landmark. It is located in an area of similar style surviving vernacular houses, many with similar plan-forms, mud-wall and roof constructions. It is part of a significant indigenous group of buildings on the S shore of Lough Neagh.