37 Cloncore Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Pair of conjoined, single-storey, lobby-entry vernacular houses with corrugated iron roofs and partial mud walling, located on E side of Cloncore Road, in a rural landscape south of the M1 motorway at The Birches, approximately 6 miles NW of Portadown. Linear range running approximately W-E, with Building ‘A’ gable-on to Cloncore Road, abutted by Building ‘B’ on its E side.

The former houses face towards the N onto a grassed yard or ‘street’, opposite a tin outbuillding with barrelled tin roof and roughcast gable onto Cloncore Road. Single-storey section on E side with corrugated iron roof.
The site is accessed via two squat square-plan sand/cement piers with pyramidal caps. Small single-storey detached outbuilding on E side of Building B with corrugated iron roof, sand/cement rendered walls.
Both blocks have corrugated iron-sheet roof coverings, metal rainwater goods (where extant), timber fascias & soffits, all windows are single-glazed.

Building A has two replacement redbrick chimneys, one on W gable and one to approx centre.
Building B also has two replacement redbrick chimneys, one on E gable and one towards the W side.

BUILDING A
Front elevation (N)
Assymetrical elevation with breakfront porch to approximate centre of façade with corrugated iron lean-to roof and timber sheeted door. Two window openings to left side, both with historic timber 6/3 sliding sash windows with painted rendered cills, and a single window opening on right side with a historic timber 6/6 sliding sash window and painted rendered cill.
Patches of layers of lime render and sand/cement render with exposed red brickwork in sections.

Gable elevation (W)
Plain roughcast gable, no openings, painted timber barge boards (small overhang), squat brick chimney on ridge.

Rear elevation (S)
Three window openings; left side with historic 6/3 timber sliding sash window, middle with Edwardian 3/3 window with margin panes, smaller 3/3 timber sliding sash window with margin panes on right side. Cills are painted concrete. Façade has patches of layers of lime render and sand/cement render with exposed red brickwork in sections.

Gable elevation €
Fully abutted by Building B.

BUILDING B
Front elevation (N)
Assymetrical sand/cement rendered façade with patches of rough plaster.
Gabled breakfront porch with corrugated tin pitched roof and arched opening with square-headed timber sheeted recessed front door, set within a rough semi-circular-arched opening.
Two window openings to left side with Edwardian timber 3/3 sliding sash windows with margin panes, concrete cills. Single window opening on right side with same window type and cill.

Gable elevation €
Plain roughcast gable, no openings, brick chimney on ridge. Roughcast missing from right side corner exposing mud wall construction beneath.

Rear elevation (S)
Two window openings; on left side 6/3 timber sliding sash window with rough cement-formed cill, then Edwardian 3/3 timber sliding sash window with margin panes and concrete cill to centre. On right side is a large opening, covered with corrugated iron sheet. Cills are painted stone. Façade is same as front with layers and patches of plaster and render with exposed brickwork below.

Gable elevation (W)
Fully abutted by Building A.

Materials
Roof – corrugated iron sheeting
Walls – brick with lime render & sand/cement render, mud walling
Windows – timber sliding sash, single-glazing
RWGs - metal

Historical information

What appears to be the shorter structure, which probably equates to the present building in some form, is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834-35. This is not recorded in the near contemporary first valuation, so it is difficult to tell whether it was actually smaller than the current, or whether this is simply an inaccuracy in the cartography (as was sometimes the case – particularly in relation to vernacular buildings). The length of the present structure (which latterly contained two dwellings) suggests that it may have been extended eastwards – away from the roadside -at some point.

Like many vernacular dwellings it is difficult to ascertain a date of construction for this building. Rocque’s detailed County Armagh map of 1760 does marks ‘Clanchore’ depicts a solitary building (which appears to have been to the south-west of this site) amidst largely boggy landscape traversed by several drainage channels. The smaller scale 1785 ‘O’Neill’ map of the Lough Neagh hinterland shows a similarly undeveloped landscape. It is likely that the house (or at least its earliest section) 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 within which spinning and weaving were also carried out.

On the revised map of 1859 the building is shown as today and it is recorded in the c.1860 valuation as the home of Sarah McKee, with Thomas C. Wakefield the immediate lessor and the property rated at £1-15-0. In 1893 the building is recorded by the valuers as having been split into two properties, one of which was occupied by Valentine McKee and the other in the hands of Maria McKee but noted as vacant. By 1902 the latter dwelling had been rented to Robert Madden, with Andrew Mallon succeeded him the following year and Gilbert Martin by 1906, and in the same year William Henry McKee is recorded as living in and holding the freehold of the neighbouring house. Both Gilbert Martin and W.H. McKee were still living here in 1930.

On the 1980 OS map the street number ‘37’ is shown on the building, suggesting that it had reverted to a single property once again by that date.

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
4 PRONI VAL2B/2/21B Second valuation, c.1860
5 PRONI VAL12B/14/15A-F Annual valuation revisions, 1864-1929
6 OS maps, Irish Grid, 1964-65, 1981

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A pair of conjoined, single-storey, lobby-entry vernacular houses with corrugated iron roofs and partial mud walling, located on Cloncore Road, approximately 6 miles NW of Portadown. The earliest section likely dates from the very end of the 1700s or early 1800s.
Both houses have asymmetrical front facades and retain historic windows. Each house has a breakfront porch, one with a lean-to roof, and the other with a pitched roof and an unusual recessed archway. The house closest to Cloncore Road (‘A’) retains original historic fabric and detailing to the interior including the original hearth. The house on the E side (‘B’) has a large area of exposed mud construction on the E gable, with some other evidence of mud on the rear façade. The Birches, located south of Lough Neagh, is an area known for mud-walled buildings but extant examples are increasingly rare. While it is unknown if either house retains thatch under tin, the pair of dwellings retains much original vernacular character and are of local interest.