60 Moy Road, Portadown, BT62 1QW

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Rubble stone/brick/mud walled cottage in linear range running NW to SE with front elevation facing NE. Set in rural location 3.3km NW Portadown and 117m S of Moy Road, the cottage is on original access to adjacent quarry which runs immediately in front and is truncated by new quarry access 75m to SE. Band of stone cobbles full length of front elevation blending to bitumen macadam roadway with lawn beyond.

Front NE elevation:
Single storey, 3No store rooms to N & dwelling to S.
SE end of front elevation: original byre now converted to living accommodation. Single door aperture evident with concrete block infill. Red clay brick visible at corner, wet dash render painted with painted smooth render plinth. Flat corrugated galvanised steel sheet roof sloping to rear (SW) with red brick gable to main living accommodation.
Cottage section: 3 No upvc windows with top hung casement, porch with upvc door & timber sheeted door to N (door blocked up). Wet dash render painted with painted smooth render plinth. Cills and window/ door surrounds painted. Pitched corrugated galvanised steel sheet roof. Single concrete block chimney, with single red clay pot, extant.
Store room section: 3No door apertures from S to N - painted timber sheeted/ steel security door and frame/ infilled concrete block and upvc window with side hung casement. Painted wet dash render, pitched roof painted corrugated galvanised steel sheet.
Matching pressed galvanised steel ridge & round upvc RWGs throughout.

End SE elevation:
Original byre now converted to living accommodation, of coursed rubble with red clay brick corners, timber fascia. Timber framed and sheeted return to SW with contiguous metal sheet roof and upvc ogee gutter with round downpipe.

Rear SW elevation:
Timber return to SE housing rear door to Kitchen, accessed from timber framed and transparent corrugated sheet roofed external seating area, with recently constructed (21st century) open-sided shed containing pizza oven opposite, gravel driveway between.
Random rubble stone walling throughout, with concrete blockwork window reveals. 5 No upvc windows with top hung casements.
Central block built return with smooth sand/ cement render, housing oil fired boiler with single timber door to S and single steel framed single glazed window to N. PPC trapezoidal steel sheet roof, upvc RWGs.
Main pitched roof painted corrugated galvanised steel sheet, single section of unpainted steel where central chimney demolished.
No window/door apertures evident to Store room section except rough opening in stonework where concrete block walling internal to storeroom G09 is visible.

End NW elevation:
End pitched gable, painted rough cast render. Original brick header eaves visible with brick infill above where roof raised and pitch steepened. Single high level vent aperture in stonework infilled concrete block. Painted timber barge board.Setting:

Setting:
Rubble stone/brick/mud walled cottage in linear range running NW to SE with front elevation facing NE. Set in rural location 3.3km NW Portadown and 117m S of Moy Road, the cottage is on original access to adjacent quarry which runs immediately in front and is truncated by new quarry access 75m to SE. Band of stone cobbles full length of front elevation blending to bitumen macadam roadway with lawn beyond.

Finishes:
Walls:- coursed rubble/ random rubble/ brick/ conc block infill and reveals.
Roof:- corrugated galvanised steel sheet painted to rear pitch and above store rooms on front elevation, and painted entire SW pitch. PPC trapezoidal steel sheet to central rear return.
Doors:- upvc to living accommodation, timber braced & sheeted to store rooms with single steel framed security door to store.
Windows:- upvc double glazed throughout with single steel framed, single glazed, window to central rear return.
RWGs:- 1/2 round upvc with round downpipes throughout, ogee gutter with round downpipe to rear timber return at Kitchen access.

Historical information

A building matching the plan and location of the present is shown on the OS map of 1835. Structures are also depicted in this general vicinity on John Rocque’s 1760 County Armagh map; however, given the nature of Rocque’s survey, it is difficult to correlate many of the houses on it with what we see on the later, more accurate OS maps.

Unfortunately, the house is not recorded in the 1836 valuation of Drumcree parish as no dwellings in the Cornamucklagh townland were able to meet threshold in terms of rateable value. In the second valuation of 1862 the property (consisting of a ‘house, office [i.e. outbuilding] and land’) was in the possession of James Honeyford, who was leasing it from the Brownlow (Lord Lurgan) estate, with the building rated at a relatively modest £1-15-0.

In 1885 the rateable value was increased to £2 on account of there being ‘new offices’. No additional freestanding structures or extensions to the existing dwelling are discernible on the 1901 OS map, so it is possible this may have involved the rebuilding or refurbishment of the outbuildings to the north end of the house itself, but we cannot be certain.

Benjamin Honeyford Jnr. is named as the tenant in 1887, and in 1892 (or shortly beforehand) he acquired the freehold. In the 1901 census, Benjamin, a 38yr-old farmer, is noted as living here with his wife, Sarah, their two infant daughters, and a farm labourer, Robert Henry Smith, with the house itself noted as a ‘3rd class’ thatched dwelling with 4 rooms in use. The building is recorded much as before in the 1911 census, by which time a further four children had been added to the family.

The Honeyford family appear to have held the property until at least the mid-1930s. The present occupant’s husband began renting the house c.1975.

TOWNLAND Cornamucklagh TD - Ir. Corr na Muclach 'round hill of the piggeries''. The OS Memoirs of February 1835 contains the following description of the townland - ‘Cornamucklagh, so pronounced. Proprietors C. Brownlow Esquire, agent W. Hancock. A hill in this townland is 177 feet above the sea, the highest in the parish. Contains 50 acres of bog, farms from 3 to 12 acres, rent 28s. Houses are of stone. Portadown is 2 and a half miles distant. [Area] 130 acres 38 perches.’

References – Primary sources
1 Map of County Armagh by John Rocque – 1760
2 OS map, 6in County Series, Co. Armagh sheet 9 - 1835, 1860, 1905-06
3 OS Memoirs, Drumcree parish - February 1835
4 PRONI VAL1B/226A-B First valuation, Drumcree parish – 1836
5 PRONI VAL2B/2/24B Second valuation, Drumcree parish – 1862
6 PRONI Val12B/14/2A-E Annual valuation revision books, Breagh ED – 1864-1929
7 Census of Ireland – 1901, 1911 [online http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie ]
8 Information from occupant – February 2022

Secondary sources
9 PlacenamesNI website [ https://www.placenamesni.org/index.php ]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Long, single-storey vernacular house of pre-1835 construction with tin roof, located approximately 2 miles NW of Portadown, Co Armagh. While some historic fabric remains such as limewash over mud & rubblestone walls and the original openings largely remain, the house no longer retains its original hearth, internal joinery, doors or original windows, the latter have which mainly been replaced with PVC. There is also no evidence of thatch under tin in the house section and while remnants of thatch are apparent in the attached outbuilding section, there are modern sawn timbers under tin which appear to have been added after the thatch has been removed and the roof raised. There is insufficient historic fabric for it to meet the criteria for listing.