Carn House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey farmhouse with formal late Georgian front block of c.1810-20, and long low return. The building is set within a spacious garden with a large collection of outbuildings, on the east side of Charlestown Road roughly two miles north of Portadown.

The house has an L-shaped plan form with the long gabled return set roughly on an E-W axis and the front block (also gabled) to the W end. To the E end of the return is a single-storey brick-built gabled outbuilding of the later 19th century, with a larger freestanding outbuilding to the S of this, of similar date and construction. There are more outbuildings further to the south of various dates, whilst to the N of the house is a large garden.

The front face of the main block is a typical three openings wide late Georgian composition. To the centre of the ground floor is main entrance which consists of a plain timber sheeted door and segmental fanlight, with Adamesque swag moulding to the lintel and ‘spider’s web’ tracery to the fanlight. The door is set within a typically Regency coved semicircular-arched reveal with moulded edging.

To the left of the doorway is a flat-arched window opening with a painted stone cill, cement rended eared and heeled surround, (of the early 1900s), and a replacement uPVC frame. To the right of the entrance is an identical window with three more similar, but shorter, windows to the first floor.

The N gable of the has a window, (as front but witout surround), to the left on the first floor. To the left at ‘attic’ level is a tiny window with a two-pane timber frame, which appears to be fixed.

To the S gable there is a window to the right at ground floor level, with a similar but shorter window in line with it to the first floor. Both windows are as that to the N gable. To right at ‘attic’ level there is a much smaller window with a single pane frame.

The return abuts the the right hand (S) side of the rear face of the front block. Attached to the centre / north side of this face there is a two-storey lean-to projection, To the E face of the lean-to there is a doorway to the ground floor with half-glazed timber door, with a small window, with timber sash frame (2/2), to the upper floor. To the N face of the lean-to there is a window to the ground floor with a smaller one to the first floor. Both have timber sash frames with Georgian panes, (that to ground floor 3/6, that to first floor 3/3). To the right had side of the ground floor of the N face of the front block itself there is a window, as ground floor of the S gable.

The return has an informal arrangement of openings. To the left on the ground floor of the S face there are two identical windows, each with timber sash frames with Georgian panes (6/6), with two similar but smaller windows in line with these to the first floor (3/3). To the right on the ground floor there is a relatively large lean-to open porch with a large ‘doorway’ opening to front, a large window (with modern timber frame) to its immediate left, and a larger frameless ‘window’ opening to the right. To the W face of the porch there is a smaller window with modern three pane timber frame. Within the porch (i.e. to the actual face of the return) there is a doorway with timber sheeted door to left, then a window with Georgian-paned timber sash frame (3/6), then another doorway with half-glazed timber door, then, (beyond a partition), another window, as previous. To the first floor (directly above the projection) there are two small windows, also with Georgian-paned sash frames (3/3).

To the N face of the return there are three unevenly spaced windows to each floor, those to the first floor much smaller. All have Georgian-paned timber sash frames, 3/6 to the ground floor, 3/3 to the first floor.

To the S face of the single-storey outbuilding attached to the E end of the return there three window openings, (now largely boarded up), with a doorway, (with timber sheeted door), set between the first and second windows. To the N face of the outbuilding there are three more windows. That to left is smaller and has a Georgian-paned timber sash frame (3/6), the next has the dilapidated remains of an Edwardian style timber casement frame, (with three fixed panes above), whilst that to right is boarded up. To the (W-facing) gable there is a very small window to the right, set at a low level. This window has a four-pane timber frame.

The front face of the front block is finished in pebbledash with cement rendered in-out quoins, base course, eaves course and window surrounds. The other facades of the block are finished in lined cement render with similar quoins. The S face of the return is also finished in lined cement render, though the porch projection is finished in a mixture of cement render, roughcast and painted brick. The N face of the return is finished in roughcast, as is the two-storey lean-to projection, with the attached outbuilding in painted brick.

All the various sections of the roof are slated, with rendered chimneystacks to the gables of the front block and one tall rendered stack roughly to the W of centre of the ridge of the return. The rw goods appear to be largely uPVC.

The front garden is enclosed with with a low roughcast rendered wall with hedge above. The wall contains a small pedestrian gateway with pebbledashed piers. To the S of the house there are several large outbuildings with curved roofs [which look like Belfast Truss roofs, but this was not confirmed].

Historical information

The present house is shown on the OS map of 1835. In the valuation of the following year the property is recorded as a well-maintained slated house of at least twenty years old (grade 1B+) occupied by a Mr Wilson Irvine [sic Irwin], and measuring 46ft x 24½ x 17 and 18½ x 21 x 12½, with single and two-storey slated and thatched outbuildings. These dimensions suggest that the return may not have been wholly two-storey by this stage, or, alternatively, that it was as today but that a large section of it was used as an outbuilding. The evidence supplied by the second valuation of 1862 appears to favour the latter, with the one section of the return (quoted as 7yrds x 6) of similar height to that we see today, but with another section of 4yrds x 3, single-storey. The differing window levels of the return also suggest various stages of building. As is the case with many other farmhouses of this plan with pre-1830s returns, it is possible that the return itself predates the formal front block, however in this particular instance there appears to be no documentary evidence to back this up. The current owner believes that the return constitutes an older building.

The rateable value of the property is given as £17-10-0 in 1862, a large leap from the £10-7-0 of 1836. In 1867 the addition of a ‘new store’, (possibly the brick-built section to the east end of the return), witnessed a rise of £2, with the value reaching £22 by 1876 and £25 the following year.

John Irwin, the resident at the time of the second valuation, appears to have died in 1884, but the house remained in the hands of his ‘representatives’ until 1889 when a George Sloan is recorded as occupant. The building was back with the Irwin family by c.1900 and continued as such until 1915, when a Hamilton Robb took up the lease. Between this date and 1926 Robb sub-let the land and outbuildings and is only periodally listed as the occupant of the house, his periods of residence alternating with a Henry Goldsmith between 1915 and 1923 and with a Rev. Albert O. Draper between 1923 and 1926. In 1929 the property is recorded as vacant. The present owner’s family began to lease the land and outbuildings in or just before 1929, and acquired the house shortly after this date.

The present owner states that the property once served as a coal yard, and possesses a brass name plate which reads ‘Registered Offices Portadown Coal Carrying Co. Ltd.- Carriers / Coal Merchants’. The plate appears to date from the early 1900s, and may relate to the period after 1915 and the sub-letting of the land and outbuildings. However, no company of this name is specifically mentioned in the valuation books during this period, and it is uncertain if this company held both the house and the outbuildings. If they held the dwelling, it could explain the fact that one of the ground floor rooms has the appearance of once acting as an office

The uPVC windows to the front block were installed in 1994.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/2/6 OS map, County Armagh sheet 6, with valuation
references (1835-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/2/6A OS map, County Armagh sheet 6, with valuation references (1860-62)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/2/19B Second valuation, Seagoe parish (1862)
4 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7A Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1864-78)
5 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7B Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1879-91)
6 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7C Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1892-1906)
7 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7D Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1907-19)
8 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7E Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1920-29)

Secondary sources
1 Oram, Richard, et al., ‘Historic Buildings…Craigavon’ (Belfast, 1970), part III, p.6
2 Information supplied by the owner (July 2004)

Other references
1 EHS HB14/04/007 First survey record card (31st July 1978)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Two-storey farmhouse with formal late Georgian front block of c.1810-20, and long low return, which may, in part, constitute an earlier dwelling. The property has witnessed a number of unsuitable alterations over the years, including the application of pebbledash and cement render and the introduction of uPVC window frames; much of the original interior detailing has also been removed.