19 Old Lurgan Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Description at 08.08.2014
The site is now surrounded by a 2m high timber fence and the former house has largely collapsed such that the floor plan and individual elements are difficult to discern. What remains is covered with vegetation.

Description at 18.08.2003
A single storey, five bay, lobby entry thatched house with cube porch and roughcast external finish.

The house faces north-east at the end of a short driveway that leaves the Old Lurgan Road a little over a mile from the centre of Portadown.

The remains of the thatch is contained within concrete parapet gables. Both chimneystacks have collapsed. One rose from the right hand (north-west) gable and the other served the kitchen hearth.

The entrance is by means of a four-panelled door, with five pane sidelights, that opens on the north-west side of a projecting porch. The wall finish of the porch is roughcast to match the house, dressings are of smooth cement and the roof covering is of corrugated iron finished with a three tier concrete cornice including a ball finial at the north-west corner. At the front the porch has the remains of a 2/4 vertically sliding window with curved sash stops and a deep sill.

To the left of the porch there is one, and to the right there are three 6/6 vertically sliding windows with chamfered sash stops, smooth cement dressings and sills of traditional depths.

At the rear starting from the left (north-west) corner there is a 6/6 vertically sliding window with moulded sash stops and no sill followed by two 6/3 vertically sliding windows with moulded sash stops the first without a sill and the second with a sill and finally a 6/6 vertically sliding window with curved sash stops and a sill.

A short lead–covered link on the south–west corner of the house gives access to a one and a half storey kitchen extension. The roof is pitched and covered with natural slate, the chimney is of corbelled brick, the entrance door on the south-east side is timber framed, ledged, braced and sheeted and there are windows on all four sides with those on the north-west and south east sides at upper level.

Historical information

What appears to be this house (minus the rear extension) is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834-35, but is not included in the contemporary valuation. It does appear within the second valuation of 1862, however, and is recorded as a relatively old single-storey thatched house 13yrds in length, occupied by a Jane Best leasing from Jonathan Richardson, with the rateable value calculated at £2-5-0. Jane Best was succeeded by Richard Best in 1884, who bought the freehold in 1909. Richard Best was still in residence in 1929, and his descendant was still living in the property until relatively recently.

After a period of neglect repairs were carried out and the house re-thatched in 1985, however a planning application was made in 1989 for a replacement bungalow. The Lands Division of the DOE agreed to sell the building to the sitting tenant in 1990. Planning applications were made for a housing development, the boundary of which included this (listed) building in 1997 and 2003.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/2/10 OS map, County Armagh sheet 10, with valuation
references (1834-35)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/2/10A OS map, County Armagh sheet 10, with valuation references (1860 [-c.62])
3 PRONI VAL/2B/2/19C Second valuation, Seagoe (1862)
4 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7A-E Annual valuation revision books, Kernan ED (1864-1929)

Other references
1 EHS files

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Evaluation at 08.08.2014
This former pre-1830's thatched house has now deteriorated to the extent that the original form and appearance is not apparent. The roof and walls have collapsed to such an extent that it no longer meets the test as a building of special interest.

Evaluation at 23.08.2003
A single storey, five bay, lobby entry historic thatched house with cube porch and roughcast external finish. The entrance door and the windows remain in traditional form. The roof has fallen in and while the interior may not be examined at present the exterior appears relatively sound. Though this building has significantly decayed it retains historic detail and is of special interest as an example of a once common type which is now increasingly rare. It remains capable of restoration.