26 Clanrolla Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey farmhouse of c.1840-50 in the Georgian vernacular mould, with single-storey return, the latter probably an earlier dwelling. The property is set on the south side of a relatively quiet country road, roughly one mile west of Craigavon.

The house is L-shaped in plan form with the main gabled front block to the W side. To the E and NE are some outbuildings, with spacious garden to the W. The front (W) face of the main block faces follows a typical three openings-wide Georgian arrangement. To the centre of the ground floor is the main entrance, which consists of a panelled timber door with ¾ length sides with decorative tracery. Stretching over both the door and the sidelights is a large elliptical-arched fanlight with ‘spoke’ tracery. There is a single concrete step to the door.

To the left of the entrance is a flat-arched window opening with a painted stone cill, painted smooth render surround and a replacement top-hung timber window frame (made to resemble a 6/6 Georgian-paned sash frame). To the right of the entrance is an identical window, with three more to the first floor.

To the N gable there is a window, as front, to the left on both the ground and the first floor. The S gable is devoid of openings.

The return abuts the right hand (N) half of the rear face of the main block. To the left of this there is a single window to each floor, both as front, but without any surround to that to the upper floor. To the right of the ground floor window, close to the intersection of the return, there is a very small opening- almost a ventilator rather than a window.

To the N face of the of the return there is a small lean-to porch to the centre-left, with modern partly glazed timber door (this is now the de facto entrance to the house). To the left of this is a window with concrete cill and replacement uPVC frame. To the right of the porch is a similar-sized window with concrete cill and replacement timber frame with casement and top-hung openers.

To the S face of the return there is a very small low-level window to left with concrete cill and recent top-hung timber frame, with a larger window to right as that to left on the N face. To the (E-facing) gable of the return there is a large single-storey lean-to. To the S side of the lean-to there is a small lean-to porch with a small window, with modern timber frame, to the right of this. To the N face of the lean-to there is a small window with timber frame (with top-hung opener) to left, and a doorway to right with timber sheeted door.

Most of the façade is finished in roughcast and whitewashed, however the S gable of the main block and the gable of the return are finished in unpainted cement render, with the lean-to in unpainted roughcast.

The roof of the main block is covered in man-made tiles, with similar tiles to the S side of the return roof, and natural slate to the N. The main block has a rendered chimneystack to each gable. With a brick stack to the ridge of the return. The rw goods appear to be a mixture of cast-iron and uPVC.

The outbuildings consist of a small grouping of single and two-storey gabled structures mainly finished in render and brick, but with portions in rubble and breeze block. The roofs are either slated or covered in corrugated iron or corrugated asbestos. The buildings appear to have been much altered over the years with many large flat-arch doorways with sliding doors in evidence, as well as windows (some possibly enlarged) with modern frames.

Historical information

On the OS map of 1835 a small building is shown which may equate to the present return, with a large building to the E, on the site of the present outbuildings. The house as we see it today appears on the revised map of 1860. The valuation of 1862 lists the occupant as a Frederick Ruddell, with the quality letter suggesting that the front block may have been less than twenty years built at that point, perhaps dating from the later 1840s. Oddly, the valuers describe the front block as two and half storeys in height and the return as two-storey; as there appears to be no evidence to suggest that any part of the building was lowered, we must assume that these figures are errors.

Frederick Ruddell was succeeded by Robert James Ruddell in 1877, with a Moses McMinn listed as resident the following year and a William Gilpin in 1880. In another strange entry by the valuers, the landlord, the Duke of Manchester, is recorded as the tenant between 1882 and 1885, with a James Wright between 1885 and 1890, a John McCann in 1890 and a Lewis Spence between 1891 and 1893. The seemingly odd appearance of the Duke of Manchester himself in this list may not be an error, but possibly an acknowledgement that this property once had some estate function, possibly as an agent’s residence.

In 1893 an ancestor of the the present occupant’s took up the lease of the property, acquiring the freehold in 1913. The house was vested by the Craigavon Development Commission, [presumably in the late 1960s], who replaced most of the window frames and the covering of the roof of the front block.

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.7
2 Information supplied by the owner (July 2004)

Other references
1 EHS HB14/04/011 First survey record card (13th January 1972)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-storey farmhouse of c.1840-50 in the Georgian vernacular mould, with single-storey return, the latter probably an earlier dwelling. This building is good example of a mid 19th-century farmhouse with some formal pretensions, but one marred by the introduction of unsuitable window frames and artificial slates.