Tullydagan House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large formal two-storey later Victorian farmhouse of relatively plain late-Georgian form, built c.1874, but either extended or partially rebuilt c.1895. The property is set on the N side of a quiet country road, about 3.25km N/NW of Lurgan town centre, and has a large collection of outbuildings to the immediate NW and a garden to the SE and SW.

The house is L-shaped in plan with the main gable-ended front block to the SE and a long return - also gable-ended - stretching NW. The walls are finished in painted render with raised quoins to the front block and the roofs are covered in natural Welsh slate with rendered chimneystacks.

Front (SE) elevation - Symmetrical. Window - doorway - window to the ground floor, three windows same as and aligned with the ground floor openings. Doorway set within deep concave reveal with three-quarter column jambs and a moulded archivolt. Windows have replacement top-hung frames (which appear to be timber) and painted (?stone) cills. Bracketed eaves.

SW elevation - Consists of a side of the long return and a gable of the front block. Gable has a window (as front) to left on each floor, whilst the return has three windows to the first floor and three windows aligned with these to the ground floor, with a doorway between the left and centre of these. The left and centre ground floor openings could not be seen clearly, but appear to have 6/6 timber sash frames, whilst that to right is as front. The doorway could not be seen clearly. Two of the upper floor windows have timber sash frames (2/2 with horizontal glazing bars), whilst the third (to right) is as front.

NW elevation - Could not been seen in its entirety. The gable of the return appears to have an opening at attic / roof space level.

NE elevation - Could not be seen.

A short tarmac drive leads to the house and this has a pair of decorative wrought-iron gates which look early 1900s.

Outbuildings - Directly abutting the NW gable is a large two-storey L-shaped gabled outbuilding, over half of which (nearest the house) is now roofless and ruinous, whilst to the SW, running along the roadside, is a smaller freestanding two-storey gabled outbuilding, which has a single-storey lean-to section to its NW-facing gable, and a flat-roofed shed to the opposite end, whose outer wall curves in line with the road. To the NW end of the yard, a single-storey gabled range which is butted to the S by a large shed which originally had a barrel roof, but which is now also ruinous and roofless. All of these are rubble-built structures with brick dressed openings, roofs (where they still exist) covered in natural Welsh slate or corrugated-iron and a variety of openings. The smaller two-storey block appears largely intact and has a series of large elliptical-headed archways to its NE-facing side.

Historical information

Tullydagan House replaced a long pre-1835 single-storey thatched dwelling which stood roughly on the site of the present two-storey outbuilding set next to the roadside. This older building is recorded in first valuation of May 1836 as the home of John Ellis and measured 55ft x 20 x 7, with outbuildings (which were probably attached in linear fashion) of 65 x 19½ x 7 and 28 x 16 x 6. Brownlow estate papers suggest the Ellis family had held land in Tullydagan since at least 1780, and it is likely that the previous house may have been standing at this point.

The date of the present house is uncertain. An increase in the valuations (from £9 to £14) noted in 1874 suggests it was built in or shortly prior to that time, a date that looks not incompatible with its overall styling. There is another major rise to £20 in 1895, however, which indicates that more building work was carried out at this point. The accompanying valuers’ office notebook contains a plan showing the house and outbuildings much as present, with an accompanying note which reads ‘partly rebuilt’, but the extent of this rebuilding is not clear. It is possible that the return (which is quite large), was extended at this time, but this is purely speculation. The house and outbuildings are shown for the first time on the OS map of 1905-06 with the property labelled as 'Tullydagan House'.

The work of c.1874 and c.1895 was carried out James Ellis and William Ellis respectively. William, who had acquired the freehold of the property in 1892, is recorded in the census of 1901 as a 48yr old ‘farmer and grain merchant’, living here with his wife, Maggie, their seven children and a young nephew, with the house itself a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 10 rooms in use by the family. Four of the children were still living there in 1911, with 12 rooms recorded in use. The property passed to William and Maggie’s eldest son, James Albert Ellis, in c.1920, a one-time member of Lurgan Rural District Council, who was still resident in the 1930.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI D1928/L/69/5 Lease from William Brownlow to William Ellis, Tullydagan, 1 April 1780
2 OS maps six-inch county series, Co. Armagh sheet 6 - 1835, 1859, 1905-06
3 PRONI VAL1B/ First valuation, Shankill parish, 1836
4 PRONI VAL2B/2/20A Second valuation, Shankill Parish, c.1860
5 PRONI VAL12B/14/5A-E, valuation revision books, Cornakinnegar ED, 1864-1929
6 PRONI VAL12A/2/22, valuers' office notebook, 1895
7 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ accessed 14 March 2019]
8 ‘Northern Whig’, 7 July 1924

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

The 2 storey victorian farmhouse constructed c1874 displays a degree of alteration both externally and internally. A large proportion of original windows have been replaced with PVC and albeit the cornices and door surrounds seem to be intact internally, the kitchen interior looks to be altered and fireplaces seem to be replacements resulting in a loss of interior quality and character.