5 Old Gilford Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey, four bay, lobby entry thatched house with roughcast external wall finish.

The building faces north-east overlooking a strip of lawn and a low roughcast wall with concrete coping.

A remnant of the Old Gilford Road leaves the main road to Gilford in a southerly direction about one and a half miles from the centre of Portadown. No. 5 is positioned at the corner of a roadway that forms part of a modern development.

The thatched roof is contained within parapet gables. There are three rows of exposed scollops at the ridge and one at the eaves. Each gable rises to a corbelled chimneystack and there is a further stack over the position of the kitchen hearth.

The roughcast wall finish has a deep projecting base at the front. There are plain cement dressings to the projecting porch and to the extremities of the façade. The window openings have plain surrounds eared at the top corners. The front of the house is undecorated but most of the remainder of the external finish has been whitened. There is a low projecting base at the rear.

The projecting porch contains a four-panel door that is flanked by plain sidelights. On the main face of the house the porch is flanked by two plain sashed windows on either side with splayed sash stops and sills of intermediate depths.

A small plain window to left of centre at higher level in the right hand (north-west) gable lights the loft accessed by an internal hatch from the ceiling of the end bay of the house. A workshop with lean-to natural slate roof, roughcast wall finish and double timber sheeted door abuts this gable. The left-hand gable is blank.

A kitchen extension has been constructed at the rear of the house. The walls are roughcast and whitened, the roof is of natural slate and the rainwater goods are formed from light galvanised metal. The door is plain glazed at top and bottom.

To the left of the extension there are four windows all plain sashed with stops and with sills of traditional depths. The first is of increased width, the next window is of reduced size about half the height of the others and the last two are of similar proportions to those at the front of the building. At the right of the extension there is another plain sashed window of increased width.

Historical information

The long front section, (which includes the present house), is shown on the OS map of 1834 / 35. The building is noted in the first valuation of 1836 as occupied by ‘George Adamson & brother or James Walker’ (the valuers seem unsure who exactly) with the structure made up of a very old slated dwelling of 52ft x 19 x 12, an old thatched ‘addition as shop’ of 15 x 19 x 8, two very old thatched outbuildings of 38½ x 19 x 7½ and 14½ x 17 x 6, and three old sheds of 32 x 11 x 5, 32 x 14 x 7, and 30 x 19½ x 12, the last slated. The rateable value is given as £6-12-0.

The revised OS map of 1860 shows a similar building to the previous map, though the north-western end appears to be recessed and there is a small return to the rear, a free-standing structure set at an angle is shown to the northwest, with a smaller one to the southwest of this. The referencing on the map to accompany the 1862 valuation is confusing, but the occupier would appear to have been an Abraham Walker, (suggesting, incidentally, that James Walker is likely to have been the occupant in 1836), James Robinson the immediate lessor, with the rateable value calculated at £8; unfortunately, however, the valuers supply no details relating to the building itself.

According to information supplied by the owner in 1986, the property was [?]originally owned by a family named Jelly, before coming into possession of the Mayes family in 1769. This well be a good indicator of the property’s age, for the valuers of 1836 certainly believed it to be of considerable age at that date. John Rocque’s map of 1760 shows a relatively dense collection of buildings along this road, though it is in no way accurate enough to be certain if this house was one of them.

The outbuildings were demolished some time before 1986 to allow the construction of a road into an estate. In 1990 the property was renovated with assistance given by the NIHE. Re-thatching was carried out in 1999 using dam-retted flax; this covering may not prove long-lasting as the process involves breaking down the outer coating.

References- Primary sources
1 Linen Hall Library ‘Survey of the County of Armagh by John Rocque’ (1760)
2 PRONI VAL/1A/2/10 OS map, County Armagh sheet 10, with valuation
references (1834-35)
3 PRONI VAL/1B/222 First valuation, Seagoe (1836)
4 PRONI VAL/2A/2/10A OS map, County Armagh sheet 10, with valuation references (1860 [-c.62])
5 PRONI VAL/2B/2/19D Second valuation, Seagoe (1862)

Secondary sources
1 Information supplied by the occupant (23 May 1986)

Other references
1 EHS Survey of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick to EHS, 1992
2 EHS Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick to EHS, 16 June 1994
3 EHS Report by Colin Hatrick to EHS, 9 August 1994

The property was owned by the Jelly family before coming into the ownership of the Mayes family in 1769.
The house and two outbuildings to the north appear on the OS map of 1834-5.
There is no change on the 1860 OS map.
The outbuildings were demolished before 1986 to permit the construction of an estate road.
The building was overhauled with assistance from NIHE in 1990.
Re-thatching was carried out by Gerry Agnew in 1999 using dam-retted flax that may not be long lasting as the process is used for breaking down the outer covering.

References – Primary Sources

1. OS map, 1st edition 1834-5, Co. Armagh sheet 10
2. OS map, 1st revision 1860, Co. Armagh sheet 10

Secondary Sources

Information from occupant during visit by Dick Oram on 23 May 1986.
Survey of Thatched Buildings 1992, report by Colin Hatrick to EHS.
Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick to EHS 16 June 1994
Report by Colin Hatrick to EHS 9 August 1999.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A single storey, four bay, lobby entry thatched house with roughcast external wall finish. The part of the roof that may be examined remains intact apart from the strengthening timbers. The early layout has assimilated the alterations in an acceptable manner.