The Court House, 77 Main Street, Loughgall, Armagh, Co Armagh, BT61 8HZ

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 2-storey building with hipped roof and arcaded ground floor. Main front faces south-west.

South-west elevation: 2-storey, 4-bay; hipped roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with a deeper bottom course. Walls of rubble limestone, originally roughcast rendered but now exposed, with roughly shaped voussoirs to flat-arch heads of upper windows, and larger roughly shaped voussoirs to semi-circular arches of ground floor openings; cut-stone eaves course. Cast iron gutter and cast iron downpipes, one to each end. Windows are rectangular timber, sliding sash, vertically hung, 9 over 6, with horns with exposed sash boxes, and projecting stone cills, set in plain reveals. Ground floor arches, originally open then later partially filled, are now fitted with modern glass door-screens, protected by outward opening arched double doors of ledged timber hung on full-width iron hinges.

North-west elevation: 2-storey, 1-bay; hipped roof as previous; walling as previous; one window, to ground floor, timber sashed as previous, but 6 over 6, recessed in a large semi-circular archway of similar scale to entrance front arches; iron work grille over window.

North-east elevation: 2-storey with similar walling and roofing to previous, with 4 arched openings to ground floor, each containing a timber doorscreen comprising a rectangular ledged timber door with glazed panel, coupled with a fixed panel of similar design to the door, all surmounted by a semi-circular tongued and grooved sheeted tympanum. One window to first floor, at extreme right-hand bay, sashed similar to that in north-west elevation. To the left of that is a first floor doorway, a later insertion, containing a rectangular ledged timber door set in plain reveals with a flat-arch head. Doorway opens onto a modern timber fire-escape stairway.

South-east elevation: 2-storey, 1-bay; ground floor contains a large semi-circular arched opening, as previous to other elevations, but closed up with brickwork; first floor contains a doorway containing a rectangular ledged timber door set in plain reveals with a flat-arch head. Doorway approached by a vaulted screed-covered bridge carried on a flying half-arch with rough stone voussoirs to the arch on both sides, rubble stone spandrels and parapets with angled stone copings. Vaulted bridge reached by a tarmac path ramping up from front yard.

SETTING: The building stands end-on to the main street and set back slightly from it within a compound. Boundary to main street formed by a rubble stone wall containing a pedestrian opening north of the building, with the boundary wall returning south of the building along a private roadway and containing a vehicular gateway marked by square dressed stone piers, with a chain in place of gates; piers mounted with cast iron protectors, probably brought from elsewhere; they are inscribed, on metal plaques, 'Victor C. Taylor, Atlas Foundry, Belfast'. A large modern single storey shed of lightweight construction stands to the rear of the building. To the east the ground rises steeply where it is landscaped and merges with the garden of an adjoining property (HB15/02/008). Front yard surfaced with concrete setts.

Historical information

Built in 1746. In the 1830s it was described as having a roughcast and whitewashed finish, and comprising a market house on the ground floor with the court house above, although another source of the time states that the market had been discontinued by that time, although a monthly manorial court was still held. Restored in 1996 when the ground floor was subdivided into three main spaces, the steep banks to the rear of the building were excavated, and the rendered finish to the exterior was removed to reveal the stonework of the walls.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1834, Co Armagh 8.

Secondary Sources
1. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol I: Parishes of County Armagh, 1835-8 (Belfast, 1990), p 76.
2. S. Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland, Vol II (London, 1837), p 313.
3. C.E.B. Brett, Court Houses and Market Houses of the Province of Ulster (Belfast, 1973), p 40.
4. DOENI, Loughgall: A Conservation Village (Belfast, 1993), pp 3, 4, 28.
5. C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Armagh (Belfast, 1999), p 218.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

This is an 18th century building which retains a number of its original features and occupies a prominent position in the main street.