28 Cushenny Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The house occupies a roadside position facing west on a secondary road that travels northwards from the main road from Loughgall to Portadown. There is a small garden in front of the right hand section of the building accessed by means of a single hoop-iron gate.

The wall construction is of clay with a whitened finish.

The entrance door, now covered with a sheet of hardboard, is recessed in a shallow lean-to windbreak porch that is roofed with natural slate. Rainwater goods are of pressed metal. The door retains a modern chrome finished postal flap and there is a modern external light above. The door frame is beaded and the plaster finish of the jambs continues to provide a small plinth to the porch.

There are three windows to the right of the porch overlooking the small garden area. These are blocked and sealed at present but remain intact internally. They are of the vertically-sliding type, with sashes divided into two horizontally, and the openings reduce in size moving towards the right hand extremity. To the left of the porch a further similar vertically sliding window is of relatively larger dimensions. A buttress finished with natural slate projects at the left hand extremity of the front elevation.

The roof is of thatch covered with corrugated sheeting and rainwater goods are of pressed metal fixed to a beaded fascia at front and direct to the wall surface at the rear. A chimney stack rises on the left hand gable and there is a further stack left of centre over the position of the kitchen hearth. The stacks are both of red brick and finished with corbel coursing. This is decayed on the gable stack. There are three courses in contrasting brick on the other chimney.

The north gable is blank without fenestration.

At the rear outbuildings extend eastwards at right angles from the north end and the elevation continues with a small window opening, now blocked. This is followed by a flush door and a vertically sliding window with sash stops. The upper sash is divided into two horizontally. The lower sash is plain. This elevation is completed by the insertion of a modern metal framed window.

The south gable contains a modern metal framed window.

Historical information

This site is shown undeveloped on the OS map of 1834-35. On the revised map of 1860 a house (with return) similar to the present is shown, but there are no outbuildings shown. The building is recorded in the second valuation of 1862, when it was leased by an Alexander Lindsay from the Cope Estate, with the rateable value calculated at £1-10-0.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/2A/2/9A OS map, County Armagh sheet 9, with valuation
references (1860 [-c.62])
2 PRONI VAL/2B/2/30 Second valuation, Newry (1862)

Secondary sources

OS map, Armagh sheet 9, 1860

The house and the return are shown without outbuildings.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This thatched house of mud wall construction is located in a roadside position facing west on a secondary road that travels northwards from the main road between loughgall and Portadown.The dwelling remains largely complete including the clay wall structure, the traditional form of roof construction and the remains of thatch under corrugated iron.

The outbuildings are of similar construction.