4 Harker's Hill, Cornascriebe Road, Portadown BT62 3SS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small, single-storey vernacular house, with lime washed brick frontage and double-pitched slated roof, one of a short canted row of four similar but non-identical dwellings, all of which appear to be largely of 1871. The row, which may have been constructed to house workers employed in a small near by mill, is set at the end of a short country lane and shares a communal ‘yard’ with a contemporary -and generally similar- pair of ‘semi-detached’ dwellings to the north [HB15/04/027E & F]. The lane leading to the houses is located to the east of Cornascriebe Road, roughly 1.4km west of Laurelvale, 3.8km west of Tandragee.

This house is set at the eastern end of the row and is roughly square in plan. The front (north) and east (gable) walls are constructed in brick that has been finished with lime wash with a painted ‘plinth’ to that to front. The rear wall is finished in lined cement render. The roof is double pitched, is covered with natural slate and has a small fixed skylight to the rear (south) side. Eaves are clipped without overhangs and rainwater goods have been replaced in uPVC. A chimneystack rises on either side of the ridgeline; both of these are constructed in brick have corbelled caps and were once completely rendered, however much of this has fallen away.

The front façade is asymmetrical. To the left side there is a flat-headed door opening with a plain timber sheeted door. To the right are two flat-headed window openings each with a 2/2 timber sash frame. The window sills are painted stone.

The eastern gable is blank.

To either side of the rear façade there is a flat-headed window opening each with a 2/2 timber sash frame.

Historical information

A relatively long rectangular structure which appears to match the size and orientation of the western end of the row to which this property belongs, is shown on the OS maps of 1835 and 1860, with a shorter building to the north roughly on the site of the present ‘semi-detached’ block, but orientated slightly differently. None of these buildings are recorded in the first valuation of November 1836. In the second valuation of 1862 two dwellings are listed as present, occupied by a John Gibson and Matthew Cattleton respectively, however, the valuers do not make it clear whether these houses where located in each of the separate structures, or whether both were jointly contained within either one of them.

In 1871 six dwellings are recorded by the valuers. Unfortunately (once again) we are not told whether all of these were new builds or divisions of existing properties, but judging from the evidence presented by the earlier maps and by the appearance of the present dwellings, it is likely that the block to the north (containing the ‘semis’- nos.5-6) was built afresh, along with the eastern half of the southern row (containing nos.3-4). The western half of the row (nos.1-2) may also have been built anew, as the use of materials appears much the same as the rest of the structures, however, the fact that it is set at a different angle than the eastern half, as well as the sizes of the window openings, suggests that it may, either in part or in whole, represent the survival of the southern building on the 1835 and 1860 maps.

The houses themselves were developed by Charles Moneypenny, who lived to the south-west, in the present no.14 Cornascriebe Road. They are said locally to have originally housed workers employed in a mill to the rear of this house, the remains of which are still extant. The houses later (c.1903) came into the possession of the Sintons, another prominent mill-owning family, but the mill itself appears to have ceased working by this time, and the dwellings themselves are simply noted as ‘cottier houses’ by the valuers in 1904.

The lease of the whole group was acquired by the present owner’s ancestor, c.1930 and the freehold c.1965. All of the properties appear to have been last occupied as private dwellings in the mid to later 1960s.

No4 This particular house is recorded as occupied by Andrew Woods from 1871 to 1887, and then James McDonald from the latter date until 1904. The next tenant is recorded as Andrew Woods once again, and between 1906 and 1908 the property is listed as vacant. It was next occupied by Joseph Loudon, from 1908-15, and Patrick Carr from 1915 to 1957. The last occupant appears to have been an R. Brown, who is recorded by the valuers from 1957 onwards, however the current owner states that a Cecil Trainor, ‘a lorry driver’ lived there ‘until about 1964’. The property is noted as vacant in 1965, and, like most of its neighbours, appears to have remained so ever since.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL1A/2/13 OS map, County Armagh sheet 13, with valuation
references, 1835(-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL1B/218 First valuation, Kilmore parish, 1836
3 PRONI VAL2A/2/13B OS map, County Armagh sheet 13, with valuation references, 1860(-c.63)
2 PRONI VAL2B/2/33 Second valuation, Kilmore parish, 1862-63
4 PRONI VAL12B/11/4A Annual valuation revision book, Mullahead ED, 1863-76
5 PRONI VAL12B/11/4B Annual valuation revision book, Mullahead ED, 1876-83
6 PRONI VAL12B/11/4C Annual valuation revision book, Mullahead ED, 1883-97
7 PRONI VAL12B/11/4D Annual valuation revision book, Mullahead ED, 1897-1909
8 PRONI VAL/12A/2/48 Valuers’ office notebook, Tandragee RD, 1904
9 PRONI OS6/2/13/3 OS map, County Armagh sheet 13, 1905-6
10 PRONI VAL12B/11/4E Annual valuation revision book, Mullahead ED, 1909-21
11 PRONI VAL12B/11/4F Annual valuation revision book, Mullahead ED, 1921-29
12 PRONI VAL12F/2/9/1 Annual valuation revision book, Laurelvale ED, 1930-35
13 PRONI VAL3B/2/12 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Laurelvale ED, 1935
14 PRONI VAL3C/2/18 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Laurelvale ED, 1936-57
15 PRONI VAL4B/2/30 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Laurelvale ED, 1957-72

Secondary sources
1 Information supplied by owner, November 2009

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This house is one of a group of six dwellings of 1871 ( originally mill workers’ houses) which have retained their original urban vernacular appearance and layout, and a largely untouched rural setting. This type of group is becoming increasingly rare. The fact that the houses face each other across a lane / communal yard is unusual in a rural setting and adds considerable interest. Detailing and layout is largely intact both externally and internally