Garage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single storey ‘double-pile’ former commercial garage of c.1920s half of which has a Belfast Truss roof. The building, which is now used as a store, is set on the E of Aughlish Road roughly ¾ of a mile NW of Scarva.

The building is double pile with and measures roughly 16m x 13 with just over half of the building to the S side (measuring roughly 13m x 9) spanned by a Belfast truss roof. The front (W) elevation consists of a double curved gable finished in a mixture of painted roughcast and painted render. The left hand gable, which hides what appears to be a very shallow single pitched roof, has a single opening in the form of a large vehicle entrance with timber sliding door. The gable to right, which follows the line of the Belfast Truss roof, has a central vehicle entrance with timber double door with wicket gate. To either side of the entrance there is a relatively large square-ish window opening, both now boarded up. Above these openings the name and title ‘G. TEGGART AUTOMOBILE ENGINEER’ are spelt out in moulded lettering.

The N and S elevations are finished in unpainted roughcast with two boarded over window openings to the N elevation. The E elevation of the curved roof section is in shuttered concrete with the gable area itself clad in timber (much of which has fallen off). There are two windows and a pedestrian doorway. The E elevation of the pitched roof section is in roughcast and appears to have one window opening.

The pitched roof to N is covered in corrugated metal, the curved (Belfast Truss) section to S is covered in felt and has a central gabled rooflight with corrugated Perspex ‘glazing’.

Historical information

This garage was probably constructed in the 1920s. It appears to have been still in use in the late 1990s but is now used as a store.

The Belfast truss was developed in the mid-nineteenth century to meet the demand for efficient, lightweight and long span roofs brought about by the industrial revolution. A detailed description of the historical development of the Belfast truss is included in the record for HB18/08/139. In brief, the first known reference to a curved wooden felted roof structure supported by bowstring girders is in an advertisement in the Dublin Builder for 1866 by the Belfast firm of felt-makers, McTear & Co. McTear’s continued making trusses until they went out of business in 1908.

A second Belfast felt supplier, Anderson & Co., began to produce trusses, to a slightly different design, in 1886. In 1896, Anderson’s launched their Mk II version; promoted as maximising long spans whilst maintaining light weight. This model was subsequently used by other companies, and is referred to by historians as the Belfast truss, although this term is widely used to apply to all timber bowstring trusses where the internal bracing members meet not on the bottom of the truss as was the convention but on the top curved member.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Single storey ‘double-pile’ former commercial garage of c.1920s half of which has a Belfast Truss roof. The building is now used as a store. Apart from the double-pile front façade the Belfast Truss-roofed half of this building is a relativelt unremarkable example of its type.

General comments

Surveyed as part of the Belfast Roof Truss survey.