61 Acton Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single-storey vernacular house with attic, of probable pre-1835 construction, formalised c.1900s with dry dash walls, slate roof with rebuilt brick chimneystacks and window openings with 1/1 timber sash frames. Located 2.6km NNW of Poyntzpass, Co Armagh, on E side of Acton Road, 900m NNW Acton village. The site slopes down to E. The dwelling and outbuildings are all in a state of dereliction.

EXTERIOR HOUSE
Walls of rubble stone with brick reveals & openings. Sand/cement dry dash render throughout with coloured glass, smooth rendered quoins/ window & door surrounds/ plinth/ corner bands to porch. On ground floor, 3No windows to both E & W elevations and 2No to rear porch, all 1/1 timber single glazed putty fronted sliding sash with corded weights extant. Single attic window on both N & S gables as ground floor. Entrance door to porch is modern multi panelled stained hardwood.
Roof covering plain blue natural slate throughout with matching ridge. 2No metal rooflights on E pitch.
2No chimneys of imperial smooth red clay brick with simple corbelled banding and plain clay pots.

Perimeter wall, rendered to match dwelling, begins at NW corner and surrounds hardstanding to N & E with ornate WI entrance gates from roadway and matching single pedestrian gates to N: field containing animal pen, and to E:formal garden area with steps down. A second pair of WI gates is located at the junction of dwelling and outbuildings at mid E elevation.

EXTERIOR OUTBUILDINGS
3No rooms form outbuildings in range with dwelling. E wall is partly block built and may have been open equipment shed. Walls of random rubble with mixture of wet dash render and limewash painted to match dwelling.
4No braced and sheeted timber doors to E elevation, single window opening.
Roof covering plain blue natural slate throughout with matching ridge.

Wrought Iron access gate and single gate post located at S gable delineating access road way to lower fields and modern barn to E.

SETTING
Site is 900m NNW Acton village in rural
setting on E side of Acton Road and slopes down to E towards Newry Canal. A range of dwelling and outbuildings, with house to N end, runs SSE to NNW parralel, immediately adjacent to, and at lower level than the main Acton Road. The house is single storey with attic accommodation. A formal orchard is sited to SE, a garden (with barn beyond) to NE and animal pens to NW. The dwelling and outbuildings are accessed from E (rear) elevation.

MATERIALS
walls - rubble stone with brick reveals & openings, rendered/ lime wash.
Roof - plain blue natural slate with matching ridge.
Windows - timber single glazed putty fronted sliding sash
RWGs - 1/2 round upvc with matching downpipes

Historical information

A building of similar size and plan, that may correspond in part to the present house and outbuilding is shown on this site on the OS map of 1835. Several structures are also shown along the roadside in this vicinity on John Rocque’s County Armagh map of 1760 but given the scale and nature of this survey it is difficult to say whether any of these matches the site of the current building.

The property is not ‘officially’ included in the first valuation of May 1836 as it was deemed exempt from rating and as such is not referenced on the map that accompanies the valuers’ book. However, all properties in the townland were recorded in the book and it is possible that the house may be the ‘not new’ thatched ‘dwelling - ½ clay’ noted in the former year as belonging to John Boyd noted and measuring 39½ft x 18½ x 7, with a barn of 19½ x 18½ x 6 and ‘store house etc.’ of 31 x 13½ x 6.

In the second valuation of c.1863 the building is noted as in the possession of William Boyce, who was leasing it from the Manchester (Tandragee Castle) estate. The house and ‘office’ (i.e., outbuilding), are noted as having a low rateable value of £1-10-0, suggesting a relatively modest single-storey vernacular dwelling and quite likely the same structure referred to in 1836, or at least something similar; it may also be the case that the John ‘Boyd’ referred to in that year was actually John ‘Boyce’, that said the name ‘Boyd’ does occur in this townland in later sources.

A verifiable John Boyce became occupant in 1870. In the 1901 census, he is noted as a 73yr-old farmer, living here with his wife, Jane, son and daughter in law William and Elizabeth, their infant daughter, and a 14yr-old farm hand, Thomas Heeney, with the house itself noted as a ‘2nd’ class’ dwelling with a thatched roof, three windows in front and three rooms in use. In 1925 the rateable value was increased to £3-10-0, indicating that the property had recently been upgraded, and it is highly likely that the building’s ‘formalised’ appearance, as well as the upper-level rooms, porch, slate roof and interior detailing all date from this time. The footprint of the building suggests that much original walling fabric may have been retained, although some of the walls have relatively little depth suggesting at least some rebuilding.

A member (or members) of the Boyce family was still living here until at least 1972. The property would appear to have been last occupied c.2000.

References – Primary sources
1 Map of County Armagh by John Rocque - 1760
1 OS map six inch county series, Armagh sheet 18 – 1835, 1860, 1906, 1954-55
2 PRONI VAL1B/214 First valuation, Ballymore parish - 1836
3 PRONI VAL2B/2/32B Second valuation, Ballymore parish – c.1863
4 PRONI VAL12B/11/1A Annual valuation revision books, Ballysheil ED - 1864-1930
6 Census of Ireland – 1901 [online at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie]
5 PRONI VAL3C/2/18 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballysheil ED – 1936-57
6 PRONI VAL4B/2/30 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballysheil ED – 1956-72

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Single-storey vernacular house with attic, of probable pre-1835 construction, but formalised c.1900s and now with dry dash walls, slate roof with rebuilt brick chimneystacks and window openings with 1/1 timber sash frames. Located 2.6km NNW of Poyntzpass, Co Armagh, on E side of Acton Road, 900m NNW Acton village. The dwelling and outbuildings are in a state of dereliction and there was no evidence of thatch during survey. Insufficient remaining original historic fabric & detailing to meet the criteria for listing.