62-68 Dundrum Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A terraced row of three two-storey two-bay traditional mill-workers houses located on Dundrum Road, Tassagh Td, adjacent to Callan River. Rectangular on plan.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles and brick chimneystacks (one removed or collapsed); cast-iron gutters to right cottage only, otherwise drive-in brackets remain without gutters. Walling is random rubble stone bedded in lime mortar, with vestiges of lime harling having fragments of pigmented limewash. Windows are generally gone, timber frames remaining; 9-paned fixed frame timber window to right and four-pane timber window to rear centre cottage; some metal-framed casements remain to rear. Single timber sheeted door remains to right cottage (No.68) only.

Principal elevation faces south-west and openings are irregularly arranged, as follows:
No. 68: Located to right. Door to right, with two windows to left; windows offset above.
No. 64: Located to centre; mirror image of above.
No. 62: Located to left. Outer (left) bay has window to ground and first floor, aligned; right bay has a door at left and narrower window to its right; first floor window offset above.

Left gable is blank, with ghost marks of a lower abutment.

Rear elevation generally has a window to each bay; central cottage (No.64) also has a rear door to left bay; left opening to right cottage (No.62) is infilled with rubble stone, having a timber lintel.

Right gable is blank.

Setting:
The cottages are located on a narrow plot of land between Dundrum Road and the Callan River, in a rural area. A new house is being constructed to the south of the site at the time of survey.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Rubble stone
Windows: Vestigial timber frames
RWG: Vestigial cast iron

Historical information

Nos 64-68 Dundrum Road, a terrace of three two-storey former labourers cottages, were constructed prior to 1834 in the townland of Tassagh. The terrace appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps for the area (1834-35) where it was depicted as a rectangular-shaped building located to the south of Tassagh Bridge and in the immediate vicinity of a number of corn and beetling mills. The terrace was not specifically mentioned in either the contemporary Townland Valuations or the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the 1830s; however the Townland Valuations note that three of the mills in the townland of Tassagh were owned by a Mr. Joseph McKee and that they were valued at a total of £57 11s.

There was no change to the layout of the site by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1860), however the contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1862) records that Joseph McKee leased his holdings in the area, including the terrace, to William, John and Henry Kirk, who owned a number of the mills and factories in the parish of Keady. At that time the Messrs Kirk operated the beetling mill, located to the immediate north of the terrace, which was valued at £50; the three two-storey dwellings to the south of the mill were each valued at £2 5s. and were leased out to Thomas McDowell, Andrew Trudden and William McDowell who were almost certainly employed at the nearby mill.

McDowell, Trudden and McDowell continued to reside at the terrace in Tassagh until the early-20th century and the only alteration to the site during this time is that one of the cottages was lowered in value to £2 in 1874. William and Henry Kirk were no longer on the lease from 1871 when John Kirk was recorded as the sole lessor; Brett records that John Kirk resided at Millmount House (see HB15/09/022) within the parish of Keady but vacated the site in 1871. The Kirk family also owned the nearby Annvale factory and had resided in the Keady area since the 1840s (Brett, p. 184).

In 1901 the census recorded that the terrace was occupied by three families, William McDowell continued to reside at the site, whilst his neighbours were the Spence and McMoran families. Despite their proximity to a number of nearby mills, the census notes that the tenants of the terrace were all employed in the textile trade; both William McDowell and Joseph McMoran worked as Linen Butlers (engaged in the bleaching process), whilst all the other occupants worked as weavers or seamstresses. The census building return described each of the cottages as 2nd class dwellings that consisted of between three and four rooms, and possessed simple sheds as their sole outbuildings. There was little change to the site a decade later; however the 1911 census did note that fewer of the tenants were engaged in the linen trade at that time. The census records that the occupants were chiefly employed as maids and farm labourers in the immediate area, whilst only one occupant, a Mrs. Elizabeth Donnelly, remained in the textile industry working as a Flax Scutcher.

The occupants of the terrace continued to change with great frequency during the early decades of the 20th century. There had been no alteration to the value of the cottages by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930, however by the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) the value of each building on the terrace had been decreased to £1 10s. There was no further revaluation carried out in Northern Ireland for over two decades due to the disruption caused by the Second World War, however in the 1950s the terrace was included in the Second General Revaluation (1956-72). In the 1930s the terrace had been owned by a Mr. Alexander Wallace, a local magistrate in Keady; however by 1956 the terrace had come into the possession of a Mr. M. Short who continued to lease the cottages out to tenants. The three dwellings were increased in value to £3 each under the revaluation; the only occupant of note was William King, a farm labourer, who first came into possession of one of the cottages in 1916 and was one of the longest occupants in the history of the site.

Nos 64-68 Dundrum Road were depicted on the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in c. 1970 at which time the terrace was depicted along its original layout, indicating no major changes to the site since its erection in the early-19th century. Although of great social and economic importance to the local area, the terrace of former labourers houses currently lies in a state of advanced disrepair; field inspection finds that the original doors and windows are missing (it is likely that the original windows would have been small paned sliding sash), whilst one of the chimneys appears to have collapsed or been removed, damaging the original slate roof.

References
Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/2/16/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1834-35
2. PRONI OS/6/2/16/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/2/16/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1906
4. PRONI OS/6/2/16/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1955
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/26A-D – Townland Valuation c. 1830
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/6B – Griffith’s Valuation 1862
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/10/17A-E – Annual Revisions 1864-1929
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/2/2 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/2/3 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
10. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Armagh Vol. 1 (1835-38)
11. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)
12. Ulster Town Directory (1843-1918)
13. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
14. Ordnance Survey Map – 235-10SW
15. Listing Query Files – HB15/LQ103

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of County Armagh’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A terraced row of early nineteenth century mill workers houses, located in Tassgh Td., north-east of Keady. The cottages are located in close proximity to several mills (some of which are listed), alongside the Collan River, which supported several successful mills from the mid-eighteenth century throughout the prosperous linen trade in the area. The houses are of traditional construction, each having the jamb-wall with peep-hole and traditional hearth of vernacular dwellings. Although in a state of some disrepair, each retains a wealth of evidence of traditional construction techniques; their survival greatly contributes to our understanding of the social heritage associated with the industrial development of south-west Armagh.

General comments

Listing criteria R - Age; S Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.