Drumconwell Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The house is sited a short distance off the south side of a secondary road that connects the main roads from Armagh to Keady and Newtownhamilton about three miles south of Armagh.

The front elevation faces west with the gable to the road.

The building is single storey with walls of whitened stone or clay. The roof is finished is finished with corrugated iron and the ridge is of iron sheeting. The northern section of the building is roofed using natural slate with a blue clay ridge.

There are two chimneystacks both with corbel coursing that retain remains of a roughcast finish. One rises over the kitchen hearth position and the other to the right serves the parlour fireplace.

Some gutter brackets of various types remain in place with a section of metal gutter on the ground at the rear of the building.

The ledged and sheeted entrance door is protected by a windbreak porch the roof of which is formed by an extension of the main corrugated iron covering. To the right there is a small blocked window opening, a blocked window opening of larger dimensions, a timber sheeted door, an open shed and an entrance blocked by timber spars. There are two timber sheeted doors to the left of the entrance.

Both gables are without openings.

At the rear starting from the north end four small rectangular openings and a circular openings provide ventilation to the open shed. A panel of clay walling is exposed at this point. Following this there are four blocked openings as follows: -

The frame of a vertically sliding timber framed window that had the larger upper half divided into two vertical panes with a plain bottom section The sash stops are curved.
The frame of a vertically sliding sliding timber framed window with plain sashes. The sash stops are curved.
An opening with only the outer frame of a timber window.
Two sections of clay walling are now exposed.
The remains of a 6/3 vertically sliding timber framed window.

Historical information

A house is shown on this site on the OS map of 1835, but not included in the near contemporary valuation. It is recorded in the second valuation however, Henry L. Prentice leasing the property to Ann Neill with the rateable value calculated at £1-10-0.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/2/16 OS map, County Armagh sheet 16, with valuation
references (1835)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/2/16B OS map, County Armagh sheet 16, with valuation references (1860 [-c.62])
3 PRONI VAL/2B/2/10A Second valuation, Grange (1862)

References-Primary Sources

OS map, Armagh sheet 16, 1834-5

The buildings appear in present dimensions on this map.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

The house is sityed a short distance off the south side of a secondary road that connects the main road from Armagh to Keady and Newtonhamilton about three miles south of Armagh. The front elevation faces west with the gable to the road. This building is of the thatch under tin type. It forms one of only one hundred and forty thatched buildings or those with thatch under tin. It is of at least early 19th. C orgin but could be be much older.