59 Greencastle Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A pair of single-storey/ two-bay direct-entry thatched vernacular dwellings with extensions at rear and side, directly on south side of Greencastle Street. No.59 is at left (as viewed from road) and No.61 at right.

Traditional pitched thatch roof with wrap-over ridge, rendered verges and wired eaves; two rods at ridge and one at eaves. There are two chimneys both smooth rendered; one is on right gable and other is on party wall between the two properties. Wet cement-dashed walls.

No.59 has a vertically-sheeted half-door in middle, with a 2/2 (vertically divided) sliding sash window to left and three vertical pane fixed window to right, both with narrow concrete cills.

Left gable is blank. Right gable forms party wall with No 61.

The rear elevation is abutted by a short link block to annexes at rear. The link belonging to No.59 is at extreme right, and its flat roof cuts into the rear pitch of the thatch. Its yard-facing elevation has a t+g sheeted door flanked by a 2x3 fixed timber light on each side. The opposite face, which is flush with the left gable of the main block, is blank. The exposed section of the main block of No.59, to left of link block, contains a 2/2 sash with cement rendered dressing and cill.

The one-storey annex has a pitched natural slate roof and its walls are as the main block. Its rear (south) elevation of the annex has a 2/2 sliding sash at middle, and a pair of 2/2 sliding sashes to either side. All other walls are blank.

The roof timberwork is part original.

Historical information

A structure matching the size and shape of the present pair of houses is shown on this site on the valuation town plan of c.1835-38, however, as the plan shows, this structure was then composed of three small separate dwellings, not two. Unfortunately, due to their modest size, these three properties were exempt from rating, and as such their dimensions or occupants are not recorded.

By 1862, all three dwellings had been ‘combined’ to form one large property (as present), with the occupant listed in the valuation of that year as a William Hanna, with the Earl of Kilmorey as lessor. The measurements of the property are given as 14yds x 5yrds 2ft x 1(storey) for the house section, with ‘offices’ (i.e. stores or outbuildings) of 5yrds 2ft x 55yrds 2ft x 1, 11 x 55yrds 2ft x 1, and 3 x 45yrds 2ft x 1. The latter ‘office’ appears to have been a small addition post 1838 addition to the northeast gable.

Annotations to the valuation map show that the previous three-property division was reinstated at some point shortly after 1862, a situation appears to have lasted until at least 1929. Sometime after this the block was reconfigured as two dwellings, the present nos.59 and 61.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1D/3/11 Valuation town plan of Kilkeel, (c.1834-38)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/390A-B First valuation, Kilkeel, (1834, with revisions of 1838)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/3/81H Second valuation, Town of Kilkeel (1862) [The town plan to accompany this valuation has either been lost or was adapted to form the plan used by the valuers between 1864 and 1907- see below.]
4 PRONI VAL/12E/124/1/1-6 Valuation town plan of Kilkeel (1864, with annotations up to 1907)
5 PRONI VAL/12B/19/14A-J Annual valuation revision books, Town of Kilkeel, 1864-1929

The 1834 town map shows a terrace of three houses here. They were exempt from valuation, suggesting one-storey thatched houses. Three properties are actually noted in the 19th century maps and valuations (to 1929 and beyond), although the dimensions given in the 1862 valuation concur with the present pair of houses. This suggests that the building was reconfigured to form two dwellings sometime during the present century.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

One of a pair of single storey / two-bay direct entry thatched vbernacular dwellings.It is on the south side of Greencastle Street. These are two of a tiny number of surviving original thatched houses in Mourne and represent a rare survival of a once common village house type.They are at least of early 19th.C date but could be much earlier.