Lurgancanty House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two-storey farmhouse of probable pre-1834 construction, extensively remodeled c.1910-14 when the canted bays appear to have been added and the roof probably replaced.

SETTING Rural, 4.85km N/NW of Rostrevor, on the W side of a quiet tree-lined stretch of country road with E end of house facing onto roadsid, with long sloping garden - enclosed by trees - to S, and a collection of outbuildings around a relatively small yard to N with a larger farmyard to the N again. To N of the farmyard there is a field which maps suggest was a productive garden in the mid to later 1800s at least. Long N-S wooded area encloses the property to W.

GENERAL APPPEARANCE The house is basically rectangular in plan with full-height canted bays either side of a single-storey porch to front, a large single-storey lean-to to the E (road-facing) gable, and a relatively small single-storey gabled projection to the rear. The E lean-to appears to be used as a shed. The walls are smooth rendered (with quoins and bevelled plinth) to front, and plain render to the gables. The rear is finished in roughcast, with the projection in lined render.

The double-pitch roof has an overhang with exposed rafter ends and is covered in what appears to be natural slate with red clay ridge tiles. There are three rendered chimneystacks, the position of the second (E of centre) stack possibly denoting the probable extent of the original portion of the house - or at least demarking a different stage of development. Metal skylight to rear (N) side. The bays and other projections also have slate roofs, with some slates to the E lean-to having fallen off. The RW goods are a mixture of cast-iron and replacement PVC.

The E lean-to merges into a long single-storey gabled shed and to the W the house is abutted by a small single-storey timber shed whose mono-pitched roof forms a cat-slide with a two-storey outbuilding to this side. This outbuilding abuts another at a right-angle with both enclosing the W and N sides of the relatively small concrete yard to the rear of the house, with the yard enclosed to the E by the shed to this side, a vehicle gateway. To the N of the gateway is another smaller single-storey shed. There is a larger farmyard to the N again.

FRONT (S) ELEVATION Asymmetrical arrangement suggesting alteration on at least one occasion. Bay to left and to centre-right with porch in between. Both bays have hipped roofs, three windows with timber sash frames to each floor, with segmental heads to the upper-level windows. Both also have cill courses to each floor along with an intermediate (cornice-like) course which stretches across the main portion of the façade. The porch has a doorway with panelled timber door and has a hipped roof (which was originally flat). Directly above the porch is a somewhat squat window with modern timber frame. To the right hand (E) end of the main portion of the façade there is a window to each floor, with a mullioned and transomed timber frame to both. The elevation terminates to E in the side of the lean-to, which is blank.

E ELEVATION The lean-to has a small window, (with the remains of a frame, but no glazing) with a doorway with plain sheeted door, to right of this. To the right again the E side of the shed, which has a single window with three over three timber sash frame. The exposed upper floor of the gable of the house is blank.

W ELEVATION The ground floor is abutted by the timber shed (see above), with the exposed upper floor of the house gable blank.

REAR (N) ELEVATION Asymmetrical arrangement, which like the front suggests alteration(s). Small window with plain timber sash frame to far left. Low doorway with timber door to right of this, with slightly larger window (with similar frame) to right again. The projection (which is to centre-right) has a doorway to left on its E face, with a window, with metal frame, to the N (gabled) face. To the first floor there are three, roughly evenly spaced, windows with two over two timber sash frames, with another window set at a slightly lower (presumably stairwell) level with a mullioned and transomed timber frame. The upper-level windows are considerably larger than those to the ground floor.

OUTBUILDINGS The two-storey outbuilding to the N of the yard appears to be largely rubble-built and is mainly limewashed with a natural slate roof. It has a variety of randomly arranged openings to the ground floor of its S façade, with metal frames to the three windows, and timber sheeted doors to the two doorways. There is a single upper-level loft doorway to the left, with several similar loft openings to the rear (N farmyard-facing) façade, along with a large full-height vehicle doorway to far right (W).

The outbuilding to the W side of the yard is partly constructed in concrete block and has what appears to be an asbestos tile roof. To the ground floor of the E façade there is a door doorway, with sliding door, and a relatively large loft opening over.

The small shed to the NE corner of the yard has a small window to its N façade and a doorway, with sheeted timber door, to the W gable. To the S side of this there is a lean-to which appears to be of concrete block construction and has a corrugated-iron roof, and a door and window to its S façade. Between this and the main two-storey outbuilding there is another shed, wholly constructed in corrugated-iron.

Historical information

On the OS map of 1834 a building is shown on this site of similar plan to the present dwelling, but without the lean-to section to the east (and quite likely without the bays also.) This is recorded in the 1835 valuation as measuring 40ft x 23 x 15 with a section of 15 x 23 x 14, and offices (i.e. outbuildings) of 26 x 11 x 6, 21 x 17½ x 7½, 24 x 16½ x 5½ and 28 x 15 x 5½, an annotation indicating that this last outbuilding was replaced at some point after this date with one of 30 x 18 x 2[storeys]. Also belonging to the property but located some 250m to the south of the house on the other side of the road along the Moygannon River, was a flax mill and store of 29½ x 18½ x 6 and 34½ x 17 x 6 respectively, with the former having a ‘good situation and good [water] supply.’ Oddly, the mill is not referred to in the contemporary OS Memoir for Clonallan parish, nor captioned on the aforementioned OS map. At this point the whole concern was in the hands of Jonathan Savage, who appears to have lived in this vicinity (if not on this site) since at least 1826.

On the 1860 OS map the single-storey lean-to to the eastern gable is shown and the ‘flax mill’ is specifically marked. By c.1861 the whole property was in the possession of William Savage, with the dimensions of the house listed in the valuation book of that year as 13yds x 8 x 2[storeys], 5 x 8 x 2, 4 x 3 x 1, with offices amounting to 8 x 4 x 1, 7 x 6 x 1 and 10 x 6 x 2. The measurements of the flax mill are not noted, but it is described as having ‘four stocks and one bruising machine consisting of three rollers; [it] works about 8 months in the year, 10 hours per day…’.

William Savage appears to have died before 1864 and in 1884 John Savage is recorded as the occupant. In 1889 the rateable value of the whole concern was lowered from £19 to £16, and fell again in 1893 to £13, with the valuers remarking that the mill had been ‘very little worked for some years’. Subsequent valuation books indicate that it had fallen completely idle by c.1904, and it disappears entirely from the record in 1925.

At the time of the 1901 census, Mr. Savage, a 41yr old farmer, was living here with his wife and their six young children, with the house noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with five rooms in use.

In 1915 the rateable value of the house was raised from £6 to £10, suggesting that work was carried out around this time. Judging from the present appearance of the building it is likely that this involved the replacement / raising of the roof (which the earlier valuations indicate was of two slightly differing levels), and the addition of the bays.

The house is believed to have remained with the descendants of John Savage.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Freemans Journal’ – 15 August 1826, p.1
2 OS map county series, Down sheet 51 – 1834, 1860, 1901-02, 1919; IG sheet 267 – 1975-77
3 VAL1B/353 First valuation, Clonallan parish - 1835
4 VAL2B/3/57A Second valuation, Clonallan parish – 1860
5 VAL12B/22/5A-D Annual valuation revision books, Upper Clonallan ED – 1864-1923
6 VAL/12B/22/13A Annual valuation revision book, Mayo ED – 1923-29

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large two-storey farmhouse of probable pre-1834 construction, extensively remodelled and extended c.1910-14 at which point the canted bays and porch appear to have been added, and the roof replaced. The building does not meet the threshold for listing.