House N of 42 Old Newry Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey, two bay vernacular house up a lane off Old Newry Road.

Pitched roof with a rendered and coped chimney to each gable. Front pitch is asbestos slated and the rear pitch is natural slate. Raised masonry eaves course carries modern plastic rainwater goods.

Principal elevation faces SE. Walls are harled over rubble stone. Left bay has a windbreak porch on its right side. Porch has a monopitch natural slate roof and t+g sheeted door. Its left and right cheeks are blank. Remainder of left bay has a 6/6 exposed box sliding sash window (bottom sash gone). Right bay has a similar window opening, which is obscured with a corrugated metal sheet. Both have granite cills.

Left and right gables are identical. Both have a small 1/1 timber framed window set at attic level.

Rear elevation has a doorway on right bay and a window opening (with brick cill) on left bay. Both openings are covered in sheet metal.

Setting

Access from the lane is through a pair of wrought iron gates with dog bars. Gates are plainly detailed; all verticals having rounded ends and the clasping bar is inscribed “ WW”. Rock faced granite gate piers. The small area to front of the house has a similar gate into the front field, a pedestrian gate into a garden at left of house and an open cart way at right of house into the rear farmyard.

Single storey outbuildings enclose farmyard to the SW and NE. They are built of rubble stone with pitched roofs. All derelict and their roofs are stripped of slates.

Historical information

A building is shown at this location on the 1834 OS 6" map. However, the first Valuation map of around the same date is missing, so it is not possible to ascertain from the first Valuation book whether its dimensions match those of the present house. In all probability the house is of early 19th C date. It is shown on the 1860 OS map. At the time of the 1862 Valuation, it was occupied by William Wright. There are no subsequent changes in its valuation of £1.5s.0d.

Primary sources:
1. OS 6" map, 1834, Co Down sheet 47 (PRONI OS 6/3/47/1).
2. OS 6" map, 1860, Co Down sheet 47 (PRONI OS 6/3/47/2).
3. Second valuation book, 1862 (PRONI VAL 2B/3/69D, p.290).
4. Valuation revision books, 1866-1929 (PRONI VAL 12B/22/19A-F).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This small but attractive vernacular house has been slightly modernised and is now used for agricultural storage.