Dwelling & Outbuildings

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Northeast facing, early Victorian symmetrical fronted, three bay, two storey dwelling house and two storey annexe to right hand side, dating from c1850 and a rear stable yard which was constructed between 1860 and 1906. Setback from roadway in small lawn area, bounded by low paint rendered wall

Gable ended, two storey, with artificial slate roof and ridge tiles, rendered chimneys at either end and having flush verges and uPVC guttering and downpipes goods throughout. Unpainted fine dash rendered walls with. three equally spaced windows at first floor directly above two similar windows at ground level with centrally positioned upvc panelled door and frame. All windows one over one upvc sliding sash. Annex to right hand side with external finishes as before and having small one over one uPVC sliding sash window centred above larger similar window to right and uPVC door with peep hole window and frame to left. Projecting rear return having external finishes as described above with square uPVC window at ground level centred beneath two top hung one over one upvc windows at first floor level. To left rear elevation of annex outward opening upvc patio doors at first floor with top hung one over one upvc window to right, beneath which is position square uPVC framed window. Rear elevation to right having one over one upvc top hung window at first floor with elongated window. Top hung opening beneath. All return gables blank.

SETTING
The dwelling, set back from Bessbrook Road with a small lawn to front defined the by rendered walling with central portion of railing and personnel gate giving access to garden pathway. The
setting of the house is defined by the arrangement of outbuildings to the rear and enriched by the gated archway access to the rear yard via laneway to the left.

EXTERNAL FINISHES
Roofing: Replaced artificial slate,
Walling: Unpainted, smooth pebble dash render,
Windows: uPVC imitation sliding sash to front (reminder to rear top hung)
RWG: uPVC

OUTBUILDINGS - Constructed between 1860 and 1906, the original outbuilding arrangement is located to the southwest and parallel to the dwelling house. Consisting, primarily of a linear whitewashed, rubble stone wall construction, two storey, natural slate pitched roof with flush verges to the left with a similarly constructed, attached, single storey block to the right. The northeast elevation has at first floor level, a centrally located vertically sheeted painted timber door flanked, either side with small timber sheeted window openings and below the door exists visible evidence of a flight of barn steps, beneath the line of which an arched opening gives access to the building at ground floor. First floor window to right has vertically sheeted door opening, with fanlight at ground floor beneath. To left, a single storey, pitched roof extension with finishes as described above projects into the yard and defines the southeast boundary of the yard. It contains a modified, enlarged, structural opening with original, vertically sheeted timber door to right. The line of this extension continues in the form of a high wall connected directly to an outhouse attached to the left-hand side of the dwelling and within which is a high arched opening with double arched vertically sheeted timber doors. A single storey extension to the right of the two-storey block, with finishes as described, contains a former open archway which has since been divided vertically to present a wall with painted brick infill, containing a three over six, painted sliding sash window. To right, a catslide roof, with small arched opening beneath, has single storey northeast projecting outhouses, with concrete render finish to walls and high-level metal framed windows. On plan, this has a perpendicular attachment to right of mid-20th century, single storey, disused outhouses with, render finish, corrugated roof sheeting and metal framed windows.

Historical information

107 Bessbrook Road comprises an early Victorian dwelling house and shop annexe dating from c1850 and a rear stable yard which was constructed between 1860 and 1906.

The first edition of 1834-5 shows a structure of vernacular outline on the site of the current dwelling, to the immediate north of two dwelling houses and associated outbuildings. There are no discernable remains of this vernacular structure by the second edition of 1860 and the current dwelling house and former shop was, therefore, constructed afresh c1850. The second edition shows the footprint of the house as it is today, a rectangular-on-plan dwelling house with annexe section to the north-west, a rear return to the dwelling house and an attached outbuilding to the rear of the shop annexe.

The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1863) records the current dwelling house and outbuildings, which are valued at £10.10s and leased by Samuel Girvin (also spelled Girvan in later records) from the Representatives of Francis Cope, a local landlord. Measurements are given for the buildings which when compared with the buildings currently on site, show that part of the two-storey outbuilding in the rear stableyard was constructed between the OS map survey of 1860 and the valuation survey of 1863. The measurements also identify the two-storey annexe to the north-west elevation of the main dwelling house as a ‘grocery and haberdashery’.

Samuel Girvin died in 1884, leaving his ‘share in the business of the shop’ to his son Robert John and specifying in his will that his daughters were to remain in ‘the mansion house and in the enjoyment of all their former privileges as long as they think it wise to do so’. Samuel’s daughters Sarah Girvin and Anna/Agnes Marshall subsequently became the residents of the current dwelling house, leasing it from their brother, Robert John.

Samuel Gilbert Girvin, another son of Samuel Girvin senior, was resident in the main dwelling house at the time of the 1901 census. Girvin was a farmer and lived in the house with two female servants who helped on the farm and with general domestic duties. The census return records the house as having nine rooms at this point and also records a total of 11 outbuildings including a stable and coach house. Agnes Marshall, a retired, unmarried haberdasher of 64, was resident in the shop annexe, which comprised four rooms. On Agnes’ death in 1909 the house and shop passed to Agnes’ executor Marcus Albert Hadden, farmer, who subsequently became the outright owner of the buildings under the Land Purchase Acts. The shop does not appear to have been used as a shop from this time onwards. The third edition OS map of 1906 shows the fully completed stableyard for the first time, occupying substantially the same footprint as it does today.

In 1934 the former shop annexe is recorded as having ‘one room down and two up’ and was ‘little used’. The main dwelling consisted of a hall, two receptions, a breakfast room, kitchen, scullery and pantry on the ground floor, and there were four bedrooms on the upper floor. A plan in the valuers’ binder shows that the dwelling house was of rubble masonry and slated, while the attached outbuilding to the rear of the former shop and an attached outbuilding to the west of the main dwelling house were of rubble masonry and brick. The main outbuildings on the site were rubble masonry and slated, but other materials were used within the stableyard such as brick, wood and corrugated iron.

Gilbert Hadden took over the property in 1940.

References:
Primary Sources:

1. OS/6/2/21/1 First edition Six Inch OS map (1834-5)
2. OS/6/2/21/2 Second edition Six Inch OS map (1860)
3. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/34B Griffith’s Valuation Parish of Loughgilly (1863)
4. PRONI Will of Samuel Girvin died 1st February 1884
5. OS/6/2/21/3 Third edition Six Inch OS map (1906)
6. PRONI Will of Agnes Marshall died 22nd February 1909
7. OS/6/2/21/4 Fourth edition Six Inch OS map (1955)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/2/14 Third General Revaluation lists
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/2/6/W/5 Third General Revaluation Binder
10. 1901 Census of Ireland online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

No.107 Bessbrook Road has lost a substantial amount of historic fabric, both internally and externally including replacement roof (with artificial slates) and installation of Upvc windows. It does not meet the legislative test applied for consideration for listing.