Laurel Hill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Plain two storey farmhouse, with two storey return, which assumed its present form in c.1849. The property, which is accompanied by a large collection of two and single storey largely contemporary outbuildings, is set on the W side of Tyrone’s Ditches Road, roughly 3 miles SW of Poyntzpass.

The symmetrical front façade faces roughly NE, but for the purposes of this description NE will be referred to as E. To the centre of the ground floor is the main entrance, which consists of a panelled and glazed door and rectangular fanlight with ‘brick- pattern’ tracery. A large mill stone has been embedded in the ground in front of the entrance (thus acting as a threshold). To the left of the entrance is a flat arch sash window with Georgian panes (6/6) and no horns. To the right of the entrance is an identical window. To the first floor are three similar but noticeably smaller windows. The front façade is finished in an early to mid 20th century-looking dry dash of small, rounded, black and white pebbles (possibly c.1930), with smooth rendered in-out quoins and first floor sill course. Decorative geometric surrounds to openings created in the dry dash with larger black and white pebbles and smooth narrow render bands. Stone sills.

Both the N and S gables are plain rendered and devoid of openings.

Projecting from the centre of the rear elevation is a large two storey gabled return. To the rear of the main section of the house, to immediate left of the return, is a first floor window with c.1930s+ steel frame. This window is very close to the intersection of the return and marks to the surrounding render suggests it was once slightly deeper. To the right of the return, (but placed slightly further away from it), is a similar first floor window.

To the N face of the return there are two ground floor windows. That to right is as that to ground floor front, whilst that to left is much smaller and has a plain sash frame. To the first floor are two windows, as ground floor right. The (W facing) gable of the return is blank. To the very right hand (S) edge, the gable is abutted by the edge of a large (but lower) two storey outbuilding (see below). To the S face of the return there is a full-length single storey lean-to. This has a small two pane window to left, then a timber sheeted door, then a small casement window. To the first floor of the return proper there are two narrow windows with recent frames (with hopper openers). To the W end the lean-to abuts the two storey outbuilding. Many of the return windows are covered with security grills.

The whole of the rear elevation is finished in a mixture of plain cement render and rough harling (the latter to the S side of the return).

All sections of the roof are slated with [?]rendered parapets to the main roof and that of the return. There are three rendered chimneystacks, (one to each gable), with octagonal pots. Mixture of cast iron and PVC rw goods.

To the front of the house is a small garden with a rough cast rendered wall with ‘gabled’ coping. The wall includes a pedestrian gateway with round piers, (with shallow pitched cone caps), and a simple decorative wrought iron gate.

To the immediate S of the house is a large L-shaped two storey gabled outbuilding. This is largely harled and whitewashed and has a slated roof. The section set to the W is slightly lower in height than that set to S, and the S section itself has differing roof heights. The inner (i.e. yard facing) faces of both sections have a series of original-looking openings, consisting of timber sheeted pedestrian / stable doors and a few broader vehicle doorways. To the first floor there is a mixture of timber sheeted loft doors / windows of various sizes. The S face of the S section has similar ground and first floor openings.

To the SW corner of the L-shaped outbuilding there may once have been a horse-walk. The writers did not actually see this area, but a (roughly) circular field pattern is marked on various OS maps.

To the S of the two storey L-shaped outbuilding is a larger yard, bordered by a large J-shaped complex of single storey outbuildings which abut each other. These are largely finished in the same way as the previous outbuilding, and have similar openings, but the roof of the section to the E, (which runs parallel to the roadside), is in corrugated iron.

Historical information

The present owner of Laurel Hill acquired the property after the death of former owner, Miss Mary Savage, in 2001. The Savage family had held the house since around 1849, the year when Mary Savage’s grandfather, Rev Alexander Savage, became minister of nearby Ballenan [or Ballenon] Reformed Presbyterian Church. According to an account (held at PRONI) written by Mary Savage and her sister Sarah some time in the mid 1900s, Alexander Savage built the present house c.1850s on the site of an earlier dwelling, retaining a portion of the original house as the return. The current owner goes further, stating that the Misses Savage told him that this original portion (which he believes to be partly mud walled) dated from c.1710-20.

It is difficult to confirm this in the historical records. It is clear that the present house (return, outbuildings, etc) was in place by at least 1855, for it is shown on a pictorial map of that year drawn up by one John Martin. It is also shown on the revised OS map of 1859 and recorded in the valuation of 1863, the latter grading the property ‘B+’, that is a well maintained building of perhaps twenty years old or more.

Tracing the history of the building further is difficult. As stated above, the Savage family account regards the main front portion as the work of Alexander Savage who arrived in the area in 1849. This, taken with the above-mentioned John Martin map would indicate that the building as we know it today dates from some time between 1849-50, a date supported by the mid 19th detailing in the hallway and at least one of the fireplaces. But it appears to be contradicted by the ‘age’ evidence offered by the aforementioned second valuation. It also appears to be contradicted by the first edition OS map of 1835 which shows a building matching the plan of the front portion- with no sign of anything on the site of the return whatsoever. This would appear to suggest that it is the front, not the return which is the older but the ‘front portion’ shown in 1835 was not of sufficient value to be recorded in the near contemporary first valuation, indicating that it was a modest structure- possibly single storey and, therefore, the current front portion may have been raised or rebuilt.

The date of Laurel Hill remains uncertain therefore. It is certain that it had appeared by at least 1855, that elements of the internal detailing are distinctly mid 19th century. Also, if there is an ‘older’ portion of the building, it is more likely to be the main front section rather than the return but the former may have begun life as a modest single storey dwelling. There is one other piece of evidence that may be important. In the Savage sisters’ account of their grandfather they state that the older building (which they believed to be the return) had previously housed another minister, Rev King, and was therefore a de facto manse. As such it is more likely to have been a fairly substantial dwelling, possibly two storey. It could have been the case that the present house was built by King some time after the date of the first valuation (1836), but before Savage arrived in 1849, and that the latter merely refurbished the interior.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI MIC/1C/16 Records of the Ballenan Reformed Presbyterian Church, Co Armagh, 1819-
2 PRONI OS/6/2/22/1 OS map 6in County series, Co Armagh, sh 22, 1835
3 PRONI VAL/1A/2/22 Valuation map Co Armagh, sh 22, 1835-36
4 PRONI VAL/1B/214 First valuation, Ballymore parish, 1836
5 PRONI D.3533 Account book of the Rev. Alexander Savage, 1849-76
6 PRONI MIC/1C/16/3 Personal and farm account book of Rev Alexander Savage, c.1849-?1870s
7 PRONI T.1409/1 ‘Map of the Rev. Alexander Savage’s farm, Cullentragh, Co Armagh, 1855. Survey’d by John Martin…’
8 PRONI T.1409/2 Lease of a farm at Cullentragh, Co Armagh. From Robert Dickson, Tullycarn, Co Down, to Rev Alexander Savage, Laurel Hill, Co Armagh- 1856
9 PRONI OS/6/2/22/2 OS map 6in County series, Co Armagh, sh 22, 1859
10 PRONI VAL/2A/2/22 Valuation map Co Armagh, sh 22, 1863
11 PRONI VAL/2B/2/32e Second valuation, Ballymore parish, 1863
12 PRONI T.1409/3 Miscellaneous notes on the history of the Savage family and the customs and superstitions of the Poyntzpass district, Co Armagh

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Plain two storey farmhouse, with two storey return, which assumed its present form in c.1849. The property, which is accompanied by a large collection of two and single storey largely contemporary outbuildings. Laurel Hill is a good and reasonably intact example of a relatively prosperous mid 19th farmhouse.