28 Scarva Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical one-and-a-half-storey three-bay semi-detached house, predating 1819 and located west of Scarva Road in the centre of Loughbrickland. Rectangular plan with single-storey lean-to outshot.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and roughcast rendered chimneystack with a single terracotta pot. uPVC rainwater goods on drive-in brackets. Walling is painted roughcast render to east elevation; rubble stone to rear elevation; north gable is roughcast render with platband under eaves. Windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash with horns, exposed boxes, and projecting masonry sills; those to north gable are set in smooth rendered surrounds.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged with a window to either side of a central four-panelled timber door flanked by sidelights and surmounted by a spider-web fanlight.

The south gable is abutted by an outbuilding belonging to the neighbouring property (HB17/03/008).

The rear (west) elevation has a 3/6 window to left and right; abutted to centre by the single-storey lean-to outshot with glazed timber door to left and 3/6 window to right; blank cheeks.

The north gable has a 3/6 window to first floor centre and a boarded window to ground floor centre.

Setting

Set back from the road to east with lawn and shrub garden, bounded by painted smooth rendered wall with coping stones topped with decorative cast-iron railings; octagonal granite gate-piers with dome tops support a decorative cast-iron latch gate. Garden is bounded to north and south by a rubble stone wall. North gable fronts road; access from north to gravelled driveway via modern timber gates. To rear is a small garden and slated rubble stone outbuilding with red-brick dressings.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render / stone
Windows: Timber
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

The current house is of Georgian appearance and may be one of the earliest buildings in Loughbrickland village, marking as it does the former line of the main street. Map evidence shows that the house dates from at least 1819 but is potentially late seventeenth century in origin. The earliest known map of Loughbrickland, Nevil’s survey of 1703, although somewhat stylised, shows a row of single-storey dwellings on the site. The house is presently attached to a line of outbuildings that suggest the arrangement depicted on this early map. Bovenett House(HB17/03/008), which was built in front of the former line of the street, is thought to date from the early eighteenth century, suggesting the buildings to the rear are somewhat earlier. An 1819 survey of the possessions of Nicholas C Whyte shows the house and it also appears on the first edition OS map of 1833.

Loughbrickland town was established in the late 16th century by Sir Marmaduke Whitchurch, to whom Queen Elizabeth granted the lands in 1585. Whitchurch built a castle on the shores of the lake and shortly afterwards a church and a mill, laying the foundations of the town for which he obtained the grant of a market and two fairs and established a Protestant colony. The town and church were destroyed in the 1641 rebellion but in 1688 the church was rebuilt and the town gradually grew up once more. (Lewis)

The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 lists the property as a house, offices and yard, occupied by James Mullen and valued at £4.18s. The valuation office classification indicates that the house was thatched at this time. There was a large thatched outbuilding to the rear and a yard and garden attached to the property. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) indicates that the house is still thatched some years later, although the valuation has now been reduced to £2.10s. The occupier is John Mattock, who leases the house from Mary Anne Carson and later the Flagherty family. Patrick Coghlan takes over the house in 1877 and the same year the valuation is raised again to £4.10s. Subsequent occupiers are James Shiels (1886) Henry Kearney (1901) Margaret Kearney (1924) and James Hugh Devlin (1928).

At the time of the 1901 census the roof of the house was still thatched and it had six rooms. The occupier was Henry Kearney from County Louth, an agricultural labourer who lived with his wife and six children aged between 14 and 30, the elder three sons also working as labourers. By 1911 Henry Kearney, now 72, continued to work as an agricultural labourer, while two of the sons had become fowl dealers. Six of the 8 living children were still at the family home together with a 9-year-old grandson who had been born in America. The roof of the house had been slated/tiled by 1911.

The house remained in the Kearney family until 1928 when it was taken over by James Hugh Devlin and was shortly after revalued at £6.10s and £1.10s for agricultural buildings. In common with other houses in the village, the cottage had a plot of land attached to the lease which was sited outside the village area. In the early 1930s the accommodation comprised two upstairs bedrooms, two receptions, a kitchen, pantry and scullery. The house was let out to tenants and had been purchased in the early 1920s for £400. A plan and dimensions are given which show the house as today, the rear return housing a scullery. The outbuildings included a byre, boiler house and stable. The cottage remains in use as a dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/34/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/34/2 Second Edition OS map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/34/3 Third Edition OS Map 1902-3
4. PRONI OS/6/3/34/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/351 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55a Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/18A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 – First General Revaluation (1936-57)
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/N/1 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
10. PRONI D695/M/1 – Map of the Glan Bogg surveyed by Frances Nevil 1703 (wrongly catalogued as 1793)
11. PRONI D2918/6/11 – Map of Loughbrickland estates of Nicholas C Whyte (1819)

Secondary Sources

1. Knox, Alexander, M.D. “A History of the County of Down” Dublin: Hodges, Foster & Co, 1875
2. Linn, Captain R “A History of Banbridge” (edited by W S Kerr) Banbridge Chronicle Press, 1935
3. Lewis, Samuel. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837.
4. Magennis, P “Loughbrickland Historic Trail” 2008

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A symmetrical one-and-a-half-storey three-bay semi-detached house, pre-dating 1819 in the centre of Loughbrickland. Despite recent refurbishment, architectural detailing is largely intact and the house retains much of its original character. The setting largely survives and with boundary wall and railings to east. No 28 is one of the earliest structures in the village and is a good example of a small formal house.