Lisnabrague House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey detached farmhouse with outbuildings, built c.1840 and incorporating as a rear return an earlier vernacular structure (pre 1834). Located north of Bann Road near Loughbrickland. Rectangular plan with elongated single-storey extension to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with raised masonry verges and replacement chimneystacks to each gable. Cast-iron half round rainwater goods on projecting eaves course with cast-iron hopper. Walling is painted smooth render (roughcast render to return). Windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash and projecting granite sills.

The principal elevation faces south-east and is three openings wide to each floor. To centre at ground floor is a four-panelled timber door in elliptical-arched recess flanked by fluted Ionic columns and surmounted by a timber spider-web fanlight.

The south-west gable has a 6/6 window to left at ground floor.

The north-west (rear) elevation was partially concealed. Abutted left of centre by a single-storey return (earlier vernacular structure (pre 1834)); window to first and ground floor left. The return has a modern timber casement window to either side of a slightly projecting porch containing a modern panelled-and-glazed timber door and side light. To right is access to a store room and timber-sheeted double-leaf doors to a garage. Larger abutment at far right with a timber-sheeted door.

The north-east gable is blank.

Setting:

Visible from the main road and accessed via a laneway to east with a single slender granite gate pier. The lane leads to a rear yard with a variety of outbuildings including a two-storey rubble stone barn to north with timber-sheeted openings. Raised lawned garden to front with overgrown shrubbery and mature trees; enclosed by an iron pedestrian gate to north-east of house, a roughcast render wall with saddleback coping stones and simple granite piers with pointed caps support original metal gates to south. Farmland to south bounded by mature hedgerow and trees.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The present building, a farmhouse built by the Shannon family c.1840 and incorporating as a rear return an earlier vernacular structure (pre 1834), sets out an architectural progression from simple rural structure to a more polite form in keeping with the increasing prosperity of the owner. The house is situated in a rural landscape south of Scarva that has retained its agricultural character in the period since the first ordnance survey.

Lisnabrague is first mentioned in connection with the Shannon family around the turn into the nineteenth century. Samuel Shannon (d.1817) was one of the inspectors appointed under a relief scheme to ‘mitigate the distress of the poor occasioned by the very extravagant price of provisions’ in March 1800. Samuel Shannon and William Fivey of nearby Union Lodge were appointed to probe into ‘the conditions of the poor’ in Lisnabrague and Loughadian townlands and report to a committee of prominent local people. (Sands)

It is not clear whether Samuel Shannon lived in a building on the current site and there is no listing for the present building in the Townland Valuation (1828-40). However, a rectangular structure corresponding to the return of the present building is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834 together with an outbuilding forming a linear range with the house. The structure remains today and is of a single storey, vernacular type, considered at the time to be under the valuation threshold (usually £3) for the levying of county cess, and therefore a relatively simple rural dwelling.

By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) a new house had been built on the site, which is shown on the second edition OS map of 1860. The former single storey dwelling now forms a return to the house. The occupier is John Shannon, who leases the building from Alexander J R Stewart. It is a house, offices and over 38 acres of land with buildings valued at £11. John Shannon died c1867 and the house then passed to Eliza Shannon in 1871, the valuation being reduced to £11 the same year possibly as the result of an appeal. A new outbuilding was added in 1885, the new building – a 2-storey barn – is shown on the 1903 map edition, but the valuation was judged high enough. The house continued in the Shannon family for some years, passing to Joseph Shannon in 1889, who has left a record of his family in the form of the 1901 census. He was a forty-year-old farmer living with his wife and five children between the ages of 3 and 14, the older four still at school. The house is deemed to be of the second class, has nine rooms and 10 outbuildings including a stable, cow house and two piggeries.

By 1909 the house had been taken over by George McClements and, shortly afterwards in 1910, Joseph Moorhead. In 1911 Joseph Moorhead completed his census return as the head of the family and shows us that he was living with his wife, six children, the oldest of whom, at 23, was working as a dressmaker, and a farm servant of 17. In 1922 Joseph Moorhead became the owner in fee under land purchase legislation. Joseph Moorhead died in 1933 (Will of Joseph Moorhead) and the farm passed to his widow Eliza Jane and then his sons Robert and Joseph in 1938. In the early 1930s the house was revalued at £7.15s and £3.10s for agricultural buildings. It is described as a farmhouse ‘not in good condition and inclined to be wet’ and comprises four bedrooms, two reception rooms, a kitchen, pantries and a scullery. By 1941 Joseph Moorhead was the sole occupier.

The house remains in use as a dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/33/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/33/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/33/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/33/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/22A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
7. PRONI Will of Joseph Moorhead, died 22 October 1933
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/3 First General Revaluation (1936-57)
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/S/4 First General Revaluation (1933-57)

Secondary Sources

1. Sands, J J “Pre-Famine Poverty in the Parish of Aghaderg” Poyntzpass and District Local History Society Magazine, Issue
3, 1989

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Lisnabrague house is a symmetrical three-bay two-storey detached farmhouse with outbuildings, built c.1840. The original proportions and architectural detailing are largely intact although there has been significant loss of historic fabric. The character of the farmyard has been degraded over the years with modifications to the associated outbuildings. A fair example of a middle-sized farmhouse with small-holding dating from the mid-nineteenth century, of a type that is disappearing from the area.