Carrick House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey detached farmhouse with outbuildings; built c.1840 and located to the west side of Carrick Road south of Banbridge. Rectangular on plan with single-storey lean-to extension to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles and raised stone verges having rendered chimneystacks to gables. Cast iron half-round rainwater goods on drive-in brackets. Walling is roughcast render. Windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash with projecting sills.

The principal elevation faces east and is three openings wide to each floor arranged around a central doorcase. Four panelled timber door with decorative oval-paned sidelights, surmounted by an ornate spider-web fanlight.

The south gable has a smaller 6/6 window to attic; two windows to first and ground floor.

The west (rear) elevation has a symmetrical arrangement of openings; abutted at left by the single-storey lean-to extension. To centre is a round-arched multi-paned stairwell window with timber-sheeted door to ground floor. Diminutive timber casement window set in elliptical-arched recess to ground floor right.

The north gable was concealed.

Setting

Set back, but visible from, the road; accessed by a long tarmacadamed lane to east. Surrounded by farmland and bounded by mature hedgerow with some mature trees. Two-storey rubble stone slated barns to north and south enclose the rear yard, accessed from southeast via a set of round gate piers with pointed caps supporting wrought-iron gates. The two-storey barns are rubble stone built to courses with roughly dressed granite quoins, granite sills and plinth blocks to doors; unusual window to south with flush exposed box and flush transom; relieving arch over. Modern farm buildings to south and agricultural shed to northwest.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Roughcast render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Carrick House was built c.1840 as the dwelling house of a tenant farmer, replacing an earlier vernacular dwelling on the site.

An earlier house on the site is shown on the First Edition OS Map of 1834, together with outbuildings to the rear, none of which have survived to the present day. The Townland Valuation (1828-40) lists the occupier as Joseph Carswell and the buildings are valued at £3.14s. The thatched single-storey cottage measured 46.6x20 and there were two single-storey thatched outbuildings. Quality marks indicate that that the buildings were old and ‘slightly decayed’. Although the mid-nineteenth century was a period of subsistence and famine for many agricultural areas in Ireland, the Carswell family were not uncommon in this part of Ulster in being able to achieve a level of prosperity that allowed them to rebuild their farmhouse and outbuildings c.1840.

The new farmhouse is shown on the second edition of 1860 together with a small rear return (still present) and a number of outbuildings forming a courtyard to the rear. Several of the outbuildings have survived to the present day. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) gives dimensions for a two-storey house and single-storey return and three outbuildings, two of which are double-height. All the new buildings are slated. The occupier of the farm is John Carswell, and the house, offices and land of over 70 acres are leased from Earl Clanwilliam. The buildings are valued at £15. In 1887 the farm passed to William Carswell, after the death of his father in 1884. John Carswell died leaving a considerable sum of money for the time, of over £2,000. This financial legacy and Carswell’s several farms were distributed among his four sons, a son Joseph in Australia to whom he left five pounds, a son David to whom he also left five pounds, Samuel who inherited farms in Ballymacaratty Beg and Legananny and William who was left farms in Ballymacarraty More and Meenan. To both Samuel and William, John Carswell left a farm in Lisnagonnell, but the farm at Carrickdrumman does not form part of his bequests. (Will of John Carswell)

The 1901 census records William Carswell at the farm with his wife and six-year-old daughter. The twelve-room house is designated first class and has 13 outbuildings. In 1905 the house was taken over by Arthur Bryson who is recorded as the occupier in the 1911 census. He is newly married but has six children from a previous marriage, all of whom are noted as ‘scholars’. There are two farm servants living at the house and a general domestic servant from County Armagh. Arthur Bryson became the owner in fee of the property in 1931 under land purchase legislation designed to redistribute the estates of large landowners.

The house was revalued in the First General Revaluation of the 1930s at £15.10s and £5 for agricultural buildings and valuer’s notes of the period show that the house was laid out as follows: on the ground floor, two receptions, kitchen, pantry and scullery and on the first floor, four bedrooms, a bathroom with hot and cold water and WC, and two attics in the roofspace. The valuer commented that the building was a ‘Good house in fair repair, well fitted. Medium situation. Good agricultural buildings’. A plan and dimensions are given for the two-and-a-half storey farm house and single-storey return. An outbuilding to the north of the site (still present) is a two-storey stable and cart house. To the west is a potato house (still present) and to the south a two-storey byre, barn and garage with lofts over (still present). The house passed to Robert Bryson in 1938 and no further occupiers are noted in the period up to 1957.

‘Carrick House’ is first captioned on the 1960s/70s edition of the OS map. The house remains in use as a dwelling.

References:
Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/40/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/40/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/40/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/40/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55C Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/14A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
7. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/2/6 Annual Revisions (1930-35)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/H/1 First General Revaluation (1936-57)
10. PRONI Will of John Carswell, died 18th December 1884

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Carrick House is a symmetrical three-bay two-storey detached farmhouse with outbuildings; built c.1840. Simply proportioned and composed on a symmetrical plan, architectural fabric is largely intact and much of the early character has been preserved, including a fine nineteenth-century doorcase with fanlight. The setting includes two good two-storey rubble stone barns to rear yard, adding to the historic interest of the site. As a middle-sized farmhouse, Carrick House is one of the better surviving examples of its type in the area, where such houses are becoming more rare.