Knock House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached two-storey three-bay farmhouse with attached two-storey outbuilding, built c. 1830, located on a prominent elevated site on Lisnacroppan Road, between Banbridge and Rathfriland. L-shaped on plan, aligned E-W.

Natural slate roof, hipped to angle and gabled to north and west, having blue-black ridge and hip tiles. Rendered gable chimneystacks with moulded caps and terracotta pots. Cast-iron rainwater goods on corbelled stone eaves. Walling is ruled-and-lined rendered over a plinth, unpainted, with reticulated quoins and lintel blocks. Windows are 6/6 timber sashes with exposed sash boxes and horns, all with projecting granite cills.

Principal elevation faces south and is five openings wide to each floor, symmetrically arranged about a central square-headed opening surmounted by reticulated voussoirs and basket-of-fruit motif in render; plain reveals. Replacement door with four bolection moulded pointed panels, no knob; matching sidelights with glazed upper panels and three-part transom (obscurely glazed). Accessed by a granite step.

West gable is almost completely abutted by the outbuilding (see record HB17/08/014B).

Rear elevation returns at left side; the right side has two windows to ground floor and two closely spaced windows to first floor. The return has a single gable window set to right at ground floor. Rear entrance door to right cheek, with single window over.

East elevation has two windows to each floor, offset to right.

Setting

The house is set on an elevated site in a rural
setting, bounded to the road by a rendered boundary wall with set back entrance having a pair of cast iron gates on square piers with deep rectangular panels and stepped caps. The driveway no longer exists, although there are vestiges of a mud track, probably leading to a former forecourt. Sloping garden with double terrace to south, having views over neighbouring farm and surrounding countryside, bounded by a tree-lined farm lane at west leading to agricultural land. Concrete farmyard to north, enclosed by a single-storey monopitched outbuilding at east and a two-storey barn and stable range at north (see HB17/08/014B). Modern farm buildings to secondary farmyard at north.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Knock House, a two-storey Georgian farmhouse in the townland of Edenagarry, was constructed prior to 1833 as both the house, and the one-and-a-half-storey barn to its north side, appear on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in that year (this historical description deals solely with the development of Knock House; for details concerning the erection of the farms surrounding outbuildings see HB17/08/014B).

In 1862 Griffith’s Valuation noted that Robert McDowell, a local farmer, occupied the site; the Townland Valuation (c. 1830) did not record McDowell and at that time only four houses within the townland were valued at more than the minimum £3, however the corresponding townland valuation map was missing making it impossible to confirm whether Knock House was one of these four. McDowell let the property (which was not captioned as ‘Knock House’ until the third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1903) from John S. Crawford, a landowner based in Crawfordsburn who owned 5,748 acres in the area; the house and its out offices were valued at £10 in 1862.

By 1864 Robert McDowell had either died or vacated the site, his relative Joseph McDowell (likely his son) became occupant of the farm by that year. In 1871 Joseph’s nephew Robert James McDowell was recorded as joint occupant and in 1873 the pair carried out a series of alterations to the site including the erection of a number of additional outbuildings (see HB 17/08/014B) and the construction of the two-storey outbuilding that abuts the north-west gable of the house (first seen on the 1903 Ordnance Survey map). This alteration work resulted in the increase in the value of the farm to £14 at which it remained by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

Joseph McDowell continued to live at the farm until his death in 1901 at which time sole occupation of Knock House passed to Robert James McDowell who the Ulster Town Directories note was a Justice of the Peace for the area as well as a farmer. The 1901 Census notes that Robert (67, Presbyterian) resided at the site with his sister Isabella (75) who was employed as a seamstress; the Census Building Return described Knock House as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 16 rooms (the 1911 return recorded 14 rooms). Robert McDowell continued to reside at Knock House until his own death in 1920 at which time the farm passed to Andrew Ray McDowell (an unknown relative) (PRONI Wills). Andrew McDowell briefly occupied Knock House but vacated the farm by 1927 when Joseph McRoberts, the last occupant recorded in the Annual Revisions, took over the site. Knock House was listed in 1977 and continues to be occupied.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/41/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/41/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1853
3. PRONI OS/6/3/41/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/41/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1903-1918
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/357 – Townland Valuations 1830s
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/59A – Griffith’s Valuation 1862
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4A – Annual Revisions 1864-1876
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4B – Annual Revisions 1877-1887
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4C – Annual Revisions 1887-1898
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4D – Annual Revisions 1898-1911
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4E – Annual Revisions 1912-1929
12. PRONI Wills Catalogue (10 Jan 1901; 12 Aug 1920)
13. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
14. Ulster Town Directories (1901)

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

Knock House is a substantial two-storey three-bay farmhouse with attached-two storey outbuilding and associated farm buildings, built c.1830. Architecturally, the house is representative of the transition from Georgian symmetry and proportion to the more robust ornamentation of the later nineteenth century. The mix of roof profiles to accommodate the attached outbuilding while presenting a double front to the road also demonstrates concern for both form and function. Features representing a prosperous nineteenth century farm, the house, together with traditionally constructed outbuildings (HB17/08/014B) and entrance gates (HB17/08/014C), is a group of note, despite extensive modernisation.

General comments

Incorporates HB17/08/014C