17 Tower Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay farmhouse erected c.1870. Rectangular plan form with one-and-a-half storey rear return. Located off Tower Road approximately 2 miles south of Banbridge.

Pitched natural slate roofing with clay ridge tiles; no rainwater goods; chimneys having scratch coat render with concrete caps; masonry skews. Cement smooth rendered walling. Replacement uPVC windows; granite cills. Replacement timber door with side lights.

The principal elevation faces southwest and is symmetrically arranged. Front door centrally positioned with single ground floor windows either side. Three first floor windows directly over; tripartite central window.

The left gable has a single first floor window to the left.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged. One-and-a-half storey gable ended rear return located right of centre comprising picture windows to either cheek; the gable end comprises a modern timber door right of centre; first floor access door centrally positioned. Single ground and first floor window to the left; two ground and first floor windows to the right.

The right gable is blank.

Setting

Small garden to the front enclosed by a rendered wall with metal gate; replacement step to front entrance. Vehicular access to the left leading to a concrete yard to the rear bounded by single-storey rendered and rubble stone outbuildings and double height corrugated metal agricultural buildings beyond.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: roughcast
Windows: uPVC
RWG: None

Historical information

The Townland Valuations (c. 1830) note that there were no houses in the townland of merit to be worth the minimum £5 a year and as a result the farm (now No. 17 Tower Road) was not included in the valuation of property undertaken at that time. Although the First Survey states that the farmhouse predated 1833, the current two-storey house was in fact not erected until c. 1870, however the farm site does appear on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map which records that the single-storey outbuilding to the east of the house, as well as an outbuilding to its north side (perhaps the original dwelling), had been constructed; the northern outbuilding was demolished after 1975.

Griffith’s Valuation (1862) notes that the site was let by the Hon. Robert Meade (the Earl of Clanwilliam) to a Mr. Alexander Sheppard who was a local farmer. Alexander Sheppard did not reside at the site but used it as offices; however, he did let out one of the two buildings as a dwelling to a Mr. Patrick Mellon who presumably worked Sheppard’s farm. Sheppard’s offices were valued at £1 whilst Mellon’s small dwelling was only rated at 10 shillings.

In 1873 Sheppard constructed the current two-storey house at the farm at the entrance to the Tower Road; this raised the value of the site to £8 10s. Alexander Sheppard resided at the new dwelling until his death c. 1880 at which time occupation of the house passed to a Mr. John McBride. However, the Sheppard family came back into possession of the site in 1894 when Samuel Sheppard (perhaps the son of Alexander) occupied the farmhouse and had the value of the farm lowered to £7 10s. Sheppard had lowered the value as he believed the original rate of £8 10s. was too high, however by 1898 the value was once more raised to £8 10s.

The 1901 Census notes that Sheppard (29, Presbyterian) resided on the Tower Road with his sister Agnes (24); the Census Building Return described Sheppard’s house as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of seven rooms and possessed a number of out offices including a stable, cow house, two piggeries and a barn which were located in its outbuildings. The third edition of the Ordnance Survey map was the first to depict the current house and noted that the one-and-a-half-storey rear return had been constructed by 1902-03. The farmhouse was upgraded to a 1st class dwelling by the 1911 Census which noted that Sheppard lived alone at that time.

Sheppard continued to reside and work at his farm until c. 1920 when the site came into the possession of a Mr. Hugh Frazer; the value of the property was lowered to £7 upon this change in occupancy and Frazer remained at the farm until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

No. 17 Tower Road was listed in 1977 and continues to be occupied. Since the First Survey (1970) No. 17 Tower Road has undergone a number of modifications. The large modern corrugated-iron barn was constructed prior to 1975 as it is first depicted on the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in that year; the map also continued to depict the northern outbuilding from c. 1830, however this has since been demolished.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/34/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/34/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/34/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1902-03
4. PRONI OS/6/3/34/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1903-1918
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/34 – Townland Valuation map 1830s
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/352 – Townland Valuations 1830s
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/56 – Griffith’s Valuation 1862
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/1A – Annual Revisions 1864-1874
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/1B – Annual Revisions 1875-1883
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/1C – Annual Revisions 1883-1897
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/1D – Annual Revisions 1898-1908
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/1E – Annual Revisions 1909-1929
13. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
14. Ordnance Survey Map – 238-1 (1975)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay farmhouse erected c.1870. Its historic proportions and style survive although unsympathetic alterations and modifications both externally and internally, have compromised the building’s historic and architectural character and integrity. It remains a good example of a type of small rural house in its original setting that is becoming increasingly rare.