29 Ballynamagna Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey three-bay vernacular hearth-lobby dwelling pre-dating 1833 with windbreaker porch, modern extension to the rear associated outbuildings to the south and
setting features. Located southeast of the crossroads with Millvale Road/Brookvale Road and Ballynamagna Road, approximately 2 miles northwest of Rathfriland.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles, timber fascia boards and uPVC rainwater goods (rear only). Smooth rendered chimneystacks with corbelled upper courses and modern pots. Painted roughcast rendered walling. Replacement 3/1 double glazed timber sliding-sash windows with horns and concrete cills (unless otherwise stated). Flush replacement timber door set into projected windbreaker porch with catslide slate roofing; exposed rubble masonry walling.

Asymmetrical principal elevation facing south with windbreaker porch left of centre. Single window to each bay.

The left gable is blank; unpainted render and apex chimney.

The rear elevation comprises single timber top-hung casement windows with glazing bars flanking a modern one-and-a-half-storey gabled return. The natural slated roofing to the return has matching eaves and ridge level and incorporated modern roof lights. The walling is unrendered insulated concrete formwork with projected gabled bays to either check, incorporating top-hung casement timber windows with glazing bars.

The left gable is blank; unpainted render; apex chimney.

Setting

Rural setting screened from view located at the end of a winding lane, which bypasses a modern bungalow. Two gabled rubble masonry outbuildings with natural slate roofs adjacent to the entrance gates (the left outbuilding modified for accommodation), with infilled gable openings. The site is bounded to the south with a masonry rubble wall incorporating cylindrical piers with conical caps carrying a wrought-iron gate. Gabled timber tongue-and-groove chalet with corrugated-iron roofing located west of the dwelling; timber framed casement windows and timber door with decorative bargeboards and timber apex finial.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Roughcast
Windows: timber
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

A group of buildings is shown on the first edition OS map of 1833 loosely arrayed around a courtyard, and the most northern of these rectangular structures appears to correspond to the present day dwelling house on the site. By the second edition of 1853, two further structures had been added to the plot which have also survived to the present, as outbuildings to the current house.

The property is not listed in the Townland Valuation as it would not have reached the threshold for inclusion. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) William Wilson leased the farm for a yearly rent of £14, from the Trustees of the Honourable Robert Meade. The house and offices, valued at £3.10s, are sited on a plot of over 17 acres. The farm passed to John Ervine in 1898, William Malcolmson in 1911 and James Alfred Cromie in 1917. At the time of the 1901 census John Ervine was living with his wife and six children, one of whom was his married daughter returned home from America and bringing his one-year-old grandson. One of his older sons was a woollen draper. John Ervine’s widowed sister also lived at the house as well as a 13-year-old general domestic servant from Scotland. The five-room house was designated 2nd class.

By the 1930s the buildings on the plot were no longer inhabited and had been redesignated as agricultural outbuildings. However, after the war in 1945 the house was renovated and converted back into a dwelling. The outbuilding nearest the road was converted into a forge by the tenant of the house and extended by a bay to the north. In 1951 the dwelling house, which had been thatched was roofed with corrugated asbestos. The accommodation comprised a kitchen, scullery and two receptions and the house was let for 10s per week.

The house is currently undergoing a renovation including the construction of a large rear extension. The outbuildings appear to have been sympathetically restored.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/41/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/41/2 Second Edition OS map 1853
3. PRONI OS/6/3/41/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/41/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/59A Griffiths Valuation (1861)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/1 First General Revaluation (1933-56)
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/A/2 First General Revaluation (1933-56)
9. 1901 census online
10. 1911 census online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A single-storey three-bay vernacular hearth-lobby dwelling pre-dating 1833 with associated detached outbuildings and setting features. Although traditional proportions to the front elevation survive, the overall integrity, character and historic interest is compromised by the modern extension to the rear, the internal modifications and the replacement detailing. It is not of special interest.