87 Lackan Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey two-bay vernacular direct-entry dwelling pre-dating 1834, rectangular plan form with windbreaker porch and adjoining outbuildings. Located on the south side of Lacken Road, southeast of the junction with Crabtree Lane, approximately 11 miles southeast of Banbridge.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles. Ruled-and-lined cement rendered chimney with corbelled cap and decorative clay pots. Corbelled eaves course with metal rainwater goods. Lime-washed lime-render over rubble masonry walling. 1/1 timber sliding sash window with horns with exposed sash-boxes and concrete cills (unless otherwise stated). Painted timber sheeted entrance door with plinth blocks set into windbreaker porch with natural slate lean-to roof. Partially exposed granite threshold and masonry steps.

South facing symmetrically arranged principal elevation with central entrance porch flanked by single ground floor windows. Two first floor 2/2 windows with vertical glazing bars. Horse-shoe supporting downpipe adjacent to door.

The right gable is blank with an apex chimney. Abutted by single-storey outbuildings comprising pitched corrugated iron roof with corrugated ridging, lime rendered walling and a variety of timber sliding sash and fixed windows; timber sheeted doors and evidence of possible earlier door opening to dwelling, now infilled with rubble masonry; machine-sawn timber roof structure. Outbuilding extended to left by concrete block structure, same roof.

The rear elevation is partially obscured by heavy vegetation. Two ground floor 6/6 timber sliding sash windows and two first floor windows directly over; no cill to first floor left.

Setting

Rural
setting, not visible from the main road. Accessed via gravel lane, which bypasses three modern dwellings, the farmhouse is further screened from view by overgrown vegetation. The lane runs across the principal elevation, part of which appears to have been roughly cobbled. The site rises sharply at the rear, bounded by an adjacent field.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Metal

Historical information

A building is shown on the site on the first edition OS map of 1834 which appears to correspond to the dwelling house on the site today, with adjoining outbuildings shown on the third edition of 1901-2.

The house is not listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) suggesting that at this stage the buildings on the site were of a single-storey vernacular character. This is confirmed by Griffith’s Valuation which values the buildings at only 15s. The tenant farmer was James McAuley who paid a rent of £3.15s per year to the Representatives of William Sharman Crawford. The valuation record is unclear in the late 1800s but the farm appears to have passed to John K Kerr in 1887 when the valuation increased to £2, and it is therefore likely that remodelling and/or extension of the buildings took place at this period.

John Strain took over the house in 1905, becoming owner in fee in 1910 under land purchase legislation and his widow Martha Strain was head of the household at the time of the 1911 census. Her son and five daughters lived with her, the son farming the land and the two older daughters working as a seamstress and a national school teacher. The farm passed to James Ernest Morrison in 1945 but has since fallen into disuse and is currently vacant.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/42/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/42/2 Second Edition OS map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/42/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/42/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-20
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/59A Griffith’s Valuation (1863)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/24A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/3 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/U/73First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. 1911 census online

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 two-storey two-bay vernacular direct-entry farmhouse pre-dating 1834. Much of its vernacular character and detailing survive uncompromised by twentieth century alterations. The dwelling and adjoining outbuilding are illustrative of a type of rural dwelling that is becoming rare in its original setting.