64 Dromara Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey rendered former farmhouse, built c.1820, dated and refurbished 1927, currently vacant. Rectangular on plan facing northeast with front entrance porch and single-storey rear extension. Located on the west side of Dromara Road with a single-storey rubblestone outbuilding located to the south.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, cement parged verges and four profiled rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron guttering on iron drive through brackets and cast-iron downpipes. Painted ruled-and-lined cement rendered walling with rusticated rendered quions and rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills and single-pane timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, inserted c.1930.

Three-bay two-storey front elevation abutted by flat-roofed single-storey rendered entrance porch opening into enclosed front garden. Rendered date plaque '1927' set in pebbles.

Blank rendered south gable with some exposed rubblestones exposed at the base.

Cement rendered rear elevation having single-pane timber sash windows, steel casement windows and abutted by gable-fronted single-storey rear extension opening onto concrete paved rear yard.

Blank rendered north gable.

Setting:
Located on the west side of Dromara Road at a slightly lower level with front garden enclosed by rendered walls and a concrete paved drive running along the south gable with a single-storey rubblestone outbuilding lining the drive to the south.

Roof Natural slate
Walling render
Windows timber
RWG Cast-iron

Historical information

The present dwelling began life as a single-storey vernacular structure that was raised in the early 1880s and improved again in 1927 in line with the increasing prosperity of its tenant-farmer occupiers. A rectangular structure on the site is shown on the first edition OS map of 1833-4. Two small outbuildings are shown nearby, but these do not appear to have survived. The house was not of a high enough value to be recorded in the Townland Valuation (1828-40).

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) values the building at £1.10s indicating that it is unlikely to have been more than a single-storey vernacular house at this stage. The occupier is Michael Conalty, a tenant farmer who leases the house and a 12 acre farm from the Earl of Annesley. The rent is £7.18s.

The house passed to Bridget Conalty in 1878 and Peter McCarron in 1881. A rise in valuation to £3 took place the same year and then to £4.10s in 1882, suggesting that the house was raised and improved at this time. Hugh Carroll took over the farm in 1900 but appears to have died soon afterwards leaving his widow, Anna and his two sons of 18 and 20 at the farm. The house was of the second class and had four rooms. Valuer’s notes of 1901 give a plan and dimensions of the house which was then a two-bay dwelling with a single-storey extension to the south. In the possession of the current owners is a photograph dating from around this period showing the lime-rendered house with its original porch. In 1912 the house passed to Isaac Henry Stevenson who made improvements to the house in 1927 including raising the west wing, which added an extra bedroom to the house, and extending the porch. These improvements are commemorated by a datestone to the front facade and resulted in a rise in the valuation to £5.10s.

In the First General Revaluation of 1933/4 the house was raised in value to £5.10s and the agricultural buildings to £2. A barn of iron posts and corrugated iron roof was added to the north of the farmhouse in 1939 (still present) increasing the valuation of the outbuildings to £3.10s. Isaac Henry Stevenson died in 1938 (Will of Isaac Henry Stevenson died 23rd November 1938) and the house passed to Margaret Stevenson (nd) and Scott Henry Stevenson in 1948. The accommodation comprised two receptions, a kitchen, scullery and pantry downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs. Part of the ground floor was used as a barn. The house was judged a ‘substantial rubble masonry and slate building in fair condition’ by the valuer. This former dwelling currently lies vacant.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/35/1 First Edition OS Map 1833-4
2. PRONI OS/6/3/35/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/35/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/35/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1902-20
5. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/4 Valuer’s Notebook 1901
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/51D Griffith’s Valuation (1863)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/15A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/K/4 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
10. PRONI Will of Isaac Henry Stevenson, died 23rd November 1938
11. 1901 census online
12. 1911 census online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached evolved three-bay two-storey rendered former farmhouse formerly containing a shop, built c.1820, dated and refurbished 1927, currently vacant. Rectangular on plan facing northeast with front and rear entrance porches. Single-storey rubblestone outbuilding located to the south. Modest in scale with a façade that indicates successive twentieth-century changes, while the house is of some interest, it is not among the best examples of this type of building.