27 Whitehill Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical detached three-bay two-storey rubblestone house, built c.1830. Rectangular on plan facing south and located to the north of Whitehill Road with a single-storey stone structure to the entrance gates. Extensively restored c.2005.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, cement parged verges and profiled redbrick chimneystacks rising from either gable with terracotta pots. Replacement cast-iron guttering on iron drive through brackets to redbrick eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Random rubblestone walls with lime mortar and rough hewn quoins. Square-headed window openings with cut stone lintels and sills, redbrick reveals and replacement two-over-two timber sash windows.

Three-bay two-storey front elevation with central square-headed door opening having cut stone lintel, redbrick reveals, replacement vertically-sheeted timber door and replacement threshold stone.

Blank west gable with flush redbrick flue rising to the chimneystack.

Symmetrical three-bay two-storey rear elevation detailed as per front elevation, except the central first floor window is single-pane with coloured margin lights.

East gable detailed as per west gable.

Setting:
Set within its own small site on the north side of Whitehill Road enclosed by rubblestone wall. Entrance to the southeast with wrought-iron gates on rendered piers abutted to the west by a diminutive single-storey white-washed rubblestone structure having pitched natural slate roof and sheeted timber door.

Roof Natural slate
Walling stone
Windows timber
RWG Cast-iron

Historical information

The current house is a 1930s remodel of an earlier single-storey vernacular dwelling. A building is shown on the site on the first edition OS map of 1833-4 and is rectangular on plan with outbuildings to the north and east. No outbuildings from the 1830s have survived, but a single-storey structure that currently stands beside the gatescreen was added to the site between 1860 and 1901-2.

The building was not listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as it did not reach the valuation threshold (£3) for inclusion.

Griffiths’s Valuation of 1856-64 values the earlier dwelling at £1 suggesting that, when first built, it was unlikely to have been more than a single-storey dwelling in the vernacular style. The occupier was James Caul, a tenant farmer who leased the house from Earl Annesley. The house and outbuildings were situated on a farm of over 12 acres. In 1888 the farm passed to Edward Caul and he is listed in the 1901 census as a 60-year-old farmer, resident with his brother, two sisters and an 8-year-old nephew. By 1911 another brother and sister had come to live at the house which is categorised as a thatched two-room dwelling of the second class.

The house remained in the Caul family for some years but in 1922 was taken over by Adam Martin and by the time of the First General Revaluation in 1933/4 was no longer inhabited. The house passed to Robert Martin in 1935 and he raised and rebuilt it, increasing its value to £2.5s although it was used only as an agricultural outbuilding. In 1935 the house was described by valuers as completed externally but not internally. There were no fireplaces and the walls were not plastered. The staircase was not fixed and flooring to the first floor had not been laid down. The building was used as a potato store and valued as an agricultural outbuilding.

The building appears to have remained unfinished until recent times when it was completed by the Mourne Homesteads Project. It was one of seven dwellings that were renovated to raise awareness of the loss of traditional buildings in the Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and to develop the skills base needed to maintain such structures for the future. (www.mournelive.com)

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/2/B/3/51D Griffith’s Valuation (1863)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/15A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/K/4 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. 1901 census online
10. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. www.mournelive.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Symmetrical detached three-bay two-storey rubblestone house, built c.1830. Rectangular on plan facing south with a single-storey stone structure to the entrance gates. Extensively restored c.2005 as part of the Mourne Homesteads Scheme, this modest stone house was originally built as a single-storey dwelling with a further storey added c.1930. Although the restoration employed historically correct replacement fabric to the vernacular structure, the interior was completely replaced. It is of a relatively common type and has been compromised by recent alterations and detailing and is not among the best examples of a traditional rural dwelling.