Slate Quarry House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay farmhouse built pre-1833. Rectagular plan form with rear return and modern conservatory. Located just south of the town of Dromara, on the west side of Rathfriland Road.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; cast-iron rainwater goods smooth rendered chimneystacks with moulded cornice course; clay pots. Ruled-and-lined rendered walling with stucco mouldings; long-and-short rusticated quoins. Replacement 8/8 timber sliding sash windows with horns; moulded surrounds with extended cills; slightly diminished-in-height windows to the first floor. Replacement four-panelled timber door with bolection mouldings; modern ironmongery; replacement side lights with glazing bars and panelled apron; fanlight with margin glazing bars; set into segmental-arched opening with moulded surrounds and plinth stops; modern tiled step.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged. The front door is centrally positioned with a window to either side. Three first floor windows directly over ground floor openings.

The left gable has a single replacement uPVC casement window to the attic. A single-storey gabled garage with metal door and casement window to the west elevation abuts the ground floor.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged and is dominated by a large 2 storey extension. All window openings replaced with uPVC casement. Ground floor window to the left bay with first floor windows to the left and right. Extension has a variety of fenestration; is abutted by a modern conservatory and is of no historic interest. It is accessed by a modern door at north.

The right gable is has a single replacement uPVC casement window to the attic right of centre.

Setting

The house is largely screened from view by trees lining the site parallel to the road. Access to the site is via a replacement electronic gate fixed to monoloithic granite piers with pointed heads. The driveway is short and straight lined with hedgerows and trees. A garden with trees to front. A timber fence bounds the site to the north; modern rubble-effect wall to the east. Yard to the rear accessed by modern gate; two long single-storey roughcast outbuildings with pitched corrugated-iron roofing to the west. Smaller single storey painted rubble masonry outbuilding with and elliptical-arched opening with masonry voussoirs (infilled with block) and matching corrugated-iron roof adjacent right gable of the dwelling and adjoined by a rubble masonry wall.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Stucco rendered
Windows: Timber sliding sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The two-storey farmhouse on the Rathriland Road to the south of Dromara and situated in the townland of Crossgar was constructed prior to 1833, first appearing on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in that year. The current dwelling, as well as the two surviving western outbuildings, had been constructed by that year although the house lacked its south-facing single-storey extension at that time. In the 1830s the site was valued at £8 and was occupied by a Mrs. Agnes McKenny.

McKenny occupied the farmhouse in Crossgar until her death in 1858 at which time the property passed to her grandson John McKenny (PRONI Wills). There was little change to the site by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1859; however, although indistinct on the map, it appears that the south-facing single-storey extension had been constructed between 1833 and 1859. John McKenny was recorded as occupant in Griffith’s Valuation (c. 1861) which noted that McKenny leased the farm, the value of which had slightly increased to £9, from a Mr. Hutchinson Boyd.

John McKenny, who was solely employed as a farmer, continued to reside at Crossgar until his death in 1888; upon his death his widow Margaret took possession of the site and subsequently the value of the farm was lowered to £5 after an appeal against the high rating was made. By the 1901 Census Margaret McKenny (62, Roman Catholic) resided at Crossgar alone; the census building return described her farmhouse as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of four rooms and possessed a stable, two cow houses, a piggery and a barn amongst its farm offices, located in the two main outbuildings to the west of the dwelling. Margaret McKenny vacated the farm in 1911 and moved to a new dwelling in the same townland; after vacating the site McKenny let the farm to a Mr. Campbell McCrory. The 1911 Census noted that McCrory, a 58 year old Presbyterian farmer, resided at Crossgar with his wife Martha Anne (56); there was no notable change to the farmhouse or the farm in the census building return since 1901.

In 1911 McCrory also came into possession of a house to the north of McKenny’s farmhouse; the second house was also owned by Margaret McKenny and prior to 1911 was utilised as the medical dispensary for Dromara. The McCrory family continued to occupy the former dispensary until the end of the Annual Revisions, however McCrory vacated the McKenny farmhouse in 1918 when Michael McKenny retook possession of the site. McKenny only briefly resided at the farm before his death in 1922 after which time the farm passed to his brother James Henry McKenny the last member of the family to occupy the farmhouse. James Henry McKenny died in 1925 after which time the house came into the possession of Michael O’Reilly who was listed as occupant until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

Patrick McKenny, a descendant of the original occupants of the farm in Crossgar records that ‘Slate Quarry House,’ as it is locally known, was named after a slate quarry located on the estate of the Marquis of Downshire near the Parish Church of Dromara. The slate quarry was utilised during the 18th century although by the Ordnance Survey in 1834 none of the local slate quarries were in operation. McKenny states that his family are traditionally believed to have moved to Crossgar c. 1800 where they built the current house.

Upon establishing the dwelling at Crossgar, John McKenny (husband of Agnes McKenny recorded in the Townland Valuations) entered into a ‘rights of use’ agreement with the Lord Viscount Dungannon to allow John McKenny to extract slate from a slate quarry that had been opened on his land. It is not known where this slate quarry was situated and no quarry appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1833 in proximity to the McKenny’s land. McKenny states that by 1819 the commercial viability of the slate quarry had diminished and McKenny wished to end his agreement with Lord Dungannon.

With John McKenny’s death in the 1820s, Slate Quarry House continued to be owned by his family for approximately 100 years, however upon the death of James Henry McKenny the farm was sold at public auction. The O’Reilly family of Dromara purchased Slate Quarry House in 1926 but between 1926 and the 1950s rarely resided there themselves but let the property out to other tenants. In the 1950s the house was restored after falling into a state of disrepair and in 1976 Slate Quarry House was listed (McKenny). The dwelling is currently occupied.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/28/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/28/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/28/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/28/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1920
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/28 – Townland Valuation map 1833
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/341 – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/50A – Griffith’s Valuation c. 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/9A – Annual Revisions 1864-1874
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/9B – Annual Revisions 1875-1884
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/9C – Annual Revisions 1885-1897
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/9D – Annual Revisions 1898-1911
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/9E – Annual Revisions 1912-1929
13. PRONI Wills (9 Jan 1858; 26 Mar 1888; 27 Mar 1922)
14. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down III Vol. 12 (1834)
15. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
16. First Survey Record – HB17/11/013 (1969)

Secondary Sources

1. McKenny, P., ‘The Slate Quarry and Slate Quarry House in Crossgar: Dromara Parish’ Unpublished Article: 2003.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay farmhouse built pre-1833. The building’s historic evolution and development are of interest as a good example of a vernacular building with later Nineteenth century alterations, decorations and formalisation. The plan form has largely remained unaltered from its earlier form. The flat-roofed extension to the rear and other replacement fabric detract from the building’s historic integrity and authenticity and the modified outbuildings make only a peripheral contribution to the setting. The original building is a good example of a developed vernacular house in a developed farm setting.