Outbuildings, Kilmacrew House, 70 Kilmacrew Road, Banbridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A half-courtyard group of single- and two-storey traditional outbuildings located at Kilmacrew House (HB17/11/012A), north-east of Banbridge. Earlier (c.1840) linear two-storey range to north-west with central lean-to abutment. Later (c.1890) L-shaped range to south-west, two-storeys at right with roof level dropped to single storey at mid-point, projecting forward at left (south) to enclose the south-west corner of the yard. Additional cart-house adjacent to house, at south east side of yard.

All ranges have undulating pitched natural slate roofs with angled ridge tiles. Vestiges of half-round and ogee cast-iron gutters. Walling is random rubble stone bedded in lime mortar with brick dressings to some openings, and granite plinth blocks. Variety of timber windows, generally four-pane, formed in brick or rubble stone, several with relieving arches and most without cills. Doors are timber sheeted.

North-West Range
Principal yard facing elevation has a full-height lean-to abutment to right of centre, lit by a six-light window to front. To right is a full-height square-headed pair of coach-doors. To left of the abutment is a stable door flanked by a four-light window to its left, with a six-light and four-light window (over brick infill) directly over. The left end is of random squared greystone construction (with visible seam) and has openings formed in brick comprising a stable door with brick arch over, a brick-infilled door opening, and a loading door flanked by occuli to loft. Abutted to extreme left by a lean-to canopy fronting south-west range.
The left gable is lit by a window to loft and has an opening to apex.
The rear elevation is part brick, part lime-rendered masonry; it has a variety of ventilation apertures and windows.
The right gable is lit by a four-pane attic window and abutted by a lean-to outbuilding with timber sheeted door to south-east elevation; further abutted by a quadrant-shaped rubble masonry duck-house, with flat corrugated metal roof and sheeted door.

South-West Range
Principal yard facing elevation; two storey right end is almost completely abutted at ground floor by the single-storey projection, with an additional taller lean-to canopy spanning the gap between the projection and the north-west range. The exposed loft level has a small sheeted opening. Ground floor left (beneath canopy) has two timber-sheeted doors flanking a high level door accessed by a timber ladder recessed into the wall. The abutment is of brick and rubble stone construction with bituminous felted roof, timber sheeted doors to front and cheeks, and lit by three four-pane windows to front. To its left, the single storey range has a door further flanked to left by a pivoting four-pane window and a fixed six-pane window.
The projecting left end has large roughly-dressed stone quoins with some snecking. Court-yard facing elevation has a door to left flanked by four-pane windows, and a pair of timber doors in single frame, one with sliding aperture; two-pane light over sheeted infill panel to left side.
The gable has a single four-light window fixed with iron bars.
The south-west elevation has a single opening to right, infilled with blocks.
The north-west elevation has a seam of roughly dressed quoins to centre of single-storey section, openings generally infilled, with single sheeted door to right side. The two-storey section has three two-light windows to upper level, and has ghost marks of a lean-to addition.

Cart-House
Single storey cart-house to south-east side of yard, flanking entrance. Pitched slate roof; walling is generally random rubble masonry walling having vestiges of lime render, some dressed blackstone to north-west gable.
North west gable has a depressed elliptical arched opening former in brick with pair of timber sheeted cart-doors; oculus over. Two windows to south-west elevation; door and single window to north east elevation.

A steel-framed, bow-string trussed byre with corrugated steel roof aurvives in good condition to the north of the range.

Decorative wrought iron gates with heart-shaped motif to south of outbuildings, leading to farmland.

Setting
The courtyard is set directly to the north-west of Kilmacrew House (HB17/12/11A), which encloses the south-east corner of the yard. Horse walk to west corner of courtyard. Access is from a long main entrance lane to south, with a secondary formal access lane addressing the front of the house, branching off a short distance before the courtyard. The wider
setting comprises farmland to west, woodland gardens to east and south, and modern farm structures to north.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Rubble masonry/brick
Windows: Timber
RWG: Iron

Historical information

The surviving outbuildings at Kilmacrew House (HB17/12/011A) date from the mid-to-late-19th century although the farm originally dates from at least the early 1800s. The farm first appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1833 which depicted two buildings; neither of the structures that appeared on this map have survived having been taken down or altered by the 1860s. The contemporary Townland Valuation (c. 1830) records that a Mr. John Boyd resided at the farm in Kilmacrew which was valued at £5 10s. The north-west range can be dated with reasonable certainty the period between 1833 and 1845, based on a historic map in the possession of the owner entitled ‘A Survey and Map of Messrs John and David Boyd, House and Lands’, dated 1845. This map depicts a pictorial impression of the a single linear two-storey outbuilding to north of the house, representative of the structure that exists today, and including what appears to be the lean-to range and quadrant 'duck-house' to right end. The western range is not shown.

Between 1833 and 1860 a number of alterations were made to the farm when a new dwelling was erected on the site of the current house; the second dwelling constructed at Kilmacrew was T-shaped and possessed approximately the same layout as the current building with a large return abutting the rear of the property. The two-storey outbuilding range currently located to the north-west side of Kilmacrew House had also been constructed by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1860. Griffith’s Valuation (1861) notes that the farm had passed from John Boyd into the possession of a Mr. Charles Martin in the intervening years. Martin, who was a local farmer, let the site from a Mr. James Quinn; with the construction of the second dwelling and new outbuildings the value of Kilmacrew House rose to £10 by 1861.

Charles Martin resided at Kilmacrew until his death in 1894; in his Will Martin left his property (which at that time was referred to locally as ‘The Home Farm’ to his nephews, the Rev. John Martin of Magherally Presbyterian Church (HB17/12/008) and Charles Martin, however only the Rev. John Martin took possession of the site and was recorded as occupant in the Annual Revisions. Upon coming into possession of the farm the Rev. John Martin constructed the current two-storey late-Victorian house which was under construction in 1897 and completed by 1898 when it was first valued in the Annual Revisions at £32.

It is possible that the L-shaped single-storey outbuildings situated to the south-west of the house was also constructed at the same time as the dwelling; this is likely as the outbuilding first appears on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1903) but there was no further alteration to the valuation of the farm between 1898 and the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

In 1901 the Rev. John Martin (41) resided at the farm alone, aside from two agricultural labourers and a domestic servant; the census building return described Kilmacrew House as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 13 rooms. In c. 1907 the Rev. Martin married Margaret Waddell the sister of the famous Medieval Irish Scholar Helen Waddell. The 1911 Census notes that Martin and his wife (27, Presbyterian) had three children and continued to employ a number of domestic servants and farm labourers; by 1911 Martin possessed an extensive farm that the census states consisted of a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, fowl house, boiling house and a barn. The site was first captioned as ‘Kilmacrew House’ on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps which also noted that all of the sites surviving outbuildings (apart from the modern corrugated-iron barns to the north-west of the house) had been constructed by 1903-18.

The large modern corrugated-iron barns to the north-west side of the farm were erected in the mid-20th century sometime prior to the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1973 where they were first depicted. Kilmacrew House continues to be occupied by a relative of the Rev. John Martin.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1918
4. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/27 – Townland Valuation map 1833
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/345 – Townland Valuation c. 1830
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/40 – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19A – Annual Revisions 1864-1875
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19B – Annual Revisions 1876-1889
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19C – Annual Revisions 1889-1901
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19D – Annual Revisions 1902-1911
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19E – Annual Revisions 1912-1929
12. PRONI Wills Catalogue (7 Dec 1894)
13. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
14. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
15. Ordnance Survey map – 202-15 (1973)
Secondary Sources
1. Rankin, F., ‘Clergy of Down and Dromore’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996.

Online Resources

1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website - http://www.oxforddnb.com
2. Ulster History Circle website - http://www.ulsterhistory.co.uk/helenwaddell.htm

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A substantial evolved courtyard arrangement of traditionally constructed nineteenth-century farm buildings, forming a group with Kilmacrew House (HB17/11/012A). The scale and quality of the outbuildings reflects the position of Kilmacrew House as the principal house of the townland, largely traditional in style and material, and clearly demonstrating various phases of development. The buildings are intact with much historic fabric and detailing surviving - this the evidence of the evolution of functional farm structures, including a more recent bow-stringed trussed steel-framed byre. This collection of agricultural buildings has features of note such as the horse walk and decorative wrought iron gates. Together with the house, they form a good and intact example of this type of substantial farm grouping.