Upper Quilly Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-bay single-storey thatch-under-tin hearth-lobby dwelling pre-dating 1833, rectangular plan form with projecting porch and detached associated outbuilding. Located on the west side of Upper Quilly Road, approximately 4 miles southwest of Dromore.

Pitched corrugated-iron roof with corrugated ridging over thatch; cement skews, exposed brick chimneystack with corbelled upper course, partially rendered with no pots. No rainwater goods. Lime rendered rubble masonry walling with brick surrounds to windows; smooth cement render to rear elevation. Remains of window frames only with sandstone cills where existing. No surviving entrance door; rubble masonry windbreaker porch with catslide corrugated roofing.

The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged. Front entrance located left of centre with a window opening with no cill the to left bay. Window opening to immediate right of porch blocked up with no cill. The right bay comprises two window openings, which are partially bricked up. Partial collapse of walling to far left.

Blank left gable with apex chimney. Partial collapse of walling to far right.

The rear elevation is asymmetrical with a partially blocked up window opening centrally positioned. Window opening masonry cill to the left bay adjacent to concrete block buttress. Exposed rubble masonry left of buttress; window opening with no cill.

The right gable is blank; view of apex chimney obscured by thick vegetation growth.

Setting

Set back from the road and screened from view with no direct access. Rubble masonry outbuilding beside east gable set perpendicular; pitched slate roof with replacement timber roof structure; largely derelict roofless northern block. Hay barn to the north. Remains of a rubble masonry square pier to the northeast corner of farmhouse. Metal framed cattle crusher parallel to the rear elevation. Barbed-wire perimeter fence addressing the front elevation.

Roofing: Thatch under tin
Walling: Stone
Windows: N/A
RWG: None

Historical information

Buildings are shown on the first edition OS map of 1833 which correspond to the dwelling house and outbuilding on the site today. Some minor changes are shown to the site in subsequent years, in particular the addition of a large barn to the north in the mid twentieth century.

The building is not listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as it would not have reached the threshold for inclusion. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) records the tenant farmer as William Scott who rented a farm of 14 acres from William Bullock with buildings valued at £2. The farm, which was held ‘at will’ i.e. tenure was insecure, passed through several tenants in subsequent years, Hugh Dickson (1881), James Dobson (1898), Anne Dobson (1902), Peter McGreevy (1917), Thomas Adair (n.d.) and William Adair (1941).

The 1901 census records Margaret Anne Dobson, a widow of 39 born in Lancashire, resident in the house with her father who was Co Down born. The four room house was thatched and remained thatched until at least 1911, when it was so recorded in the census. By the early 1930s, however, when the First General Revaluation was being compiled, the house had a corrugated iron roof. The accommodation then comprised a bedroom, ‘room’, kitchen and scullery. In 1951 the house was uninhabited and was redesignated as agricultural outbuildings, the valuer commenting that it was ‘too far away from the county road to be let as a house’. The present-day appearance of the structure suggests that it has not been lived in since that time.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/3 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/R/4 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. 1901 census online
10. 1911 census online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three-bay single-storey thatch-under-tin vernacular hearth-lobby dwelling pre-dating 1833. The exterior is in poor condition with various modern repairs although it retains its overall traditional appearance and character. Likewise the interior is in poor condition although the hearth-lobby layout survives. The thatch and the timber roof structure are of interest; the structure may be a later replacement of the original, representing the development of the house and worthy of record. The adapted hearth and corrugated-iron roof also illustrate evolutionary changes to this building type. The group is of a type that was once commonplace, but becoming increasingly rare in our rural landscape. However, insufficient fabric survives to merit listing.