27 Ballysallagh Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical two-storey two-bay detached rubble stone house with red-brick dressings, built c.1900 and located to the south side of Ballysallagh Road, south of Dromore. Rectangular on plan.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and raised tiled verges; rendered chimneystacks to gables. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on projecting brick eaves. Walling is rock-faced rubble stone built to courses with red-brick quoins and dressings to principal elevation; remainder are roughcast render painted. Windows are 2/2 timber-framed sliding sash with horns and projecting sandstone sills (unless otherwise stated).

The principal elevation faces west and has three openings to each floor. To centre at ground floor is a replacement six-panelled timber door with narrow transom light and a stone step.

The north gable has a window to first floor and ground floor left.

The east (rear) elevation has a replacement timber casement window at first floor left; original stairwell window to centre (lower) is 2/2 with margin panes. Window to ground floor left and replacement timber-sheeted door in deep reveal to ground floor right of centre, accessed via a modern concrete ramp.

The south gable is blank.

Setting

Set back and slightly lower than road level, the house is situated in a rural
setting, surrounded by farmland with some modern housing development. Bounded by mature trees and hedgerow and accessed from road by a set of roughcast rendered entrance walls with saddleback coping and twin piers with pointed caps; inner gate piers support wrought iron gates. Gravelled yard to rear with painted rubble stone lean-to with tin roof.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: stone/roughcast
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The present two-storey farmhouse dates from c1900 and is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1903. The site had been developed by the time of the first edition OS map in 1833. However the early buildings shown and listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40), are single-storey vernacular structures, composed, according to the fieldbook, of mud. The house and two outbuildings on the site in the 1830s were occupied by Samuel Martin and valued at £2.6s.5d. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the occupier as Joseph Martin and the landlady as Sarah M Matthews. The house and offices were valued at £1.5s and were situated on a farm of over 5 acres.

The farm continued in the Martin family and the map edition of 1903 shows a new farmhouse with outbuildings to the rear, however there is no reference to the rebuild in valuation records and no revaluation takes place until the 1930s. By the time of the 1901 census the occupier was Alexander Martin, a bricklayer, his wife and six sons ranging in age from 1 to 14. The four-room house was designated second class. Alexander Martin died in 1903 and his widow continued to raise their sons in the house, her two older boys working as farm labourers by 1911. The census return and map evidence suggest that the new farmhouse was built around 1902, shortly before Alexander Martin died. The Martin family became owners in fee of the farm under the Land Acts in 1913 but in 1925 the farm passed to James Brown and subsequently to Mary Scott. In the 1930s the accommodation comprised three bedrooms, a reception, kitchen, pantry and scullery and the two-storey house measured 28x21. The valuer described it as a well-built house in good condition. The farmhouse continues in use as a dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/28/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/28/2 Second Edition OS map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/28/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/28/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-20
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/3432 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38B Griffith’s Valuation (1863)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/23A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/3 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/T/1 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
10. PRONI Will of Alexander Martin, died 13th April 1903
11. 1901 census online
12. 1911 census online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A symmetrical two-storey two-bay detached rubble stone house with red-brick dressings, built c.1900 and located to the south side of Ballysallagh Road, south of Dromore. Some minor external and internal alterations, but simple detailing is largely intact and much of the original character. The setting has been compromised by some modern landscaping and neighbouring development. This house is a good example of the type, however it is of a late date and not deemed building of special architectural or historic interest.