69 Drumaghlis Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey, hipped roof, late Georgian style farmhouse of c.1840, with large modern flat roofed extension to rear and lean-to to side. The property is set on the W side of Drumaghlis Road, roughly 4 miles E of Ballynahinch.

The front façade is symmetrical and faces roughly E. To the centre of the ground floor is a panelled door with Ionic ¾ columns (with unusual barly twist detail to shafts) and a plain semicircular fanlight. To the left is a sash window with Georgian panes (6/6), with another to the right and three to the first floor.

The S façade has doubled in size with the addition of the extension. To the left on the ground floor is a French door, to the right is a sash window, as front. To the left on the first floor are two windows with modern frames.

The N elevation has a large single storey lean-to to left and centre. The N face of the lean-to has two windows with modern frames and a partly glazed door. To the short W face has a plain sash window. To the right on the N façade of the main section of the house there is a sash window to the ground floor and to the first floor, both as front.

The rear façade is gabled to the left and flat roofed to the right (the extension). The gabled section is blank. The flat roofed section has a modern window to the ground floor and two to the first floor.

The façade is finished in rough cast and largely painted (the extension is still unpainted). The roof is hipped, with a gable end to the rear, and is slated. The extension has a flat roof. The lean-to roof is slated also. There are three rendered chimney stacks. Cast iron and PVC rw goods.

Unusual ‘geometric’ wrought iron gates to front garden.

Historical information

A building is shown on this general site on the OS map if 1834, but its plan does not match the present and its positioning appears slightly different. Moreover, the building is not recorded in the c.1836 valuation, all of which suggests that a more modest, probably single storey, dwelling. The present house is shown on the revised map of 1858. Judging from its style it may date from c.1840.

The current owner believes the house to have been built by a Captain Lightbody, possibly the James Lightbody listed as the occupant in the 1863 valuation.

The present owner’s family acquired the property in 1952.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/30/1 OS map, Down sh 30, 1834
2 PRONI VAL/1B/386 1st valuation, Kilmore, c.1838
3 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster directory’ (Henderson, Belfast News-Letter 1852-)
4 PRONI OS/6/3/30/2 OS map, Down sh 30, 1858
5 PRONI 2nd valuation, Kilmore, c.1863 [in print]
6 PRONI OS/6/3/30/3 OS map, Down sh 30, c.1901

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two storey late Georgian style farmhouse of c.1840, with large modern flat roofed extension to rear and lean-to to side. Of special interest for its style, proportion, and ornamentaion which are simple and elegant and made unusual by the detail of the doorcase. The quality of its interior also contributes to its interest. It is also of local historical note as a good rural farmhouse of the period.