Store on east side of Hill Street (rear of 28 Bath Street)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Plain single storey brick-built, Belfast Truss-roofed store of c.1920. The property (which serves as a store for a local shop) is set on the E side of Hill Street, to the W of the centre of Ardglass.

The property is wholly brick-built and measures roughly 10.6m x 10. To the front (W) gabled face there is a large off-centre flat arched vehicle entrance with timber double-door with wicket gate. To the right of this is a roughly square window opening- now blocked up. To the slightly longer S elevation there are two windows, much as before and now boarded up. To the N the store is abutted by a separate building. The rear elevation could not be seen but internal evidence suggests it has two windows opening- one of which is now boarded up. The curved roof is felt-covered.

Historical information

This building may date from c.1920.

The Belfast truss was developed in the mid-nineteenth century to meet the demand for efficient, lightweight and long span roofs brought about by the industrial revolution. A detailed description of the historical development of the Belfast truss is included in the record for HB18/08/139. In brief, the first known reference to a curved wooden felted roof structure supported by bowstring girders is in an advertisement in the Dublin Builder for 1866 by the Belfast firm of felt-makers, McTear & Co. McTear’s continued making trusses until they went out of business in 1908.

A second Belfast felt supplier, Anderson & Co., began to produce trusses, to a slightly different design, in 1886. In 1896, Anderson’s launched their Mk II version; promoted as maximising long spans whilst maintaining light weight. This model was subsequently used by other companies, and is referred to by historians as the Belfast truss, although this term is widely used to apply to all timber bowstring trusses where the internal bracing members meet not on the bottom of the truss as was the convention but on the top curved member.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Plain, unremarkable single storey brick-built, Belfast Truss-roofed store of c.1920. A substantially intact example of a Belfast Truss-roofed building.

General comments

Surveyed as part of the Belfast Roof Truss survey.