41 Edendarriff Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A complex comprising (1) waterpipe attendant's dwelling, and (2) lime dosing plant and airwell.
1. Water attendant's house
A one and a half storey/ two bay dwelling on west side of road. Of rectangular plan, orientated east-west with gable to the road. Pitched natural slate roof with plain painted wooden bargeboards, moulded concrete kneeler stones, and ogee cast-iron gutters. Distinctive and attractive red brick chimney in centre of ridge, with yellow brick quoins (stepped) and cap. Walls of squared rubble Silurian in irregular courses over projecting basal course. Yellow brick used in projecting eaves, quoins (stepped) and along top of base course. Windows and door also trimmed with yellow brick heads and jambs (stepped); the latter also have stop-end chamfers. All window openings have shallow segmental heads and chamfered painted cills (probably of concrete); the actual windows are 2/2 timber-framed sliding sashes (unless otherwise stated).
Main facade faces north.. At left is one-storey porch with pitched natural slate roof and raised yellow brick verges and concrete kneelers. Four granite (and two concrete) steps lead up to painted tongue-and-groove boarded door in left cheek small electric light over. Window in west-facing gable wall of porch. Right cheek blank. To right of porch, on wall of main block, is a single window opening. Wall continues at right to enclose yard.
East gable has two window openings to ground floor, and two to attic floor (in line with those below). The south wall is blank save for a single window to bad room at ground floor left. Electric light affixed at right corner, and satellite dish at left.
West gable abutted at left by single-storey monopitched return along inside of yard's north wall. This has artificial slate roof and plastic gutters. Above is a window to half landing. Above right of this is a window to back bedroom - a modern 1/1 top-hung plastic replacement of the original sash. Yard projects south and west of the dwelling, with the entrance on east wall. Wall similar to dwelling in construction and yellow-brick trim; coped with rock-faced blocks. Original wide entrance now with smooth render infill, with small sliding metal garage door inserted. Square masonry gate pillar to each side of the original opening, each with yellow brick quoins and projecting flat concrete cap. Boiler flue projects from west wall of yard.

2. Lime dosing plant and airwell
Just north of the house is a four-stage square tower of quarried random Silurian rubble masonry, all strap pointed (original drawing shows it is actually stone-faced reinforced-concrete). Each stage is delineated by a flush granite platband. The walls are plain save for a small circular ventilator on the top stage of the west wall, and a roller shuttered door on the east wall. The date '1985' is inscribed on a plaque set into the second stage on this wall. Abutting the north wall is a low yard wall with metal door at east and communications aerial at west.
A short distance north of the dosing plant and lying on the actual pipeline is an air well. Measuring c.3 x 2.5m in plan by 75cm high, it is of reinforced concrete with crowned roof containing a metal inspection lid.

Historical information

Erected as part of the Mourne Scheme, by which the Belfast City & District Water Commissioners brought water to Belfast from the Annalong and Kilkeel rivers. This was one of six identical lodges along the conduit; the others are at Tullybranigan (HB 18/13/70), Ballybannon (HB 18/11/41}, Drumanaquoile (HB 18/16/7), Ballykine (HB 18/6/13) and Creevytenant (HB 18/1/38). There were also more substantial water-related dwellings at the Silent Valley, Dunnywater and Knockbreckan.
The plans were drawn up by L.L. Macassey, engineer to the BCDWC, and approved by the Board in February 1899. The contract (no.16, valued at £6806) for erecting all six houses was awarded to Messrs Courtney & Co in November of the same year. By April 1901, all were nearing completion, and they were presumably occupied by the time the pipeline was officially opened in October of that year. The lime dosing plant was erected in 1985 and is similar to one at the Silent Valley and near Knockbreckan. It contains a silo from which powdered lime is automatically fed into the water as it flows underneath. This is to neutralise any acidity in the water which might otherwise cause pipe corrosion.

Sources:
Minutes of BCDWC Works Committee, PRONI - WAT1/3AC/2, pp.44, 91, 142, 276.
L.L. Macassey (1901), 'Mourne scheme and sundry works progress report, 15 April
1901' (PRONI - WAT1/3CG/6).
DOE Water Service, Westland House- drawing 4C4.

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
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Constructed in the distinctive and attractive style of the BCDWC and of undoubted historical interest in the building complex being associated with Belfast's first water supply from the Mournes. A one and a half storey, two bay waterpipe attandant's dwelling of rectangular paln and orientated east- west with gable to the Edendarriff Road with complex completed by limedosing plant illustrating the changing standards of water quality control. Although of modest scale,the complex has been carefully executed and good use has been made of contrasting yellow brick in its embellishment.