Store House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This site is situated on the south side of a minor road a short distance from Lough Neagh. The three buildings of note – two stores and a dwelling – are in a north/south aligned block along the west side of a farmyard.

1. Three-storey store
This building is located at the north end of the block, nearest the road. Pitched natural slate roof, raised gable margins and brick chimney to each gable. Half-round metal gutters and down pipes. Walls of random rubble now rendered with cement. All openings have been infilled and rendered over except a replacement sliding timber door to the ground floor of the east elevation and two square openings on the top floor of the same elevation.

Roof: Natural slate
Rainwater goods: Metal
Walls: Cement-rendered rubble masonry
Windows: Infilled

2. Two-storey store
This building is located in the middle of the block and is five openings wide. Pitched replacement corrugated metal roof with half-round metal gutters and down pipes. Cement-harled random rubble walls. Two/two timber sliding sash windows to ground floor of west elevation (possibly 20th century insertions). Infilled openings to ground floor and both floors of east elevation (internal access via three-storey store).

Roof: Corrugated metal
Rainwater goods: Metal
Walls: Cement-rendered rubble masonry
Windows: 2/2 sliding sash

3. House
This three-storey former dwelling is located at the south end of the block and is aligned east/west. Pitched natural slate roof with decorative bargeboard to west gable. Half-round metal gutters and down pipes rebuilt brick chimneys on east gable and north eaves. Cement-harled walls. Openings infilled to ground floor. Replacement top-opening timber casement windows to upper floors, with sandstone and cement cills.

Roof: Natural slate
Rainwater goods: Metal
Walls: Cement-rendered rubble masonry
Windows: Top-opening timber casements

The quay with which the store was formerly associated has been subsumed by a modern sand extraction processing plant. The level of the lough was also lower in the 1850s and is therefore much further from the store than was originally the case.

Historical information

This complex is shown on the 1832 OS six-inch map along with ‘Store Quay’ on the shore of Lough Neagh, a short distance to the west (IHR number 07335). The quay is also shown on the 1858 map, but several of the buildings within the complex now appear to be roofless shells. The main N-S aligned block incorporating the store is shown on these and subsequent maps.
The 1862 Griffith Valuation notes Rev John H Birtill as the occupier of a ‘house and offices’, under lease from the Marquis of Hertford. The buildings had a rateable valuation of £6. Although comparatively low, this rating is the highest of any property within the townland, suggesting that it was a relatively prosperous site.
According to the current owner, this complex was once used for the transit of agricultural produce landed at the nearby quay. He also stated that the two-storey building between the store and house was once used as a Moravian Chapel. Neither the store nor the chapel are cited in the 1832 Ordnance Survey Memoir for Glenavy Parish.

References - Primary sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/58/1. First edition OS six-inch map, Co Antrim sheet 58 (1832).
2. OS Memoir for Glenavy Parish. Reprinted as Day, A. & McWilliams, P. (eds) Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of County Antrim VII, 1832-8, South Antrim, p.77 (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1993).
3. PRONI OS/6/1/58/2. Second edition OS six-inch map, Co Antrim sheet 59 (1858).
4. Published Griffith Valuation. Lisburn Union, Glenavy Parish, Ballyvanen Td, p.120, entry 6Aa (1862).

References – Secondary sources:
1. Information from owner, 11/12/2010.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three -storey house with adjoining two and three-storey stores, originally dating from the early 19th century, situated on the shores of Lough Neagh in Upper Ballinderry.
Although the original walls survive, alterations to the buildings including infilling of window openings and cement rendering detract from their original character and they do not meet the crtieria for listing.