6 Halftown Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached one-and-a-half-storey rendered former thatched dwelling, built c.1800 enlarged and re-roofed c.1920. Rectangular on plan facing east located on the west side of Halftown Road.

Pitched fibre cement slate roof with terracotta ridgecomb tiles and three profiled redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Three wall-head dormers to the front pitch with decorative bargeboards, terracotta ridgecomb tiles and finials. Moulded cast-iron guttering to decorative timber fascia with boarded eaves and exposed rafter feet. Dry dash rendered walling with rendered quoins to either end. Square-headed window openings with smooth render surrounds, painted masonry sills and timber sash windows.

Front elevation is six windows wide with off-centre gabled entrance porch. Roof details to porch as per dormer windows with a square-headed door opening having vertically-sheeted timber door and a fixed-pane timber window to either cheek. 1/1 timber sash windows to the dormers and to the two pairs of windows at either end. Early 6/6 timber sash windows to the centre two bays with exposed sash boxes and historic glass.

South gable is blank.

Rear elevation is four windows wide with two attic-storey windows just below eaves level and abutted by a flat-roofed rear entrance porch. Plastic rainwater goods. Single-pane timber sash windows to the two north bays, steel casement windows to the remainder. The rear entrance porch has concrete roof with a vertically-sheeted timber door.

North gable has a single square-headed window opening to attic level with an early 6/3 timber sash window.

Setting:
Set on a north-south axis on the west side of Halftown Road with a front garden enclosed to the road by rendered wall and wrought-iron pedestrian gate. Four single-storey rendered outbuildings to the rear and to the north, built c.1920 with steel casement windows. The current owners have built a modern two-storey house to the rear with common access to both dwellings via concrete drive to the north.

Roof fibre cement slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Dry dash render
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

This dwelling first appears on the 1833 edition Ordnance Survey map for the Maze area where it is depicted as an oblong building located on the Halftown road south of Young’s Bridge. Field research would support a construction date of c. 1800. The 1833 map shows that the house possessed a small out office situated to its south side. By 1858 this out office had been taken down but was replaced by two similar sized structures to the west side of the house.

In 1861 Griffith’s Valuation recorded that this building was divided into two dwellings each valued at 15 shillings. At this time the site was occupied by a Mr. Richard Hynes, who let the second house to a Ms. Jane Hynes. Richard Hynes died c. 1880; his son Richard Henry Hynes took over possession of the house and resided there with his family until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929. The 1901 Census tells us that Richard Henry Hynes (46) was a local farmer and a follower of the Methodist New Connexion, a branch of Methodism which had seceded from the Wesleyan Church in 1797. In 1907 the Methodist New Connexion merged with a number of other seceded groups to form the United Methodist Church, after which time Richard Henry Hynes was simply recorded as a 'Methodist' in the 1911 Census. Hynes married his wife Ann in c. 1885 and by 1911 they had six children including two daughters who were employed as dressmakers, and a son who was an apprentice riveter.

Jane Hynes vacated the house in 1903 at which time Richard Hynes took sole possession of the building, residing there until the end of the Annual Revisions; by 1913 he had purchased the property from the Marquis of Downshire. The building return for both the 1901 and 1911 census record that No. 6 Halftown Road was a 2nd class thatched dwelling and possessed between three and four rooms. The fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1919-1920) depicts a number of small out office buildings to the north and west side of the house; as a farmer Hynes possessed a number of farmbuildings which in 1911 included a stable, cow house, fowl house, and a barn. The house was extensively enlarged c. 1920 at which time the originally thatched roof was replaced with slate; between 1920 and 1971 a number of the northern outbuildings had been constructed (Ordnance Survey map 165 – 1971). The house continues to be occupied.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14A – Annual Revisions 1864-1879
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14B – Annual Revisions 1880-1889
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14C – Annual Revisions 1890-1908
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14D – Annual Revisions 1909-1928
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14E – Annual Revisions 1928-1930
11. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911
12. Ordnance Survey Map 165 (1971)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached one-and-a-half-storey rendered former thatched dwelling, built c.1800 enlarged and re-roofed c.1920. Rectangular on plan facing east located on the west side of Halftown Road. Originally a vernacular thatched dwelling, the current appearance is largely a result of a major refurbishment during the 1920s. Retaining most external fabric from the 1920s and some earlier features to the interior, this house is of some architectural interest but is not of sufficeint interest to warrant isting.