Turnpike Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached single-storey pebble dash rendered former toll house, built c.1740. T-shaped on plan facing east with an advanced three-sided canted bay, lean-to extension to rear and sheeted timber entrance porch to north side elevation. Now boarded up and for sale.

Hipped natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles, central rendered chimneystack and further rendered redbrick chimneystack rising from north side elevation. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and cast-iron downpipes. Pebble dash render walling. Square-headed window openings with stone sills.

Symmetrical single-storey front east elevation with central advanced three-sided canted bay having slate covered cement ridges.
South side elevation is blank, fronting directly onto Milebush Road.

West rear elevation abutted by lean-to extension with various square-headed window openings having metal and timber casement windows.

North side elevation abutted by timber-framed vertically-sheeted entrance porch having pitched slate roof and in poor condition. Square-headed door opening to the north side elevation with vertically-sheeted timber door opens directly into timber porch.

Setting
Corner-sited on the west side of Hillsborough Road with its south side elevation fronting directly onto Milebush Road. Gravel front area separated from the main Hillsborough Road by small grass margin and in use as general parking area.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Pebbledash
Windows Square-headed boarded up

Historical information

The Toll Cottage appears on the first edition OS map 1833 as a small rectangular building on the principal route between Hillsborough and Dromore. The canted bay added to the front elevation, which completes the building as it presently appears, doesn’t appear until the second edition OS map 1858, where it is clearly illustrated. Griffiths Valuation 1861 identifies the occupier as James McAllister and values the small premises at £1 5s. The Annual Revisions 1866-1929 show that the McAllisters remained in the building until 1912 until Sarah Jane Ward is identified as the occupant. The value of the building remained at £1 5s during this period, illustrating little change.

McMillan states that the house was probably built in the 1740’s by the Turnpike Trust and operated as a ‘Toll Cottage’ on the Milebush Road until the turnpike system was abolished in the 1850’s.

Rynne (p.322) states that toll cottages in Ireland are quite rare, only five or six surviving structures having been identified. The likely reason to be, that turnpike roads were less common than in England Scotland and Wales. With particular reference to Backnamullagh, Rynne states that the 18th century building was modeled on the English prototypes and had large windows on each face, to enable the toll house keeper to view the road from each direction. (p.323)

Primary References:

1. PRONI OS/6/3/21/1 - OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/21/2 - OS Map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/21/3 - OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/21/4 - OS Map 1919-20
5. PRONI VAL/2B/3/38E – Griffiths Valuation 1861
6. PRONI VAL/2A/3/21A-C – Griffiths Valuation Field Map 1861
7. PRONI VAL/12B/20/2A-D – Annual Revisions 1866-1929
8. PRONI VAL/12D/3/21A – Annual Revisions Field Maps 1861-78

Secondary References:

1. Rynne, Colin “Industrial Ireland 1750-1930, An Archaeology” Collins Press, Cork, 2006
2. McMillan, R. “Dromore and district local historic group, Volume 3, Journal”, Dromore & District Local Historical Group, 1993

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation

Criteria for listing: historic interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Single-storey detached pebbledashed former turnpike cottage, built c.1740, facing east onto Hillsborough Road at the junction with Milebush Road. The house retains its original footprint and some of its original materials such as the natural slate roof and rainwater goods. As a toll house, this is a rare survivor from the eighteenth-century and is a reminder of the historic purpose of this structure on this principal route between Belfast and Dublin