74 Dromore Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey two-bay hearth-lobby vernacular farm house pre-dating 1830 with additional two-storey bay added c.1850. Linear plan form with single-storey stores and byres to either end. Located at the end of a short private lane; now lined with two modern dwellings.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; some artificial slate replacement. Rough-cast rendered walling; projected plinth. Cast-iron rainwater goods throughout. 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with horizontal glazing bars; masonry cills. Replacement timber sheeted front door with central glazed panel; metal grille embedded into the ground. The rear door c.1930 has an elliptical glazed opening embraced by timber mouldings with three tall moulded panels to the lower portion; flanked by rectangular side lights.

The principal elevation faces south-east and is asymmetrically arranged comprising two original bays on the left with an extended two-storey bay to the right. The front door is located right of centre with two ground and first floor windows aligned to the left. The first floor left window is a replacement casement. The right hand bay comprising an asymmetrically arranged ground floor and replacement 1/1 timber sliding sash first floor window.

The left gable is blank. The ground floor is abutted by a single-storey concrete block outbuildings; mono-pitch corrugated iron roofing and stepped into the landscape extending beyond the line of the building; various timber sheeted doors, some with strap hinges; one window blocked up.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged. The door is located left of centre (in the additional bay) with two ground floor windows to the right and one to the left. Two first floor windows to the right with a single wall-headed dormer window to the left.

The right elevation is abutted a single-storey byre with a small fixed window on the north-west face and a door on the south-west face.

Setting:

The farmhouse is embedded into a sloping site largely partially screened from view on approach. The front faces directly on to the yard which serves several outbuildings ranging from single-storey rubble-masonry to corrugated-iron barns. The rear elevation addresses a more formal garden arrangement with rural landscape beyond. Several modern dwellings and modern agricultural units are located in the adjacent fields.

Roofing: Natural slate/artificial slate
Walling: Rough-cast
Windows: Timber sliding sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The parish of Dromara is a rural district dotted with farmhouses that has changed little in the period since the first edition OS map of 1833. Lewis’s Topographical Survey of 1837 found that “the greater part is arable land...considerable improvement has been made in agriculture and many even of the mountain tracts have been brought under tillage”.

Two farm buildings are shown on the site on the first edition map of 1833 and both these early buildings have survived, as the farmhouse and an outbuilding to the south. An orchard is shown behind the farm, this is slightly reduced in size by the second edition of 1859 and has gone altogether by 1903. The house appears to have been extended to the east by means of a bay and a single storey byre but the dating of these changes cannot be clearly determined from the map evidence. Certainly by the second edition (1859) the farmhouse has been extended to the west.

Griffith’s Valuation (1863) lists the farm as occupied by John Neilson and leased from the Marquis of Downshire. The house and outbuildings are valued at £1.10s and are situated on a thirteen-acre plot. This valuation is low and suggests that at the time of Griffith’s Valuation the dwelling was a single-storey vernacular house and that it was raised at a later date.

References:

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/28/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/28/2 – Second Edition OS map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/28/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/28/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-20
5. Griffith’s Valuation online (1863)

Secondary Sources

1. Lewis, Samuel. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-storey two-bay hearth-lobby vernacular farm house pre-dating 1830 with additional two-storey bay added c.1850. Externally the farmhouse has retained much of its vernacular style, proportions and character. Retaining evidence of 19th and 20th century additions and alterations, this building provides a good example of the typical development of a farmhouse of this type, to suit the changing requirements of the occupants. Despite nearby development of a number of single dwellings it retains most of its rural setting and is of local interest.

General comments

This record was completed without access to the primary information held by PRONI.