Lagan View

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey roughcast rendered eighteenth century farmhouse with outbuildings, located north of Feney Road on the outskirts of Moira. Rectangular on plan with single-storey projecting porch to front and two-storey return to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black clay ridge tiles (terracotta to porch) and three replacement brick chimneystacks. Cast-iron half round rainwater goods on timber eaves board. Walling is painted roughcast render (smooth render to rear return) with smooth rendered quoins and plinth. Windows are uPVC replacements throughout.

The principal elevation faces southeast and is symmetrically arranged being five windows wide. To centre at ground floor is single-storey gabled open porch with glazing to each cheek and rounded-headed opening projecting inwards at waist level. Door is a replacement.

The southwest elevation is blank.

The northwest elevation has window to ground and first floor right; to left are two windows flanking replacement timber door, diminutive window above right window; to centre is two-storey return (lower) with window to ground and first floor at gable; southwest elevation has uPVC door to left of centre; northeast elevation has window to right of centre.

The northeast elevation has two diminutive windows to first floor.

To east is a linear range of early roughcast rendered slated outbuildings comprising two-storey barn and adjoining single-storey block. Barn has three diminutive openings to each elevation; those to northeast elevation are round-headed openings containing recessed early timber-sheeted panels with cast-iron strap hinges. Single-storey block has window opening to southwest and two timber-sheeted doors to northeast elevation.

Setting:

Set back from the road with long lawned and shrubbed garden to front having central tarmacadamed pathway. The northeast elevation fronts gravelled yard having later smooth rendered tin roofed outbuilding to north and large corrugated metal agricultural shed to east.

To west of house is disused kiln and associated outbuildings around a yard. To rear of house is enclosed yard and small lawned garden. House is bounded to road to south by roughcast rendered wall having rounded coping stones and smooth rendered plinth, interrupted by raised square piers with pointed caps; metal pole between piers. To centre are painted smooth render gate piers with square caps and decorative cast-iron latch gate. Wall terminates to west in one of two round gate piers with conical masonry cap, supporting corrugated metal gate. Roughcast low wall enclosed garden to west. Early slate sundial on blocks to front of house.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Roughcast render
Windows: uPVC replacements
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Lagan View first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map for the Townland of Ballymagaraghan (1833) where it is depicted as an oblong building situated less than a mile south of the river Lagan. In 1833 the house was surrounded by a number of outbuildings including the former kiln building situated to the west of the house and the south-east office block.

The second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1858) shows little alteration to the site although Griffith’s Valuation tells us that by 1861 the grain kiln was in a disused and dilapidated state. In 1861 the farmhouse and its outbuildings were occupied by a Mr. Richard Hammond who let the property from Sir Thomas Bateson, the first Baron of Deramore. Hammond occupied the house and its offices which were valued at £7 and the kilns which were valued at £2 due to their poor repair.

By 1901 the property had passed to a Mr. James Nelson Hammond who was recorded as occupant in the census of that year. In 1901 the house was occupied by Hammond and his wife Catherine; the census building return describes the house as a 1st class dwelling which contained six rooms and possessed a large number of outbuildings including a stable, coach house, two cow houses, four piggeries, a boiling house and a barn amongst its out offices. The 1901 Census records that the roof of the dwelling was slated, although the later census tells us that the roof of the house was still thatched in 1911; it is unclear when the dwelling’s current slate roof was added.

James Nelson Hammond lived at Lagan View until his death in 1935 at which time the house passed into possession of his Widow Catherine and their son Thomas Hammond (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 26/10/1935). The third and fourth editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (1903-1916) tell us that the east-most office range was constructed by 1903; originally a single-storey structure this outbuilding was raised when a storey constructed from corrugated tin was added in the mid-twentieth century. Further additions to the site include the addition of a large length of offices to the west of the house and a return to the rear of the dwelling which were both constructed after the fourth edition map in 1916. The house continues to be occupied; both the dwelling and its outbuildings are well preserved although a number of the outbuilding’s roofs have been replaced with corrugated tin.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/13/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/13/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/13/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/13/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1916
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/47A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
6. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911
7. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1935)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey roughcast rendered eighteenth century farmhouse with outbuildings, located in a prominent site north of Feney Road on the outskirts of Moira. The outbuildings to east and boundary wall to south frame the garden and contribute to the historic integrity of the site, along with the disused kiln to west. The rural setting is largely unspoiled. The loss of the original fenestration, in particular, and other architectural detailing, has reduced the architectural interest of this house which retains its distinctive early proportions.