59 Loughview Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single-storey vernacular house with concealed loft area (skeagh) and attached outbuilding. Located on a quiet, unspoilt country road on the East shore of Lough Neagh - approx. 5 km from Crumlin village. The house is three-bay, rectangular with lobby entry planform and a fourth bay to the S, in use as an outbuilding.

Materials:

Roof: Corrugated asbestos over original collar-beam truss thatch roof
RWG: Cast metal to front/ none to rear
Walls: Random rubble
Windows: uPVC top-hung double-glazed to front and rear

Exterior Description

Front elevation (W)
The front elevation has a centrally located square headed door opening and 4 no. small rectangular square headed window openings with flush reveals and cills, 2 no. flanking each side of the doorway. The door is varnished boarded timber (replacement) and the windows are uPVC top-hung double-glazed. Walls are random rubble with painted lime render. There are approx. 2 no. courses of cement blockwork at eaves level where the house has been raised (possibly during the installation of the corrugated asbestos roof covering). There is a cast metal gutter at eaves level. The roof is corrugated asbestos over thatch with replacement red-clay ridge tiles and 3 no. replacement red-brick chimney stacks with projecting brick courses and clay pots. The attached outbuilding has a single square headed door opening to the left-hand side with original painted boarded timber door. There is a blocked up window opening to the right-hand side. Walls are random rubble with painted lime render and roof is corrugated tin.

Rear elevation (E)

The rear elevation of the main house is plain with an almost centrally located small rectangular square headed window opening with flush reveals and cills and uPVC top-hung double-glazed window. There is a large blocked up opening to the left-hand side. Walls are random rubble with approx. 2 no. courses of cement blockwork at eaves level as per front elevation. There is no gutter. There appears to be some replacement cement blockwork on the right-hand corner of the house, possibly repair work. The outbuilding has a single blocked up opening on the right-hand side, walls are random rubble.

Side elevation (S)

Side elevation is blank with gable projecting above roof and haunched. Walls are random rubble with painted lime render.

Side elevation (N)

Side elevation is blank with centrally located replacement chimney in red-brick with projecting courses. Walls are random rubble with painted lime render. There is a section of replacement cement blockwork on the left-hand corner of the gable, possibly repair work. There is a small rectangular recess in the centre of the wall at ground level (possibly connected to fireplace in G05).

The house is set back slightly from the road and there is a small area to the front surfaced in tarmacadam. There is a narrow slightly raised masonry apron with low masonry kerbing along the front wall and a raised stone trough to the N, now a flower bed. There is an outside tap located on the front wall. At the rear of the house the ground level runs into the back elevation, above floor level. There is a lightweight post and wire fence along the rear wall and beyond this are open fields. Directly across the road from the main house, near the shoreline, is an original outbuilding with random rubble stone walls, corrugated tin roof and 1 no. square-headed door opening with boarded timber door. There is a wooded area with a stone outbuildings (vacant and derelict) on the adjacent site to the N.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS maps of 1832 and 1857, of similar size to the present.

The property is not recorded in the first valuation (it was below rateable value), but is noted in that of c.1859 when it was occupied by Charles Quinn, with Gilbert McIlveen the immediate lessor, and the building valued at £1-10-0 for rateable purposes. McIveen (or a relative of the same name), had acquired the lease of property in Ballyginniff townland in 1817, whilst Charles Quinn is probably one of the family that gave their name to nearby 'Quinn's Corner'.

At some point in the mid-1880s, Quinn appears to have sublet the house to four tenants (Samuel McCormick, Charles Barr, Daniel McKearn and John McVeigh). The lease passed to William Quinn c.1895 and Mary Ellen Quinn shortly after this, with Mary Ellen acquiring the freehold in 1910. The property seems to have been divided between two tenants by 1903, but in 1921 it was acquired by Daniel Skelton, who is listed as the (sole) occupant after this date. An annotation in the valuation book dated 1921 records the dimensions of the two component parts of the building as 44ft x 18 x 10 and 18 x 18 x 10.

The property remains with Daniel Skelton's descendants.

The present roof covering appears to date from the mid-20th century, and the present window frames to the later 1990s, or early 2000s.

References - Primary sources
1 PRONI D971/42/B/36 (1817)
2 OS maps, six-inch county series, 1832, 1857
3 PRONI VAL2B/1/53B (c.1859)
4 PRONI VAL12B/1/26A-E (1864-1929)
5 PRONI T3704/2 (c.1925)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
Z. Rarity
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Single-storey 4-bay vernacular house with original loft and thatch roof, located on a quiet, country road on the eastern shore of Lough Neagh, approx. 5 km from Crumlin village. The house has a remarkably intact collar-beam truss thatch roof underneath a 20th Century corrugated roof. It is intact internally with its original lobby entry plan form, jamb wall, spyhole and hearth. Despite the loss of its original windows and chimneys it retains its vernacular character and unspoilt rural setting. It is an increasingly rare example of a thatched, lobby-entry house type and is of significant interest.