15 Drumhirk Avenue

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 1 ½ storey vernacular dwelling; and outbuildings; predating 1830. Originating from a two-bay direct entry farmhouse later extended and adapted. Located on Drumhirk Avenue accessed off Drumhirk Way off the Donaghadee Road, 1.5miles south-west of Six Road Ends.

Pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles; smooth rendered chimney stacks with terracotta pots to gable ends of original two-bay dwelling; cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast walling; 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with horizontal glazing bars and horns unless otherwise noted; stone cills. Replacement timber front door with fanlight over, embraced by squared pilasters rising to moulded imposts; round-arch opening with central decorated key block.

The principal elevation faces east and is asymmetrically arranged. Single-storey lean-to abutment with gable rising left of centre to embrace the front entrance; flanked by single windows (unequally spaced). Single windows to the north and south faces of lean-to. Single replacement timber casement window to left, three replacement timber casement windows to right; cills and window heads at various levels.

Symmetrical left (north) gable has two windows flanking the chimney breast at attic level.

The rear (east) elevation is asymmetrically arranged; hipped porch abutment located right of centre; vertically sheeted half door to east face, single window to north and south faces. Single windows flanking either side; cills and window heads at various levels. Paired windows to left, door to far left with single horizontally orientated timber casement window to right.

The dwelling is abutted to the south by outbuildings which turn at right-angles and project eastwards forming a hipped roof with the main dwelling block. The ridge of the outbuildings projects above that of the dwelling block forming a sloping triangle when viewed from the front (west) elevation.

Setting

Lime rendered wall extending past the front elevation beyond garden; large circular and square piers to yard and field entrance; iron gates. Adjoining outbuildings to the south; natural slate roofed, rubble masonry with red brick surrounds; detached single-storey gable-ended rendered outbuildings enclosing yard. Modern agricultural units beyond. Open rural landscape to all aspects.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The 1st edition OS map of 1833-4 shows two ranges at right-angles to each other which correspond to the present house and stable block. The area has remained largely undeveloped in the years since the first Ordnance Survey. The Townland Valuation for the period 1828-40 is missing from the public record office.

By 1858 an additional outbuilding to the north, still present, adds a third side to the farm courtyard. The junction between the house and stable block has also been filled in, giving the house an extra bay to the south-west.
Griffith’s Valuation lists the house, office and land as the property of Lord Dufferin and Clandeboye, leased from him by William Boyd. The buildings are valued at £3 and the farm sits in over 49 acres of land.

William Boyd, farmer, died in 1867. The farm was then taken over by Hugh Boyd, probably William’s son. Hugh enlarged the buildings on the site, adding porches to the farmhouse and extending the outbuildings to the east. The new buildings were valued in 1875, bringing the total valuation of buildings on the site to £8.10s. Hugh Boyd died in 1888, and although it is not recorded in valuation records, it appears that the farm passed into the ownership of his wife Margaret Boyd until her death in 1892. That year William R Boyd, later known as William Boyd Junior, took over the farm and no further significant changes are noted in Annual Revisions. (Annual Revisions)

A number of William Boyd's owned farms in Drumhirk Townland during the period of the 1901 and 1911 censuses. However, it seems safe to assume that the individual noted as ‘William Boyd Junior’ corresponds with the occupier of the current building. In 1901, thirty-eight year old Boyd lived with his wife, Agnes, and their one-year-old son in a house with five windows to the front facade and comprising six rooms for the use of the family. By 1911 the couple had had four further children and Agnes’s mother, a widow, was also in residence. (1901, 1911 census) The Boyd family remained the occupiers until at least 1929. (Annual Revisions)

The house and outbuildings remain in use as a farm.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/6/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833-4
2. PRONI OS/6/3/6/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/6/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-01
4. PRONI OS/6/3/6/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1920
5. PRONI OS/6/3/6/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1920-39
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/22A-C – Annual Revisions (1864-1894)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/23A-C – Annual Revisions (1895-1929)
8. Griffith’s Valuation online
9. 1901 census online
10. 1911 census online

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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A 1 ½ storey vernacular dwelling and outbuildings, predating 1830, with further extensions in the 1870s. Largely unchanged and retaining much of its original style and proportions, including the extensions. Its setting encompasses the farmyard and garden, all relatively unchanged, and is enhanced by whitewashed walling, piers and iron gates. This is good example of a developed vernacular dwelling with much of its interior well preserved, representative of an increasingly rare type and traditional arrangement.