191 Killinchy Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long mainly single storey and mainly thatched gabled house, set right on the W side of the Killinchy Road, c.3 miles NW of the village of Killinchy. The building is set slightly below road level.

The northern greater section of the building is a thatched house. To the front E facade of this section are five sash windows with single vertical glazing bars (four panes). The two windows to the right are slightly larger than the rest, and set at a slightly higher level. Between the first and second (from left) windows is the entrance which has a fairly recent (c.1950s) partly glazed door.
The smaller southern portion of the building is two storey with a Bangor blue slated roof. The front E facade has two ground floor windows with fairly recent three light frames. To the first floor are two sash windows (as before). The left hand window is almost totally covered in creeping plant growth, as is much of the left hand side of the front facade of this two storey section.

The N gable is blank. The S gable has an upper level doorway (now covered in plant growth as is much of the gable) reached via a flight of steps. To the right of the steps to the ground floor is a timber sheeted door. There is a small opening in the E face of the block of steps where the post box once was. This gable merges with the S face of a rear lean to which has a square multi-pane window.

The rear lean- to is in two sections. The section to the S has a corrugated asbestos roof and a sheeted door and two pane window to the rear (W) facade. The lean- to section has a corrugated iron roof (set at a slightly lower pitch), with a modern glazed door and two sash windows to the rear facade. To the left of the lean- to, on the main rear facade, is a sash window as front. To the immediate left of this window is a recent flat roofed return with large glazed sections and a corrugated iron roof.

The entire facade is finished in rough cast. There are four short rendered chimney stacks. Metal rw goods. Cast iron skylight to rear of slated roof.

Modern railings to roadside.

Despite some unsuitable additions to the rear and some modern window frames this building is still a good, largely intact example of a simple vernacular dwelling (with shop).

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834 and recorded in the contemporary (c.1835) valuation as a single-storey thatched house measuring 49ft x 17 x 6 with thatched ‘offices’ (i.e. outbuildings) of 44 x 16½ x 6 and 17½ x 16½ x 5. At this date, the house was occupied by William Maxwell and was regarded by the valuers as ‘not new’, which – in valuation terms - tended to denote a structure of at least 20-25 years old or more, in some instances much more. Therefore, it is possible that much of the building is of later 18th century construction, or possibly even earlier.

Alexander Withers is listed as resident in the second valuation of 1861, with a Robert Porter, Mrs Hawthorn, H.J. Higginson and John Hart noted as the immediate lessors. The low rateable value of £2 at this juncture suggests the slightly taller southern portion may not yet have been in place yet, or if so had not adopted its present two-storey form.

By 1866 two residents are recorded by the valuers, with Alexander Withers subletting a part of the property, firstly to Elizabeth Breeze and then (from 1876) to James Cord. This additional dwelling (which was rated at a mere 10 shillings) does not appear to have resulted from a subdivision of the existing house, for the latter continued to be valued a £2, but was perhaps bought about by the adaptation of one (or part of one) of the outbuildings.

In 1892 the lease of the entire property was taken on (or passed to) George Morrison. In the 1901 census, Mr. Morrison, a 59yr-old Presbyterian farmer, is recorded as living here with his wife, Eliza Jane and their nine children, with the house itself noted as a ‘3rd class’ thatched structure with three rooms, three windows in front and four outbuildings. The smaller dwelling, (wherever it may have been located), does not seem to have been recorded within the census, probably because it appears have been vacant at this juncture. It was not reoccupied as a separate concern, for by 1904 the Mr. Morrison had become the sole householder.

By the time of the 1911 census the Morrison family had increased to ten children, with Eliza Jane’s mother, Ann Jane Donnan, also residing here. Most of the children were of an age to be working by this date, their occupations including a dressmaker, bootmaker, two schoolteachers, a ‘national telephone operator’, with the youngest of working age, 15yr-old William Thomas Morrison, employed as a ‘clerk in a spinning mill’. The house itself is recorded much as before, but with only two rooms mentioned.

The building seems to have assumed the role of the local post office at some point after c.1925, superceding an earlier one which was located in a building further to the north on the opposite side of Killinchy Road. It is likely that at this point changes were made to the structure, resulting in the frontage’s present window and door arrangement, with alterations to the two-storey southern end possibly carried out at this time also.

191 Killinchy Road was listed in March 1977. It continued to be occupied by members of the Morrison family until at least 1984 but was recorded as vacant at the time of the Second Survey of historic buildings in this area in August 1998. In c.2005 it was converted to a restaurant, with large extensions added to the rear.

References- Primary sources
1 OS maps, County series, Down sheet 16 – 1834, 1859, 1902. 1920
2 PRONI VAL/1B/323 First valuation, Tullynakill - c.1835
3 PRONI VAL/2B/3/23 Second valuation, Tullynakill - 1861
4 PRONI VAL12B/23/28A-D Annual valuation revision books, Tullynakill ED – 1866-1912
5 Census of Ireland – 1901, 1911 [available at https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/]
6 PRONI VAL12B/23/18E Annual valuation revision book, Kilmood ED – 1909-29
7 ‘Belfast Telegraph’ – 4 June 1976, p.11

Secondary sources
8 Pierce, Richard, Cooey, Alistair and Oram, Richard, ‘Taken for Granted…’ (Belfast, 1984), pp.102-104

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Long, mainly single storey and mainly thatched, vernacular dwelling (with disused post office) of probable pre 1834 origin.Located slightly below road level on the west side of the Killinchy Road, about 3 miles NW of the village of killinchy. Despite some unsympathetic extensions to the rear and a few modern window frames and doors, this building is largely intact both externally and internally, and retains its special character.