Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB16/04/008

Address :
97 Windmill Rd Cranfield Kilkeel Newry Co Down BT34 4LD

Townland:
Cranfield

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
284/15

IG Ref:
J2725 1006

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Much altered pair of single storey lighthouse keepers’ houses, aligned N-S on cliff top at Cranfield Point. This pair was originally mirror image but was partially demolished and knocked into a single property in 1975. Pitched natural slate roof (large slates laid in diminishing courses) with raised granite coped verges and squat pebble dashed chimney on north and south gables. That to north has a tall cast iron chimney pot with crested crown (rather like the smoke stack of an early train). The S end of the main block has been shortened from its original length and the chimney is modern and has a plainer stack. The roof is double pile to rear at N end with chimney similar to that on the adjacent gable. Walls are pebble dashed with a smooth basecourse and were originally smooth render painted. Each property was three bays wide, with central flat roofed porch and 2/2 sliding sash windows. The left two bays of the left house were removed in 1975, and the remaining porch on the right house was rebuilt in timber and glass. The remaining three window openings were enlarged and modern picture windows with thin concrete cills inserted. South gable was rebuilt, is abutted to right by the modern chimney and has a modern door and window to left. North gables are abutted by a single storey lean-to. It has a hipped natural slate roof and all its openings have been modernised. It is partially abutted at right by a modern flat roofed garage. Rear elevation is abutted to left by the rear pile of the original house. Its windows have been much altered. A similar block to rear right has been demolished and replaced by a modern flat roofed extension (possibly incorporating some of the original block) which extends over the original rear yard to fill the whole remaining elevation and advances beyond the south gable of the front block. Situated in an exposed
setting, the front drive has its own track to the beach. Rear is enclosed by a 1.5m high random rubble granite wall with concrete coping. There are two large gardens (originally serving each house). The garden to left of main house has a modern swimming pool.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

These houses are described in the 1834 Valuation as comprising a 70ft x 21ft x 9ft6in block and two returns at 22ft x 15ft x 9ft6in. The 1863 valuation notes them as “two houses for two families”. A third dwelling was erected on the south gable of the block in the 1860s. This was one-storey high and of T plan. It is shown in the 1901 OS map. How long it survived is uncertain; the present owner of the property recalls its foundations only. The lightkeepers continued to live here until they moved to new and existing houses at Greencastle in 1922 (HB16/04/013 & /014). The houses were purchased by Allen S. Carey, headmaster of Mourne Grange School after they were vacated by the light keepers, and were subsequently sold to the family of the present owner in the 1970s. Cranfield Point lighthouse was erected by Thomas Rogers in 1803 for the Board of the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin (later renamed the Dublin Ballast Board). Described by Rogers as a 130ft high granite tower surmounted by a 12ft diameter lantern. Rogers was also responsible for the South Rock lighthouse, off the Ards Peninsula (1797). After completion, the lighthouse was found to be poorly located for marking the rocks at the entrance to the lough. A new lighthouse was erected further out in the channel on Haulbowline Rock in 1824 (HB16/04/009). Rogers' statement that it was 130ft high is supported by Bradshaw who noted it as 120ft in his 1819 Directory. However, the 1835 valuation describes it as only 30ft high. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoir, most of the tower had been dismantled and its stonework reused in the new lighthouse. The old light was captioned as “in ruins” on the 1859 OS map, and it appears to have disappeared sometime during the next decade with the continuing onslaught of coastal erosion. There was also a watch hut on the ground west of the houses. It is shown on the 1903 map but no trace survives. Primary Sources: 1. Date of erection given in ‘Plan of a lightkeepers’ dwelling to be erected at Cranfield Point, Co Down’ in archives of Commissioners of Irish Lights, Dublin. This drawing also shows the 1860s’ house. 2. PRONI – VAL 1B/390A, p.165 (1834 valuation). 3. OS 6" map, 2nd edition (1859) Co Down sheet 57 (PRONI OS/6/3/57/2) 4. PRONI- VAL 2B/3/81C, p.21 (1863 valuation). 5. PRONI- VAL 12B/19/13E, p.34 (valuation revision). 6. OS 6" map, 3rd edition (1901) Co Down sheet 57 (PRONI OS/6/3/57/3) 7. Commissioners of Irish lights, ‘Proceedings of Board of Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin.’ 8. T. Bradshaw (1819), Directory for Newry, Kilkeel (etc). Secondary Sources: 1. ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland’, vol.3: Parishes of County Down (QUB 1990). 2. W. Long ‘Bright Light, White Water: the Lighthouses of Ireland’, (Dublin 1997), p.21.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Although this building is of some historical interest, it retains little of its original character or overall composition and plan.

General Comments

Date of Survey

11 November 1998