Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/05/005

Address :
105 Rossdowney Road Ballyoan Co. Londonderry BT47 5SU

Townland:
Ballyoan

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
08/05/1978 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:

Former Use

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
Yes

Thatched:
Yes

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
37/1

IG Ref:
C4682 1802

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

The buildings occupy a roadside position, facing north-west, about one mile( travelling in a south-westerly direction) from the Londonderry/Limavady road at Mobuoy Bridge. The house is set behind a garden enclosed by harled stone walls and hedges. There are three gates. That at the front, within a privet archway is of decorative ironwork and is flanked by pillars of square section with pyramidal cappings. There are two steps at this entrance. Access to the pathway that extends along the front of the house is by means of a flat iron gate at either extremity. The pillars are similar to those at the front gate. A rectangular trough flanked by the remains of an iron pump is set at the roadside in front of the boundary wall. The house is one-and-a-half storey, four unit, passageway entry with thatch under corrugated iron. The eaves are sheeted with timber and there are bargeboards of similar material. Each gable rises to a corbelled red brick chimney and there is a similar stack above the position of the parlour fireplace. The external finish is of colour-washed harling or render. The entrance is protected by a gabled porch of timber construction with decorative bargeboard and finials. Trelliswork adorns the front and the sides are sheeted. There are six plain sashed windows lighting the front elevation, two to the left (north-east) of the entrance and four to the right. The openings are dressed with slightly raised plain cement surrounds, sills are of traditional depths and sash stops are of rudimentary profile. Four steps give access to the four-panel bolection moulded entrance door that is surmounted by a plain rectangular fanlight. The upper step has an inset decorative ventilator. The south-west gable is blank and a small plain window, set left of centre in the north-east gable, lights the roofspace. The rear wall is blank apart from a window opening at the north-east end where it abuts the two storey block. At the other side of this block a concrete flat roofed porch with modern door and window gives access both to the rear of the thatched part of the house and to the ground floor of the two storey part. The building that extends in a south-east direction at the rear is two-storey with a harled finish. The roof is of natural slate and each gable rises to a corbelled red brick chimneystack. There are remains of cast iron rainwater goods with drive in hooks used to support the gutters. One plain sashed vertically sliding window remains together with an arched headed doorway with sidelights. Otherwise the fenestration is modern.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 183. However, a small return to the southeast is indicated and the present projection to the northwest is missing. Unfortunately, (and unusually), although the property is noted in the contemporary valuation, no dimensions are supplied, merely the name of the occupant, Alexander Ross, and the rateable value, £2-18-0. The layout on the revision of 1853 is similar but indicates that the flanking outbuilding to the north-east has been enlarged at the rear to assume the existing proportions. The second valuation of 1857 recorded the occupant as James Ross, the immediate lessor as Eliza Austen, with the rateable value calculated at £6. References- Primary sources 1. OS map, 1st edition 1830, Co. Londonderry sheet 14. 2. PRONI VAL/1A/5/14 OS map, County Londonderry sheet 14, with valuation
references, (1831-c.38) 3. PRONI VAL/1B/549A-D First valuation, Clondermot, (1831) 4. OS map, 1st revision 1853, Co. Londonderry sheet 14. 5. PRONI VAL/2A/5/14A Revised OS map, County Londonderry sheet 14, with valuation references, (1857) 6. PRONI VAL/2B/5/45A Second valuation, Cumber Upper (1857) Secondary Sources Gailey, Alan, Rural Houses of the North of Ireland, John Donald Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh, page 188.

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

Historic Interest

Z. Rarity X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The buildings occupy a roadside position facing north-west on the Rossdowney Road, about one mile from the main Londonderry/Limavady road.. The dwelling is a one-and-a-half storey, four unit passageway entry house with thatch under corrugated iron. The layout, which is not what one normally expects in Ireland, suggesting direct British intervention, perhaps during the eighteenth century, remains in original form. The roof timbers follow an early form of construction. The house iis of special interest because of its style, proportion, ornamentation, unusual plan form, early roof, the setting of the building with flanking barns, the rear extension and its relationship to the older building. It is of national interest to Northern Ireland and of interest as a rare survival of this type of historic house.

General Comments

Date of Survey

16 June 2004