Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/02/013

Address :
118 Ballyartan Road Killaloo Co. Londonderry BT47 3TA

Townland:
Ballyartan

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Survey 2:
A

Date of Listing:
26/02/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
Thatched House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
Yes

Thatched:
Yes

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
49/11

IG Ref:
C5162 0743

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A well maintained house and farm buildings facing north onto the Ballyarton Road. These consist of a house and an L shaped courtyard of barns which are attached to the west via a curtain wall with large arched doorway. The house appears to the passer by as two dwellings each with a front door: To the east is a storey and a half harled and whitewashed thatched house with steeply sloping roof (approximately 60 degrees) and with a tall rendered chimney on the gable rising 2 metres above ridge line. It has a projecting slated porch with an entrance door in the eastern side and a six over six pane sash to the gable. Its gable has a decorated Victorian barge topped by a finial. To the east of the porch a six over six painted sash window lights the living room inside. Above squeezed under the eaves of the thatch a smaller eight over four sash of more ancient appearance with cruder detail to glazing bars, The sash boxes of both windows are exposed. The thatched roof is finished parallel to the slope of the roof and drains into a ‘v’ shaped timber gutter held out from the wall on large cast iron brackets. It is a scallop thatch roof decorated at the eaves with a single hazel ligger and at the ridge by two parallel liggers. The thatch is higher than the top of the gable and dressed over. The joint is parged in sand/ cement. Along the apex a galvanised flashing is dressed down 150mm on top of the thatch - a result of the covering of the rear slope in corrugated metal. The building is separated from the road by a small garden protected by a hedge. A wrought iron gate gives access. The western end of the building abuts a larger two storey three bay Victorian house with natural slate roof and dressed rubble whinstone (local blue/grey schist) walls to the front. These have white lime joints and dressed brick to openings. The sides and rear are harled and whitewashed as per the other structures. Its exposed gables are topped with a sandstone parapet which is set on top of the slates. The cast iron gutter along the eaves is supported on paired and painted stone brackets. There are two brick chimneys one located on top of each gable each with five low pots. The red brick has a pattern of quoins picked out by yellow firestone brick. To the eastern end at high level, two rubble stone boulders sit out from the gable as if awaiting a proposed extension. At the other end a lamp on a galvanised bracket occupies a similar position. The three equally spaced sash windows at first floor have two over two panes split in a horizontal division sometimes referred to as a ‘regency division’ (but more commonly associated in Northern Ireland with areas of Scottish influence). The sandstone cills are painted. At ground level the window to the east is similar. To the west the central door and the two windows to the western bay are surrounded by a timber Victorian shop front. This is now partly obscured by ivy dressed up the front via timber lattice work. Three brick relieving arches can be seen above the shop front which is sparsely detailed as engaged pilasters supporting a thin freeze. The two sashes to the western bay are of different widths but each are two over two sashes in the more usual vertically divided pattern. The four panelled entrance door is flanked by obscure glass sidelights and rectangular fanlights which rise to the frieze level of the shop front. A small garden separates the house from the road. This has a low wall and a dressed hedge with simple narrow sandstone gate pillars of centre and decorative metal gate. Flush with the western end of the building is the tall link wall to the gable of the barns. This is whitewashed but not harled as the pattern of the whinstone underneath can be discerned. The wall, which is topped with a sandstone coping has a large segmental headed arch taking up most of its opening. Below large sheeted timber doors are painted red. The western gable of the barn is flush with the other structures. A single storey arched opening is located to the west of the centre. To the east is a small slit window with three panes.. Its roof has been replaced with a corrugated metal roof of late twentieth century design which overhangs the gable. The western gable of the barns are blank, whitewashed, and partly buried into the hillside which rises behind the farm. The western gable of the house has been whitewashed and rendered and exhibits some unusual features. A large galvanised tray gutter has been set up at first floor level presumably to catch drips from the gable coping above A small two pane fixed light is located at first floor to the front, a six pane fixed light is located to the rear with a second cast iron gutter above and a down pipe. The rear of the house has a return from the centre bay which sits out four metres and rises to eaves level. At first floor two sash windows face west, each are two over two sashes of traditional design.. Below, there is a wide opening through the return with flat head and a small wash room to one side. Beyond, a glazed roof spans the bay between the return and the older part of the house. The back of the Victorian house has a four over four sash window at first floor to each side of the return. At ground level to the west there is a smaller three over three sash closer to the return. At first floor to the east of the return there is a single two over two window. Rainwater goods are cast iron . The roof is natural slate with two cast iron rooflights flanking the return. Gutters are supported on stone brackets as to the front on the main part of the structure. The eastern gable of the Victorian part of the house has the thatched house to the front but this is not as deep as the Victorian addition. To the rear at first floor a small fixed window of eight panes has a glass hood to deflect water projecting from the top. A small flat roof abuts below. The older house is two pitches deep. The thatched and metal clad roof to the front is complemented by a second slated roof of similar pitch to the rear which is also surmounted by a tall rendered chimney. This structure is of similar width and has a hipped roof to the west. A valley gutter between the two roofs widens out to the west were it meets the Victorian building. There is a rooflight at this point. The second building has a sheeted rear door at its western junction with the Victorian house. To the south is a large eight over eight pane sash. Above is a cast gutter and downspout. The eastern gable has a single four over four sash at high level, a similar sash lights a room at first floor in the gable of the thatched house to the front. The building has a fine garden to the east which is well tended and densely planted with gravelled paths between borders - a fitting cottage garden

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

House built according to owner in 1660. McCoome family are recorded as living in the townland. Became McCullough by marriage. Present ownership inherited in 1960. Building indicated on 1830 Ordnance map as a single linear house beside the road, however it is not recorded in the (near) contemporary valuation. By the second edition of 1849-53 a central small return is indicated. The layout of the yard is indicated and the barn to the northwest. In the second valuation of 1857 a Hugh McCullagh is noted as the occupant of the house, with the representatives of Henry McClintock the lessors, and the rateable value £4-10-0. In 1872 the rateable value of the house is recorded as £11. The valuers supply no reason for this, however, a neighbouring property leased by Hugh McCullagh disappears from the valuation books at this point, suggesting it may have been subsumed by this building, with a new larger house emerging. Hugh McCullagh, who acquired the freehold of the property in 1886 was succeeded as resident by John McCullagh in 1894, who remained there until at least 1929. The rateable value is recorded as having risen to £12 in 1901, remaining as such until the 1930s. The current arrangement is indicated on the 1926 revision. The house formerly functioned as a shop. A nearby building built from corrugated metal superseded this building. The corrugated metal covering to the rear roof of the building was applied in 1960. Building thatched with wheat for most of this century. It is now thatched in flax. The building was rethatched in 1983, 1994 and 1999. In 1998 the drainage of the rear of the roof was improved. References- Primary sources 1. Ordnance Survey First Edition 1830 Co Londonderry Sheet 22 2. PRONI VAL/1A/5/22 OS map, County Londonderry sheet 22, with valuation
references, (1831-c.38) 3. Ordnance Survey Second Edition 1849-53 Co Londonderry Sheet 22 4. PRONI VAL/2A/5/22B Revised OS map, County Londonderry sheet 22, with valuation references, (1857) 5. Ordnace Survey 1926 revision Co Londonderry Sheet 29 6. PRONI VAL/2B/5/47A Second valuation, Cumber Upper (1857) Secondary sources EHS files Current owners (2000)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form E. Spatial Organisation I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A well maintained house with complementary farm buildings consisting of: a thatched house of possible seventeenth century date, a Victorian house which was formerly a shop and attendant barns attached to the house via a large arched gateway. The buildings are of special interest for: their architectural grouping which is very picturesque; their proportion, ornamentation, and style which is consistent and very well preserved; for the unusual detail of the thatched house which is unique in Northern Ireland with its steep roof, eaves gutter and tall chimney; for its scarcity as a well preserved building, part of which is of early provenance (this is increased by having a thatched roof in an area were few remain); for its plan form which reflects its development as a farm house over the centuries; for its social importance as a community shop whoses nineteenth century facade remains; for its interior detail and fittings which are very intact and contribute greatly to its character. It is of national importance because of its unusual nature, its state of preservation and its picturesque character. The A grade is considered appropriate.

General Comments

Date of Survey

15 October 2000