Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB09/08/021

Address :
Kingsmill Farm 62 Ballynargan Road Stewartstown Co Tyrone BT71 5NF

Townland:
Edernagh

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
26/01/1976 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:
125/10

IG Ref:
H8695 7616

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

The house, gabled to the main road, is approached through a set of square pillars with pyramidal cappings that lead to a broad street that passes in front of the house and single and two storey slated outbuildings. The location of the buildings is on the right (east) side of the road from Stewartstown to Coagh about four miles from the centre of the former town. Of a north facing aspect the house is finished with whitened plaster and the roof is thatched between parapet gables. There are four plain chimneystacks, one over the position of each of the internal hearths and one on either gable. There are no pots. The main entrance with a timber sheeted door containing a horizontal four-light glazed panel is flanked to the left (east) by three 6/6 vertically sliding sashed windows and to the right (west) by a similar pair of windows positioned on either side of the secondary entrance door that matches that serving the main entrance. The framing of the windows is exposed, there are no horns and the sills are of traditional depths. At the rear a modern kitchen extension with lean-to metal roof is flanked to the left (west) by a 5x10 casement and a 3x6 casement and to the right (east) by two 3x6 casements and a plain top opening window lighting the bathroom at the end of the elevation. The kitchen extension has three pairs of 2/2 sashed windows, all with sash stops, and 15 pane verandah doors, The roof is of metal sheeting, the gutter is of extruded aluminium and the downpipe is of plastic. The outbuildings, contiguous with the house are two storey and of rubble sandstone construction with a harled finish, which has laminated in several areas.The roofs are in slate. Originally animal houses with hay lofts above they now serve as stores. They are in need of repair and there is serious bowing to the front yard in one area.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

According to the date stone on the front elevation, this house was built in 1743. The current owner states that it was built by her ancestor, James McReynold [sic], the eldest son of a John McReynold who had migrated from Scotland in 1690. She also stated that one of the family, Elizabeth McReynolds, married a brother of Henry Joy McCracken and that United Irishmen met in the second bay of the roof of the house in 1798. The building is shown on the OS map of 1833 / 34 as part of the corn mill complex of ‘King’s Mill’. The contemporary valuation records the house as an old thatched building (quality letter 2C+) occupied by William McReynolds and measuring 51½ft x [?]22½ x 10, with ‘offices’ (i.e. outbuildings) and sheds of 57 x 17½ x 14½, 55 x 12 x 6 and 11 x 15½ x 7, and the (relatively) respectable rateable value of £5-17-0. The nearby corn mill itself is noted in the near contemporary OS Memoirs as ‘well supplied with water [with] a breast wheel of 13 feet 8 inches diameter by 3 feet breadth’. The revised OS map of 1858, on which the complex is now marked as ‘Kingsmill’, indicates that some of the outbuildings adjoining the house had been rebuilt by this point, for their positioning is markedly different. Unfortunately the second valuation of the following year does not supply the dimensions of any of the buildings, merely telling us the name of the resident, Thomas McReynolds, the rateable value, £5-10-0, and that the corn mill had one pair of stones and worked ‘seven months in the year, 3½ months 10 hours a day, 3½ months 5 hours’. Close by were the houses of the handful of workers at the mill, named as Kennedy Doogan, Patrick Leonard and Thomas Cowan. By 1864, no doubt capitalising on the boom in the linen industry during the American Civil War, Thomas McReynolds had added a flax mill to the site, and in 1866 a ‘new house for a caretaker’ was added. With these new buildings the rateable value of the whole complex rose to the considerable sum of £23. This sum rose again to £23-10-0 in 1883, however in the following year the corn mill, (which may not have been operating for some years prior to this), was demolished, and the rateable value fell back to £17-10-0. It fell to £15 in 1902 after Thomas Alexander McReynolds, (who, incidentally, had acquired the freehold in 1895), demolished the kiln. The flax mill, however, appears to have been worked up until 1929 at least. A restoration scheme that was carried out in 1981 included the rebuilding of the chimneys together with replacement of external doors and windows. Re-thatching was the responsibility of Gerry Agnew, Ahoghill using wheat straw. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI VAL/1A/6/39 OS map, County Tyrone sheet 39, with valuation
references, (1833 / 34-c.38) 2 PRONI VAL/1B/619 First valuation, Ardtrea (1834) 3 ‘OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Tyrone II’ ed Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB, 1993), p.9 4 PRONI VAL/2A/6/39C Revised OS map, County Tyrone sheet 39, with valuation references, (1858 / 59) 5 PRONI VAL/2B/6/19 Second valuation, Ardtrea (1859) 6 PRONI VAL/12B/37/4A-G Annual valuation revision books, Coagh ED (1864-1929) Secondary sources Pierce and Coey, Taken for Granted, 1984, page 81 EHS file reports. Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick on to EHS on 27 May 1994. Information from the owner, 10 January 2001.

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 V. Authorship

Evaluation

Located about four miles north of Stewartstown this single storey, four-bay, lobby entry thatched house with attics and with contiguous outbuildings sits up a short lane with its western gable facing the road. Very few thatched buildings may be dated with precision and the continuing existence of a mid 18th century house of this calibre is of considerable importance. Care has been taken to maintain the appearance of the structure from the front and sides together with the roof from the rear. Minor alterations have been carried out to the interior but the layout of the original two dwellings is discernable.

General Comments

Date of Survey

02 January 2001