29 Ballynamagna Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT34 5BP

29 Ballynamagna Road, Banbridge

A single-storey three-bay vernacular hearth-lobby dwelling pre-dating 1833, located southeast of the crossroads where Millvale Road, Brookvale Road and Ballynamagna Road meet, approximately 2 miles northwest of Rathfriland. The building sits in a rural setting screened from view at the end of a winding lane that bypasses a modern bungalow.

The dwelling has a pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles, timber fascia boards and uPVC rainwater goods to the rear. Smooth rendered chimneystacks with corbelled upper courses and modern pots rise from the roof. The main walls are painted roughcast rendered. The principal elevation faces south with an asymmetrical arrangement, featuring a windbreaker porch positioned left of centre with a flush replacement timber door set into it and catslide slate roofing. The porch has exposed rubble masonry walling. The three bays of the front elevation each contain a single replacement window, now a 3/1 double-glazed timber sliding-sash design with horns and concrete cills. The left gable is blank with unpainted render and an apex chimney.

The rear elevation has been substantially modified by the addition of a modern one-and-a-half-storey gabled return. Single timber top-hung casement windows with glazing bars flank this extension. The return walling is unrendered insulated concrete formwork with projected gabled bays on either side, each incorporating top-hung casement timber windows with glazing bars. The natural slated roofing to the return matches the eaves and ridge level of the original building and incorporates modern roof lights. The left gable is blank with unpainted render and an apex chimney.

Although the front elevation retains traditional proportions, the overall integrity, character and historic interest is compromised by the modern rear extension, internal modifications and replacement detailing.

The setting includes associated detached outbuildings and setting features. Two gabled rubble masonry outbuildings with natural slate roofs stand adjacent to the entrance gates, one of which has been modified for accommodation use with infilled gable openings. The site is bounded to the south by a masonry rubble wall incorporating cylindrical piers with conical caps carrying a wrought-iron gate. A gabled timber tongue-and-groove chalet with corrugated-iron roofing is located west of the dwelling, featuring timber-framed casement windows, a timber door and decorative bargeboards with a timber apex finial.

Historical development

A group of buildings shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 were loosely arrayed around a courtyard. The most northern of these rectangular structures appears to correspond to the present-day dwelling house. By the second edition map of 1853, two further structures had been added to the plot, both of which survive as outbuildings.

At the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1856–64, William Wilson leased the farm for a yearly rent of £14 from the Trustees of the Honourable Robert Meade. The house and offices, valued at £3 10 shillings, were sited on a plot of over 17 acres. The farm subsequently passed to John Ervine in 1898, William Malcolmson in 1911 and James Alfred Cromie in 1917.

The 1901 census shows John Ervine living at the property with his wife and six children, including a married daughter returned from America with her one-year-old son. One of his older sons was a woollen draper. John Ervine's widowed sister also lived at the house, as did a 13-year-old general domestic servant from Scotland. The five-room house was designated second class.

By the 1930s the buildings on the plot were no longer inhabited and had been redesignated as agricultural outbuildings. Following post-war renovation in 1945, the house was converted back into a dwelling. The outbuilding nearest the road was converted into a forge by the house tenant and extended by a bay to the north. In 1951, the dwelling house, which had previously been thatched, was roofed with corrugated asbestos. The accommodation then comprised a kitchen, scullery and two reception rooms, and the house was let for 10 shillings per week.

The outbuildings appear to have been sympathetically restored. The house is currently undergoing renovation including the construction of a large rear extension.