87 Lackan Road, Ballyroney, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 5HR

87 Lackan Road, Ballyroney

A two-storey two-bay vernacular direct-entry farmhouse predating 1834, located on the south side of Lacken Road approximately 11 miles southeast of Banbridge. The building retains much of its original vernacular character and detailing, largely uncompromised by twentieth-century alterations, and represents a type of rural dwelling that is becoming rare in its original setting.

The house is rectangular in plan form with a windbreaker porch and adjoining outbuildings. The pitched natural slate roof features clay ridge tiles. A ruled-and-lined cement rendered chimney with corbelled cap and decorative clay pots rises from the structure. The eaves course is corbelled with metal rainwater goods. The walls are lime-washed lime-rendered rubble masonry.

The principal elevation faces south in symmetrical arrangement with a central entrance porch flanked by single ground floor windows. The entrance comprises a painted timber sheeted door with plinth blocks set into the windbreaker porch, which has a natural slate lean-to roof, a partially exposed granite threshold, and masonry steps. A horseshoe supporting downpipe is located adjacent to the door. Windows throughout are 1/1 timber sliding sash with horns, featuring exposed sash-boxes and concrete cills, except where otherwise noted. The first floor has two 2/2 windows with vertical glazing bars. The right gable is blank with an apex chimney.

The rear elevation is partially obscured by heavy vegetation and contains two ground floor 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with two first floor windows directly above; the first floor left window has no cill.

Single-storey outbuildings are abutted to the main house, comprising pitched corrugated iron roofs with corrugated ridging, lime-rendered walling, and a variety of timber sliding sash and fixed windows. Timber sheeted doors are present, with evidence of a possible earlier door opening to the dwelling now infilled with rubble masonry. The roof structure is machine-sawn timber. The outbuilding has been extended to the left by a concrete block structure with the same roofing. Evidence suggests earlier door openings have been infilled.

The building occupies a rural setting not visible from the main road. Access is via a gravel lane that bypasses three modern dwellings. The farmhouse is further screened from view by overgrown vegetation. The lane runs across the principal elevation, part of which appears to have been roughly cobbled. The site rises sharply at the rear, bounded by an adjacent field.

Historical Development

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows a building on the site that appears to correspond to the present dwelling house, with adjoining outbuildings shown on the third edition of 1901–2. The house does not appear in the Townland Valuation (1828–40), suggesting that at that stage the buildings were of single-storey vernacular character. Griffith's Valuation records the buildings at only 15 shillings, with the tenant farmer James McAuley paying rent of £3 15 shillings per year to the Representatives of William Sharman Crawford.

The valuation record becomes unclear in the late 1800s, but the farm appears to have passed to John K Kerr in 1887 when the valuation increased to £2, suggesting that remodelling and/or extension likely took place during this period. John Strain took over the house in 1905 and became owner in fee in 1910 under land purchase legislation. His widow Martha Strain was head of the household at the time of the 1911 census, with her son farming the land and two older daughters working as a seamstress and national school teacher respectively. The farm passed to James Ernest Morrison in 1945 but has since fallen into disuse and is currently vacant.