Frizells Cottage, Ardress, Co. Armagh

Frizells Cottage, Ardress, County Armagh

Frizells Cottage is a rare and remarkably intact late 18th century single-storey vernacular house, almost certainly built between 1780 and 1800. It is a mud-walled, lobby-entry dwelling of a type once found across County Armagh, and one of very few surviving examples of its kind. It stands alongside a former old coach road just outside the demesne wall of Ardress, approximately 10 kilometres south of Lough Neagh.

Form and Layout

The building is a single-storey, three-bay, gable-ended rectangular structure with a lobby-entry plan and an east-west axis, facing south onto the old roadway. It measures 13.90 metres by 5.80 metres. The plan form — a three-roomed lobby-entry arrangement — is comparable to examples documented by T. G. F. Paterson at Tamnavelton townland and by Desmond McCourt at Derrytagh South, County Armagh; McCourt notes that a similar house was built by a cottier weaver, which may also have been the case here.

Mud Wall Construction

The walls are of mud construction, varying in thickness from 0.45 metres to 0.65 metres, standing at most 2.10 metres high along the transverse walls and around 4.90 metres at the gable ends. The pronounced batter of the walls is consistent with an early technique of piling up successive layers of mud, allowing each layer to dry, and then paring down to the desired thickness — as described by Fairon (1986) and Gailey (1984). There is no evidence of the later technique using wooden framing or shutters to build up the wall. This points to a later 18th century rather than early 19th century date of construction. The walls are built upon a stone foundation, which was the usual practice for mud-wall construction in mid-Ulster, where clay was commonly used during the 18th and early 19th centuries in areas where stone or brick was not readily available.

Exterior — Front (South) Elevation

The front elevation of the original cottage is rendered with modern pebbledash. It has four windows and a central door. The front door opening measures 1.86 metres by 1.00 metres and is contained within an open porch that is 2.20 metres high, 1.80 metres wide and 40 centimetres deep. The porch is formed by brick side walls, rendered and currently painted black, and has a small pitched canopy of corrugated iron that cat-slides from the main roof pitch; this canopy is probably a replacement for a wooden original. The door itself is no longer in place. All four front windows have modern cement surrounds painted black, stone sills and retain their outer wooden frames. Only the easternmost window retains its complete wooden frame, glazed one pane over one with a top-opening casement. The other three windows formerly had sliding sashes. All windows are fitted with steel cages to prevent access while allowing ventilation.

Exterior — Rear (North) Elevation

The rear elevation of the original cottage is rendered with wet-dash lime, which is how the entire exterior would originally have appeared. It has three windows, all fitted with steel cages. The central window has a metal casement frame. The two outer rear windows have modern wooden frames, glazed one over one with top-hung upper lights.

Roof Construction

The roof of the old cottage is covered with corrugated iron sheeting, but concealed beneath this is a thatched roof with a scraw underthatch — an exceptionally rare survival. The roof is currently supported by purlins embedded in the gable walls and the internal transverse wall; however, these purlins are of squared 20th century softwood, which must be assumed to have replaced earlier and more fragile originals. The ridge has similarly received additional support through the insertion of a long conifer trunk in the 20th century. The common rafters and cross battens, however, are of a much earlier date. They are composed of poor-quality timbers, largely branches and bog timbers, supporting a thick layer of scraws — turf and grass sods laid overlapping at their tops and bases. These scraws are the product of a long roofing tradition; they kept the thatch in place by providing a bed into which the scollops were driven. Their presence indicates that the thatch of this house was originally also held in place by an external network of ropes. There are two brick chimney stacks on the roof, which are likely to be mid-19th century additions, possibly dating from around the 1860s.

Interior

At Tamnavelton, a comparable house had an open hearth with a back stone and a skeagh covering, and this appears to have been the original arrangement at Ardress too — the mantle tree survives in place. The present chimneypiece with its small fireplace is a much later addition. The use of brick in the open porch, in the chimneybreast of the west room, and in the wall to the rear of the kitchen are all likely to be mid-19th century modifications, again perhaps of the 1860s.

Additions and Outbuildings

A small 1950s kitchen extension has been added to the rear of the old cottage. It has a flat roof, a back door on the east side, and is entered from the old kitchen through a batten door; it has three windows with metal frames and a modern panelled back door. A larger 1950s extension, sometimes known as the "new cottage", abuts the west gable of the old cottage and extends outward to the rear, measuring 6.80 metres by 6.25 metres. It is built of concrete blockwork with walls approximately 15 centimetres thick and roughly the same height as the old cottage. Its front elevation, slightly set back from the line of the old façade, has two windows flanking a central door. Only the timber surround of the door survives in place; both windows measure 1 metre by 0.95 metres and have metal frames with external cement sills. There are no openings on the gable or west side of this extension. Its rear section has a roof with very slight pitch and contains two metal windows and a back door with a modern panelled door. To the east of the old cottage stand the ruins of an old byre measuring 4.75 metres by 4.95 metres, built of stone rubble walls 35 to 45 centimetres thick. The byre is now heavily overgrown with ivy and bushes, is entered from the rear or north side, had a pitched roof, and has no openings in its east- or south-facing walls. Adjoining the byre to the east is a lean-to garage of concrete block construction, approximately 2.5 metres by 5.30 metres, probably built in the 1960s, open on its south elevation and built against the byre wall.

Historical Context and Setting

The small 100-acre demesne of Ardress takes its name from the Irish An fArdriasc, meaning "the high bog." The demesne was established for the present house at Ardress, which was begun in the later 1660s and extended in the 1770s by the Ensor family. The landscape park dates from the late 18th century and is surrounded by mature shelter belting of mainly beech, oak, lime, sycamore and Scots pine. The demesne wall was probably built in the 1770s, including the main entranceway whose fine turning circle — which once also incorporated a gate lodge — lies approximately 50 metres west of Frizells Cottage.

Frizells Cottage is depicted on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map and on all subsequent editions. It does not appear on a map surveyed by James Whiteside for George Ensor in 1846, almost certainly because the land had not at that time been brought within the demesne. This incorporation occurred between 1859 and 1862, when a new road was built to the north, replacing the old coach road along the northern demesne boundary. The old public road then became a local demesne trackway, the gate lodge on the turning circle was removed, and the approach avenue was extended northward to meet the new road. From around 1860 onwards, Frizells Cottage lay within the boundary of Ardress Demesne. The name "Frizell" most likely refers to a former occupant of the cottage.

The cottage remained in habitation until the 1980s. A photographic and measured survey was first undertaken on behalf of the National Trust in 1999 by Tony Merrick of Hearth Housing Association, with a view to restoration, though this was never carried out. From at least 2003 the building became a regular meeting place for adolescents, raising concern about its future, and grills were subsequently placed on the windows to restrict access. Building survey reports were produced by Malachy Conway for the National Trust in 2004 and 2007.