Vernacular house, (East of 44) Boconnell Lane, Lurgan, Craigavon, BT66 6NE

Single-storey vernacular house of probable pre-1830 construction, built with mud walls and retaining its original roughly-hewn roof timbers and thatch beneath a later covering of corrugated-iron sheeting. Currently used as a store by the local council.

SETTING

The building stands on the eastern side of a relatively quiet, almost semi-rural road approximately 2.6km north-west of Lurgan town centre and 0.3km south of the M1 motorway. It sits at the head of a private lane leading to another presently disused dwelling (known as Turmoyra Farm), fronting onto the lane with its back to a field and its west gable facing onto the road verge. The setting is largely untouched.

EXTERIOR

The roughly south-facing front elevation has an asymmetrical layout. The entrance is set to the right of centre within a shallow flat-roofed projection or porch, retaining the remains of a relatively recent makeshift panelled timber door. To the left of the entrance are three uniform window openings, now blocked with concrete block but with stone cills still in place; a similar window opening appears to the right. Both gables are blank. The rear elevation could not be clearly seen during the full survey, but internal inspection indicates three blocked window openings similar to those on the front, seemingly evenly spaced; a large plain metal sheet is attached directly to the wall covering the central part of this elevation.

WALLS

The walls are finished in wet-dash render, with plain render to the porch. Parts of the rear elevation and gables are covered in ivy growth.

ROOF

The original roof structure and thatch and straw are intact but are now covered over with corrugated-iron sheeting, with plain timber barges and fascia boards. There are two brick chimneystacks: one to the west gable and the other positioned in line with the entrance in a hearth-lobby arrangement. Rainwater goods are missing to the front; a PVC gutter and downspouts serve the rear.

Since the date of the full survey, vents have been inserted into the window openings, though as these were already blocked this is of little consequence.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Several buildings are shown at this point along what is now Boconnell Lane on John Rocque's 1760 map of County Armagh. Given the scale and nature of the map it is impossible to say whether any of these corresponds to the structure standing today, but the map does demonstrate that this vicinity was occupied at that date by what appears to have been a clachan-like development spanning both sides of the road, of which this house may well have formed part. A century earlier, the hearth money rolls of 1664 record three dwellings in Buckonnell: one with two hearths belonging to Captain Robert Hawkworth (or Hawksworth), and two with single hearths belonging to Peter Bose and William Moore respectively, though their exact locations are not known. A 1751 Brownlow estate map of the townland names Christopher Whelldon as tenant of a large plot that included this location, but gives no details of sub-letting or dwellings.

A much more detailed estate map of 1832 appears to show the present house in place, with the accompanying tenants' list recording Henry McCorry as the occupant. Several other structures to the north, south and west formed a loose clachan arrangement similar to that suggested by Rocque's 1760 survey. The 1834 Ordnance Survey map depicts a similar layout of buildings, though none are recorded in the 1836 valuation book — a strong indication that all were modest vernacular structures of the same character as the building surviving today.

Mr McCorry, or a relative of the same name, was still in residence at the time of the second valuation in 1862, recorded as leasing the property directly from the Brownlow estate, with the house and offices (that is, outbuildings) valued at £1-10-0 for rating purposes. The 1859 Ordnance Survey map shows the outbuildings standing just a few metres to the south-west of the house on the other side of the lane; these were demolished at some point before 1905, though the valuation books make no reference to this.

In 1872 the lease passed to Patrick Hendron, who added almost 10 acres to the existing 5 acres attached to the holding. Bernard Toner became tenant in 1884, followed by Bernard Kane in 1888 and his widow Anne Kane in 1892. The Kane family appear to have been long established in the area, having held land in the neighbouring Turmoyra townland since at least 1804; Bernard and Anne had also lived at the house at the east end of the lane — Turmoyra Farm — from 1877. The 1901 census returns for Boconnell townland do not appear to have survived, so the occupants of the house at that time are unknown. Anne Kane herself is recorded as living at Turmoyra Farm, but as her household there comprised thirteen people in total — three grown-up children, a daughter-in-law and eight grandchildren — it is possible that some of these relations were actually living in the Boconnell property, which stood only a few metres away. This is further supported by the fact that the Boconnell house does not appear to have been recorded in the 1911 census.

Anne Kane died before 1911 and both properties passed to her son Michael, who appears to have died before 1920. The house remained with the Kane family, who leased it to Edward Lavery around 1932 and then to Edward Pedlow from 1947. It was recorded as vacant in 1970, by which time the holding appears to have been vested by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Development, presumably as part of the wider Craigavon development scheme. It has since passed into the ownership of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council and currently serves as a store for council employees.

SIGNIFICANCE

The survival of both the mud-walled construction and the original roof structure — with its roughly-hewn timbers and thatch intact beneath the corrugated-iron covering — in a building of this type and probable age is now a considerable rarity and of significant local importance. Although the window openings have been blocked in recent years and much interior detailing is missing, the building retains strong architectural and historical interest as an example of vernacular construction that may predate 1760, and which formed part of a clachan-like rural settlement still partially legible in the historic landscape.