Laurel Cottage, 34 Annaghanoon Road, Waringstown, Craigavon, BT66 7RZ

Laurel Cottage is a detached, lofted single-storey vernacular longhouse of three bays, built around 1720 and likely dating in part to as early as the late 17th century, situated on the south-east side of Annaghanoon Road, south of Waringstown. Dendrochronological analysis carried out by the Queen's University Belfast Dendrochronology Laboratory (Report 8/2020) established a felling date for one oak roof timber of late 1672 to early 1673, supporting a construction date in the range 1670–1672, with a radiocarbon date for grass rope holding the thatch returning a median age of 1774. One further oak timber returned a radiocarbon date with a median of 1100 (range 1035–1159), presumed to be re-used bog oak. It is one of the rarest surviving examples of its building type in Northern Ireland and is considered to be of national interest.

The house is laid out on a hearth-lobby plan and extends in a rectilinear form. Attached to the west end is a two-bay byre, and a perpendicular single-storey outbuilding is attached at the west. A gabled breakfront porch sits offset to the left of centre on the principal elevation. A two-storey annexe dating from around 1960 is attached to the centre of the rear elevation.

The roof is original thatch beneath a covering of corrugated tin, with rendered skews and three rendered chimneystacks positioned on the north-east gable and party walls, one offset to the left of the entrance porch. The annexe has a half-hipped artificial slate roof. Rainwater goods are plastic fixed to a timber fascia.

The walls are of mud and rubble construction — a particularly significant survival — generally covered in pebbledash render on the front elevation, though partially exposed at the west end. The front elevation has painted smooth render corner banding and a plinth with an inserted iron ventilation grille. The wall head on the west side of the front elevation has been partially raised using a crudely formed cinder-based slurry. The gables, the west end of the rear elevation, and the annexe are roughcast rendered. The east side of the rear elevation is faced with rudimentary painted concrete blocks over a roughly rendered cement plinth. The porch is finished in painted smooth render with profiled timber bargeboards.

Windows are generally uPVC sashes in the original configuration — 6/2 and 8/2 pane arrangements — with smooth painted render reveals and shallow angled heads to the front elevation, and plain reveals elsewhere. There are painted stone sills to the front elevation only; no sills are present elsewhere.

The principal elevation faces north-west with two windows, one to each side of the porch. The byre extends this elevation to the west with three blocked original timber-framed openings, screened by the perpendicular outbuilding, which sits slightly proud of the main block, creating a narrow entry enclosed by a wall at the east corner. The north-east gable is largely blank, with the exception of a fixed-pane four-light uPVC window to the right side of the loft; a second window to the left is visible internally but has been rendered over on the outside.

The rear elevation is centrally abutted by the annexe and has three windows to the right and one inserted metal-framed casement window with stained glass top panes to the left. The byre extends the rear elevation to the south, with two tongue-and-groove sheeted timber stable doors and a top-hinged six-light timber window. The annexe has four variously sized windows on its north-east and south-west faces and is accessed via a projecting gabled porch on the south-west elevation fitted with a hardwood door, considered of no special interest. The south-west gable lights the byre and contains a six-paned fixed metal-framed window.

The building is of considerable technical interest. Most unusually, a section of the house — including the attics and part of the former living quarters — has been left disused and is preserved in what appears to be close to its original state. Despite some alterations, the building retains a wealth of traditional materials and construction techniques. Notably, what appears to be a cruck truss is embedded within one of the party walls. Vestiges of original decorative finishes survive in situ, as do fragments of original fabric including shutters and window linings.

The cottage is reached by a long lane from Annaghanoon Road, with a working farmyard to the front and rear surrounded by a variety of 20th-century outbuildings. To the front is a mature planted garden enclosed by a simple four-bar wrought-iron railing, with an axial path to the front door accessed through a wrought-iron gate. The garden is bounded to the south-west by the perpendicular outbuilding, which has a tin roof, roughcast rendered walls, and metal-framed windows. A cobble-lined drain channel runs along the north-east perimeter of the rear garden, which is accessed via a wrought-iron gate. The rear is a concrete yard. Modern bungalows stand to the north-east and south-west. The extent of the listed structure includes the house, its attached outbuildings, the north-east boundary wall, and the gates and gate pillars.

The building appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of around 1835 in its current form, showing an L-shaped footprint comprising the rectilinear main block with a perpendicular wing projecting from the west end of the front elevation — the location of the existing outbuilding. The current outbuilding is a 20th-century structure, slightly detached from the main block; openings to the front of the byres suggest the perpendicular block was not attached at any earlier period, notwithstanding the first edition map showing no such division. The total value of all buildings on the plot at that time was recorded at £2. A school house was captioned a short distance to the south. By the time of the second edition map of around 1864, the building appears in its current configuration, with a break now shown between the perpendicular block to the north.

In Griffith's Valuation of 1861, Laurel Cottage is assigned plot number 41a in the townland of Annaghanoon. At that time the property was occupied by James Garrett and leased from Henry Waring of Waringstown House. The leased plot covered 20 acres, 1 rood and 25 perches, with the house and offices valued at £5 10 shillings, revised upward from an initial £4 5 shillings, and subsequently revised again to £8 5 shillings in 1873. By 1900, James Garrett appears to have died and the tenancy had passed to two female relatives, Mary and Jane Garrett. In 1902 revaluation records indicate the house was occupied by Thomas Beckett, who subsequently purchased the building from the Waring family under the Land Purchase Act of 1903, sometime before 1909. Thomas Beckett, described in the Census of Ireland 1911 as a farmer and aged 68, was recorded as resident with his wife Sarah, two sons, and two servants. The accompanying House and Building Return describes the property as a second-class dwelling with five out-offices, a thatch roof, and walls of mud or other perishable material, at that time having four or five rooms and four windows to the front. The Out-Offices and Farm-Steadings Return lists the five out-offices as a stable, cow house, calf-house, turf house, and potato house. By the time of the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map revision of 1905–09, the house is captioned as 'Laurel Cott.'.

In 1920 the house passed from Alfred Beckett to George Ruddock. From the revisions of 1885–1900, Laurel Cottage had been valued together with various other lots as one farm let by the Garretts; in 1920 this property was valued at £41 15 shillings. The house remains in the Ruddock family, formerly grocers in Waringstown, where R. Ruddock was listed as a spirit and general grocer from 1877 — possibly the same individual as Robert Ruddock, listed as a farmer in Waringstown in directories of around 1900.