Outbuildings, Kilmacrew House, 70 Kilmacrew Road, Banbridge

Outbuildings, Kilmacrew House, 70 Kilmacrew Road, Banbridge

These are a substantial and largely intact group of traditionally constructed 19th-century farm outbuildings arranged around a half-courtyard, forming a group with Kilmacrew House. The scale and quality of the buildings reflects the importance of Kilmacrew House as the principal house of the townland. The complex clearly demonstrates several phases of development and retains much of its historic fabric and detailing, including a more recent bow-string trussed steel-framed byre. Notable features include a horse walk and decorative wrought iron gates.

Overview and Layout

The outbuildings form a half-courtyard group of single- and two-storey ranges set to the north-east of Banbridge. There are three main elements: an earlier linear two-storey range to the north-west (dating from around 1840), with a central lean-to abutment; a later L-shaped range to the south-west (dating from around 1890), which is two storeys at the right-hand end, drops to single storey at mid-point, and projects forward to the left to enclose the south-west corner of the yard; and a single-storey cart-house to the south-east side of the yard, flanking the entrance.

All ranges have undulating pitched natural slate roofs with angled ridge tiles. Rainwater goods are cast iron, with vestiges of half-round and ogee profiles surviving. Walls are of random rubble stone bedded in lime mortar, with brick dressings to some openings and granite plinth blocks. Windows are generally timber-framed with four panes, set in brick or rubble stone surrounds; several have relieving arches and most lack cills. Doors are timber sheeted.

North-West Range

The principal yard-facing elevation has a full-height lean-to abutment to the right of centre, lit by a six-light window to the front. To the right of this abutment is a full-height square-headed pair of coach-doors. To the left of the abutment is a stable door flanked by a four-light window, with a six-light and a four-light window (over brick infill) directly above. The left-hand end is of random squared grey stone construction, with a visible seam marking a change in build phase, and has openings formed in brick: a stable door with a brick arch over, a brick-infilled door opening, and a loading door flanked by oculi to the loft. A lean-to canopy fronting the south-west range abuts the extreme left end.

The left gable is lit by a window to the loft and has an opening to the apex. The rear elevation is part brick and part lime-rendered masonry, with a variety of ventilation apertures and windows. The right gable has a four-pane attic window and is abutted by a lean-to outbuilding with a timber sheeted door to the south-east elevation, which is itself further abutted by a quadrant-shaped rubble masonry duck-house with a flat corrugated metal roof and a sheeted door.

South-West Range

On the principal yard-facing elevation, the two-storey right-hand end is almost completely abutted at ground floor level by the single-storey projection, with an additional taller lean-to canopy spanning the gap between this projection and the north-west range. The exposed loft level has a small sheeted opening. At ground floor level to the left, beneath the canopy, are two timber sheeted doors flanking a high-level door accessed by a timber ladder recessed into the wall. The abutment is of brick and rubble stone construction with a bituminous felted roof, timber sheeted doors to front and cheeks, and is lit by three four-pane windows to the front.

To the left of the abutment, the single-storey range has a door further flanked to the left by a pivoting four-pane window and a fixed six-pane window. The projecting left end has large roughly dressed stone quoins with some snecking. The courtyard-facing elevation has a door to the left flanked by four-pane windows, and a pair of timber doors in a single frame, one with a sliding aperture; a two-pane light over a sheeted infill panel sits to the left side. The gable has a single four-light window fixed with iron bars. The south-west elevation has a single opening to the right, infilled with blocks. The north-west elevation has a seam of roughly dressed quoins to the centre of the single-storey section, with openings generally infilled and a single sheeted door to the right side. The two-storey section has three two-light windows to the upper level and retains ghost marks of a former lean-to addition.

Cart-House

The single-storey cart-house to the south-east side of the yard flanks the entrance. It has a pitched slate roof and walls of generally random rubble masonry retaining vestiges of lime render, with some dressed blackstone to the north-west gable. The north-west gable has a depressed elliptical arched opening formed in brick, fitted with a pair of timber sheeted cart-doors and an oculus above. There are two windows to the south-west elevation, and a door and single window to the north-east elevation.

Other Structures

A steel-framed, bow-string trussed byre with a corrugated steel roof survives in good condition to the north of the range. Decorative wrought iron gates with a heart-shaped motif are located to the south of the outbuildings, leading to farmland.

Setting

The courtyard sits directly to the north-west of Kilmacrew House, which encloses the south-east corner of the yard. A horse walk occupies the west corner of the courtyard. Access is from a long main entrance lane to the south, with a secondary formal access lane serving the front of the house, branching off a short distance before the courtyard. The wider setting comprises farmland to the west, woodland gardens to the east and south, and modern farm structures to the north.

Historical Background

The farm at Kilmacrew dates from at least the early 1800s. It first appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1833, which shows two buildings, neither of which survives — both were taken down or substantially altered by the 1860s. The Townland Valuation of around 1830 records a Mr John Boyd as the resident, with the farm valued at £5 10s.

The north-west range can be dated with reasonable certainty to between 1833 and 1845, based on a historic map in the ownership of the house, entitled 'A Survey and Map of Messrs John and David Boyd, House and Lands' and dated 1845. This map shows a pictorial impression of a single linear two-storey outbuilding to the north of the house, representative of the structure that exists today, including what appears to be the lean-to range and quadrant duck-house at the right end. The western range is not shown on this map.

Between 1833 and 1860 a number of alterations were made to the farm, including the erection of a new dwelling on the site of the current house. This second dwelling was T-shaped and had approximately the same layout as the current building, with a large return abutting the rear. The two-storey outbuilding range to the north-west had also been constructed by the time of the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1860.

Griffith's Valuation of 1861 records that the farm had passed from John Boyd to a Mr Charles Martin, who was a local farmer leasing the site from a Mr James Quinn. With the construction of the second dwelling and new outbuildings, the value of the farm had risen to £10 by 1861. Charles Martin resided at Kilmacrew until his death in 1894. His will — referred to locally as 'The Home Farm' — left his property to his nephews, the Reverend John Martin of Magherally Presbyterian Church and Charles Martin, though only the Reverend John Martin took possession and was recorded as occupant in the Annual Revisions.

Upon taking possession of the farm, the Reverend John Martin constructed the current two-storey late-Victorian house, which was under construction in 1897 and completed by 1898, when it was first valued in the Annual Revisions at £32. It is likely that the L-shaped single-storey outbuildings to the south-west of the house were constructed at the same time as the new dwelling; the outbuildings first appear on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1903–18), but no further alteration to the farm's valuation was recorded between 1898 and the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

In 1901 the Reverend John Martin, then aged 41, was recorded as residing at the farm with two agricultural labourers and a domestic servant. The census building return described Kilmacrew House as a first-class dwelling comprising 13 rooms. Around 1907 the Reverend Martin married Margaret Waddell, sister of the celebrated medieval Irish scholar Helen Waddell. By the 1911 Census, Martin and his wife — then aged 27 and of the Presbyterian faith — had three children and continued to employ domestic servants and farm labourers. The 1911 census return also records that the farm by that time comprised a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, a fowl house, a boiling house, and a barn.

The third edition of the Ordnance Survey map was the first to caption the site as 'Kilmacrew House', and also confirmed that all of the surviving outbuildings — with the exception of the modern corrugated-iron barns to the north-west — had been constructed by between 1903 and 1918. The large modern corrugated-iron barns to the north-west were erected in the mid-20th century, appearing for the first time on the Ordnance Survey map of 1973. Kilmacrew House continues to be occupied by a relative of the Reverend John Martin.