35-37 Sentry Box Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32

35-37 Sentry Box Road, Banbridge

A pair of attached single-storey two-unit vernacular hearth-lobby dwellings pre-dating 1833, joined by a central outbuilding. The buildings are located on the south side of Sentry Box Road, approximately four miles southeast of Banbridge, in a rural setting screened from view and accessed by a narrow lane. The plan forms have retained attributes associated with hearth-lobby layouts, though they have undergone historic modification reflecting changing occupancy needs. This is an unusual and increasingly rare example of an attached pair of dwellings of this building type.

The pair consists of a south dwelling and a north dwelling, each with separate windbreaker porches facing west and east respectively. Both buildings feature pitched natural slate roofing with clay ridge tiles and cement skews, with metal half-round rainwater goods. The chimneystacks are ruled-and-lined render with corbelled upper courses and no pots.

The south dwelling has lime-washed rubble masonry walling, while the north dwelling is lime rendered over rubble masonry. Both have timber 1/1 sliding-sash windows with horns and exposed sash-boxes, with plain reveals and painted concrete cills. The dwellings have painted timber sheeted doors with masonry plinth blocks, set into projected windbreaker porches with hard-standing.

The south dwelling's principal elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged with a centrally located projecting windbreaker porch flanked by single windows on either side. The left gable is blank where it abuts the adjoining dwelling, which has a lower ridge and eaves level. The rear elevation is asymmetrical with a single window left of centre. The right gable is blank and roughcast rendered unpainted.

The north dwelling has an east-facing principal elevation, symmetrically arranged on an inclining site. It features a centrally positioned gabled windbreaker porch with plain timber barge boards and a timber sheeted door with spliced repairs. Single 2/2 timber sliding-sash windows with vertical glazing bars and horns flank the porch, with painted masonry cills and partially exposed brick surrounds. The left gable abuts a single-bay outbuilding with matching ridge level. The east elevation is set back from the building line and comprises a timber sheeted door and horizontal ventilation-hole. A single-storey corrugated iron flat-roofed, cement rendered addition to the west with timber sheeted door and small window opening has minimal architectural interest. The right gable is symmetrically arranged with a centrally positioned 2/2 steel-framed casement window with vertical glazing bars, concrete cill and plain painted reveals. The date "1932" is inscribed into the gable apex.

The setting includes a wrought-iron gate adorned with spear-heads, hung from cast-iron piers. A concrete block, smooth rendered privy with corrugated iron roof stands east of the dwellings. A cattle crusher runs parallel to the rear elevation.

Historical and occupancy records indicate the buildings appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, corresponding to the two houses found on the site today. Valuation records suggest the property may initially have been a single dwelling with an attached outbuilding, with possible remodelling occurring in 1932, as indicated by the inscribed date. At the time of Griffith's Valuation (1856-64), the tenant was John Quinn, a Catholic farmer paying annual rent of £4.18s to his landlord Viscount Bangor. The house was valued at 15 shillings and situated on a farm of over five acres. In the 1901 census, John Quinn was recorded living with his wife and three children in what was designated a third-class, two-room thatched house. By 1911, Quinn had been widowed and was living with his daughter, son and grandson; the house remained thatched at this stage. The property continued in the Quinn family for some years, passing to Annie McKeown in 1937. The two dwellings are currently vacant.