Culcrow Post Office, 190 Curragh Road, Aghadowey, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4BU

Culcrow Post Office is a detached, symmetrical one-and-a-half-storey, three-bay house with an attached single-storey shop, predating 1832 and situated at the junction of Bann Road and Curragh Road, facing down Glenkeen Road over open countryside in the townland of Lissaghmore. A single-storey outbuilding runs perpendicular to the northwest. The building's external appearance dates from the late 19th century and is not considered of sufficient interest for listing.

Architectural Description

The roof is natural slate with a modern rooflight to each slope, terracotta ridge tiles, and replacement round metal gutters and downpipes. There is a rendered chimney to each gable of the house, with a brick chimney to the southeast gable. The eaves have a timber fascia board and boarded finish.

The walls are primarily lined render with rusticated quoins. The attic window is set within a central gablet and features a segmental arch with a moulded architrave. Ground-floor windows are square-headed with moulded architraves incorporating an exaggerated keystone; those belonging to the house also incorporate a bolection mould and pediment over. The doorcase to the house is square-headed with an architrave of fluted pilasters, a panelled frieze, and a moulded cornice. The shop door has a plain architrave with an exaggerated keystone. Windows are generally replacement timber with top-hung lights, and the door screen and doors are uPVC.

The front southwest elevation of the house is symmetrical, with a window to either side of the central door and a dormer above. The roof steps down over the shop, which sits to the southeast; the shop's door is central with a single window to each side, the one adjacent to the house being enlarged. The side northwest elevation is symmetrical with two uPVC windows to each floor.

To the northwest, a blank gable of the single-storey outbuilding sits perpendicular to the main building. This outbuilding has a mainly corrugated iron roof, with some sections of corrugated asbestos and one section with no roof at all, and pebble-dashed rendered rubble and brick walling. Between the two buildings is a pair of wrought iron gates on timber gateposts.

The rear northeast elevation projects in the centre with a two-storey gabled extension, with all walls in pebble-dashed render. A uPVC window is set in the ground floor of this extension, and blocked-up windows are visible in both the two-storey and single-storey sections to the south. A set-back rear extension, also in pebble-dashed render, has two windows to the first floor and a flat-roofed extension at ground-floor level forming a porch over a recessed glazed door.

The side southeast elevation steps down between the house and the shop. Set in the attic of this elevation are two arched windows with original two-paned timber frames. The single-storey gable at this end is blank.

To the rear is a car parking area bounded on the northwest by the single-storey outbuilding, which has a corrugated metal roof (collapsed to the northeast), pebble-dashed rendered walls, and doors on the southeast elevation consisting of four planks and one corrugated metal-clad door.

Schedule notes record the roof as fibre cement slates, walls as lined render, windows as replacement timber, and rainwater goods as metal.

Historical Background

The building first appears on the 1832 Ordnance Survey map of the townland of Lissaghmore, already depicted in its current T-shaped layout including the rear return, though the single-storey shop extension had not yet been built. The outbuilding to the west also dates from at least 1832. The contemporary Townland Valuation of around 1830 values the building at £3 8s. and records its occupant as a Mr. George Hunter.

George Hunter was still at the property by the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1858, by which point the building's value had risen to £4 10s. Records show he leased it from the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers. Hunter died in 1863; his will, held at PRONI, describes him as a local farmer and records that he left property and effects of almost £600 to his son, also named George Hunter.

George Hunter junior purchased the property outright in 1891 when the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers began selling sections of its estate. He converted the building into a licensed public house, which slightly reduced its value to £4 8s. The 1901 Census records Hunter (aged 50, Presbyterian) living at the public house with his sister Sarah (aged 55) and a single domestic servant. The census building return describes the property as a second-class public house, noting that it originally possessed a thatched roof and comprised six rooms. The property's out offices, most of which were accommodated in the outbuilding to the west, included a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, a potato house, and a barn.

The single-storey shop extension first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map and was most likely constructed in 1891 as part of the conversion works. It is possible the one-and-a-half-storey building was also refaced at around that time, though no dating evidence survives. George Hunter vacated the property in 1909, presumably upon his death, after which his sister Sarah took over the running of the public house. The 1911 Census records Sarah Hunter living alone and confirms the building still had its thatched roof at that date. She continued to operate the public house until 1915, when ownership passed to the Stronge family of Lizard Manor.

In 1915, with a Mr. Thomas Henry as occupant, the value of the property was substantially increased to £12. Annual Revisions note that by that year the premises also incorporated a shop alongside the licensed house. Thomas Henry remained only briefly, and in 1922 a Mr. David Torrens purchased the building outright from the Stronge estate.

Torrens resided at the property for nearly fifty years. By the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935, the building — described by then solely as a house and shop, no longer as a licensed premises — was valued at £15 10s. The Second General Revaluation, carried out between 1956 and 1972 following the disruption of the Second World War, raised the value further to £31. By the 1950s the building was in use as a local Post Office for Royal Mail. David Torrens vacated in 1969 after 47 years at the property, at which point his relative Robert Torrens took possession and remained there through the end of the Second Revaluation in 1972.

The building continues in use as a private dwelling and post office. The original thatched roof has been replaced with slate, and the outbuilding to the west survives but is in poor condition, with a portion of its roof having collapsed.