Woodend Cottage, 42 Woodend Road, Strabane, Co Tyrone, BT82 0BP

Woodend Cottage is a one and a half storey roughcast house with a thatched roof, situated about two miles north of Strabane, between the old road to Dunnamanagh and the new Strabane to Londonderry road. Built between 1820 and 1839, it is a non-vernacular thatched survival—a rare subtype of an already rare building type, which accounts for its Grade B1 listing.

The house faces north and is accessed by a winding drive from the old or upper road. It has a roughcast and whitened finish with a thatched roof between cement skews. The gables each rise to chimneystacks; the left (west) gable has one decorative pot while the right (east) gable has two similar pots. A further stack sits longitudinally above the dining room fireplace and carries two pots. All pots have corbelled cappings and are fitted with spark arresters.

The entrance features a recessed, gabled projecting porch with a natural slate roof and plain bargeboard. On either side of the porch are vertically sliding windows with plain sashes. Beyond these, on each side, are canted bays with vertically sliding windows—plain sashed at the sides with vertical division in the central light. All sashes have small stops; the bay windows have traditional-depth sills while the single openings have narrow sills.

At the rear (south), a two-storey addition has a natural slate roof hipped where it joins the main building, with a rooflight set into the inner slope. Its south gable is finished with decorative bargeboard and carries a chimney with a single pot and spark arrester. A single-storey flat-roofed kitchen block occupies the south-west re-entrant angle and has modern fenestration. A 6/6 vertically sliding window lights the rear of the main house, along with plain sashed windows on the extensions.

The character of the original house has been substantially altered by the addition of the entrance porch and flanking bay windows. The two-storey rear extension was added to accommodate a living room with bedroom above, and the single-storey kitchen block was added subsequently. Care has been taken to restore original features in the main dwelling.

Historical records show a building of matching size and location on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map. The 1833 valuation records it as an old thatched house in good condition, then occupied by Francis Nesbit, with dimensions of 75 feet by 22 by 8½ feet, rated at £3-15-0. The 1858 valuation describes it as a "neat cottage" under the occupier Thomas Hamilton, with the Marquess of Abercorn as lessor. In 1871 a gate lodge was added to the site, increasing the rateable value. By 1873 the valuation had risen substantially, with the main house noted as having been "several years improved"—the porch and bays were probably added at this stage. William Hamilton leased the property from 1876 and acquired the freehold from the Abercorn estate in 1889, subsequently selling it to William Devine. The property was rented to Reverend Connolly from 1896, who remained in residence until at least 1929. The thatch was reported in good condition in 1992 and 1994, with repair work carried out by thatcher Gerry Agnew in the intervening period.