17 Cavan Road, Castlederg, Co. Tyrone, BT81 7TP

Kilcroagh House, 17 Cavan Road, Castlederg — Early 18th-Century Detached House, built circa 1730

This is a detached, multi-bay, single-storey-over-basement house with an attic storey, built around 1730 and historically known as Kilcroagh House. It sits on an elevated, mature-planted site on the northeast side of Cavan Road, set perpendicular to the road within its own grounds. The house faces east and is rectangular on plan. Despite substantial alterations that have diminished its architectural interest, it remains one of the earliest surviving structures in the Castlederg area and retains important associations with the Edwards family and the history of the town.

Exterior

The main walls are finished in painted pebbledash render, with a smooth rendered plinth course and smooth rendered rusticated quoins. The roof is covered in fibre cement slate with black clay ridge tiles, and there are three replacement grey brick chimneystacks. Rainwater is carried by replacement metal guttering supported on wrought-iron and steel brackets fixed to a rendered brick eaves course, with some surviving cast-iron downpipes.

The front southeast elevation is six windows wide. All window openings are square-headed with smooth rendered surrounds, concrete sills, and replacement timber casement windows. At the centre of this elevation is a square-headed door opening reached by four large stone steps. The doorcase was inserted around 1930 and comprises a raised-and-fielded four-panelled timber door with Art Nouveau brass door furniture, and a rectangular overlight with margin lights; the doorcase is set within a painted carved stone surround with bull-nosed reveals. At basement level there are three square-headed openings: two have redbrick sills at ground level and are now boarded up, while a larger opening at the north end has an angled head and three rough-hewn stone steps descending to a replacement vertically-sheeted timber door.

The gabled south side elevation has a pair of windows at ground floor level, a further pair at attic-storey level, and a single opening to the basement with a timber door. The remnants of a rubblestone lean-to structure have left the rubblestone walling exposed at ground floor level on the north side gable, with pebbledash render above; the north gable also has a pair of small window openings at attic level, now boarded up. The rear elevation has an irregular arrangement of window openings at ground floor and eaves level, all with timber casement windows and concrete sills.

Attached to the rear of the house, flush with the south gable, is a single-storey rubblestone outbuilding incorporating the kitchen. This has a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and no rainwater goods. The pebbledash render finish covers the right bay only, and there is a landscape-format window opening with a timber casement window and concrete sill. The north elevation of this outbuilding contains a further landscape window opening and a lean-to porch with both a window opening and a door opening fitted with a hardwood glazed door.

Setting and Outbuildings

The house is approached from the south via a short front avenue opening onto Cavan Road between a pair of large pebbledash rendered piers with wrought-iron gates. A gravel drive encircles the front and side elevations. The southern part of the site contains mature trees enclosed by a dry-stone wall along the road frontage. A concrete-paved drive leads past the attached outbuilding into a gravel rear yard. To the rear is an L-plan range of lofted single-storey rubblestone outbuildings with replacement sheeted steel roofs and timber plank doors; these have been re-roofed. By the time of the third-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905, these outbuildings had been extended to form a fourth side to the courtyard behind the house.

Interior

The interior retains some original fabric despite the alterations. Timber-panelled doors and deep panelled door linings of varying dates and styles survive throughout. The room layout itself suggests an early construction date, with rooms arranged on different levels and divided by thick stone walls. The basement appears to have been left unfinished at the time of construction, and as a result the early rubble wall construction and the early timber floor of the ground floor above are visible. The attic was not accessed during survey.

Historical Background

The house is believed to have been built by Robert Edwards (circa 1676–circa 1747), who held the land at Kilcroagh by lease from his grandfather Hugh Edwards. After Robert's death, his son Edward Edwards sold his interest in Kilcroagh to his brother Matthew on 18 November 1747. A house on the site appears on the first-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, and from the second edition of 1855 onwards it is captioned "Kilcroagh House." A small outbuilding is shown to the northeast of the house on the 1855 map.

The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records a dwelling house, two offices, and a cellar used as an office or store, valued at £4 14s, with Nehemiah Edwards — son of Matthew — listed as occupier. The family grave in Derg Parish churchyard bears the inscription: "Here sleep in the Lord Jesus the mortal remains of Nehemiah H. Edwards late of Kilcroagh who departed this life April 5th 1846 aged 85 years also of Elizabeth his wife who died November 24th 1859 aged 84 years also the remains of their son The Rev. Edward Edwards, B.A., J.P for 50 years Clergyman of this Parish who died 1st July 1881 aged 79 years also of their eldest son John Edwards who died 31st March 1887 aged 89 years."

Griffith's Valuation of 1859 lists the house, offices, and land at a building valuation of £7 10s, with John Edwards as occupier leasing from the Reverend John Bagot. William King Edwards became the lessor in 1886. By 1895, the occupier had changed to William Owens and the house was noted as being in bad repair, with the valuation reduced to £5. In 1915 the occupier was Mick McHale, and by 1918 Patrick McHale had purchased the property under early 20th-century land purchase legislation and was owner in fee. The house and offices were valued at £10 in 1922, possibly indicating a rebuilding or remodelling at around that time. By 1933, Patrick McGale was still the owner, and the house at that point comprised a kitchen, five rooms, two attic bedrooms, and two lumber rooms, valued at £6 10s with outbuildings valued at £3 10s. The valuer recorded: "House is damp, bright rooms. Clean water quarter mile away." The house was described as single storey, of rubble masonry, and slated, with some outbuildings roofed in corrugated iron.