36 Ballyheather Road, Strabane, Co Tyrone, BT82 0BD

A detached three-bay two-storey farmhouse built around 1875, located on the west side of Ballyheather Road in the townland of Cloghcor. The building represents a good example of mid to late Victorian domestic architecture and incorporates part of an earlier vernacular dwelling to the rear, creating an interesting contrast between the formally arranged Victorian front section and the older return section.

Architecture and Form

The house is rectangular in plan with a single-storey return to the west, abutted at north and south by single-storey lean-to extensions. The principal elevation faces east and consists of three bays arranged symmetrically, with openings at each floor. The entrance is centrally positioned with a square-headed four-panelled timber door surmounted by a glazed fanlight, flanked by fluted pilasters and topped by a moulded cornice with keyblock detail. It is accessed via a stone step.

The external detailing is plain. The walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render over a projecting plinth on the principal elevation, with roughcast render to other elevations. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles over a corbelled eaves course, with rendered chimneys topped with replacement clay pots. The return incorporates an asbestos slate roof.

Windows to the principal elevation are segmental-headed timber-framed 2/2 sliding sashes set in moulded architraves with painted masonry sills. Square-headed 2/2 sliding sashes are used elsewhere. The south gable contains two windows at ground floor level and two at first floor, with ruled-and-lined rendered detailing above the first-floor window head. The north gable similarly contains one window at ground floor level (left) and two windows at first floor, with matching rendered detail above. The west elevation, exposed only in part due to the return, contains single metal casement windows at each floor level. A smooth rendered lean-to porch with corrugated roof has been added to the south elevation, featuring a metal casement window and a vertically-sheeted timber door. A further lean-to extension to the north contains two metal casement windows. Rainwater goods comprise replacement uPVC gutters and round cast-iron downpipes.

Interior Plan

The internal plan layout remains largely intact. The house comprises a kitchen and seven rooms, and the contrast between the detailing of the vernacular return and the more typically Victorian front section is notable.

Setting and Outbuildings

The site is set within mature grounds bounded by hedging on all sides. Access from the road is gained through a pair of wrought-iron gates supported on overgrown pillars. A lime-rendered rubble wall with rubble coping to the south-east provides access to the farmyard through a wrought-iron gate supported on a circular stone pier. A further small pedestrian wrought-iron gate is attached to the side of the house.

The farmyard to the south consists of two ranges of linear single-storey buildings enclosing a central yard. The roofs are pitched, partially slate-covered and partially corrugated asbestos-sheeted. The walls are lime-rendered rubble with timber-framed openings and vertically-sheeted timber doors. One of the outbuildings is an increasingly rare example of a timber pole hayshed. These outbuildings remain largely unchanged and form an interesting group with the main house, enhanced by the quality wrought-iron gates. The front garden is spacious and enclosed by mature trees.

Historical Context

A building is shown on the site on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, which appears to correspond to the more southerly of the two large outbuildings that remain. The main house does not appear on the plot until the Third Edition map of 1905. An earlier structure visible on the Second Edition map of 1854 may have been incorporated into the return of the main house.

The Townland Valuation lists a dwelling and office occupied by John Dennistown and valued at £2 8s. 3d., possibly referring to a current outbuilding. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, the southerly range of buildings is divided into three dwellings valued at £2, 5s., and 5s., with Eliza Denison as the main tenant leasing from the Marquis of Abercorn. By 1860, there were only two tenants valued at £1 10s. and 10s.

In 1876, the valuation records note that a house has been built on the plot with dimensions of 13×8×2 acres, with returns of 5×5½×1½ acres and 5×3×1 acre. The property was noted as unfinished at this stage, with a reminder to revalue in 1877. Robert Roulston Junior was the occupier. The house was valued at £10 in 1883, reduced to £6 in 1885. William Bailey became the owner in fee in 1889. In 1924, the cottages to the south were deleted from the valuation record, presumably because they had become outbuildings to the main house. By 1933, John Bailey was the owner, and the house was valued at £11, with £2 for outbuildings. At this time, a porch made of wood and corrugated iron was recorded.