44 Main Street, Carrickmore, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT79 9AY

44 Main Street, Carrickmore

An attached four-bay two-storey end-terrace built around 1830, located on the south side of Main Street in the village of Carrickmore. While forming part of a notable group of adjoining houses in the village, this building has been compromised by various alterations and additions and does not represent one of the finest examples of its type.

The rectangular plan faces north-east, with a single-storey extension with pitched roof and a two-storey return with flat roof at the rear. A carriage-arch at ground floor level in the west bay provides access to the rear. The roof is covered in artificial slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles. Three red brick corbelled chimneystacks rise from the roof. Timber bargeboards and corbelled eaves support the original cast-iron rainwater goods of u-profile.

The walls are roughcast rendered with stepped plastered quoins and a projecting plinth. Windows are square-headed, now boarded, with moulded architraves and projecting masonry cills. The principal elevation facing north-east has two bays on the left, each containing a window at both ground and first floor levels, centred on an original four-panelled entrance door with a stained glass transom light. The two bays on the right contain a square-headed carriage-arch on the left and a window on the right at ground floor, with two windows at first floor level. The south-east gable contains two windows at ground floor and a single window on the left at first floor.

The rear elevation facing south-west is abutted on the left by the single-storey extension with pitched roof and on the right by the two-storey return extension. The exposed section at ground floor contains a single replacement timber window; the first floor has two replacement timber casements on the right and a single 1/1 timber sliding sash over the carriage-arch on the left. The single-storey extension is ruled-and-lined rendered with two timber casement windows (the right one diminished) in its south gable. The two-storey return is smooth rendered and painted, with timber casement windows at each floor on its south elevation and an original timber sheeted and glazed entrance door at ground floor on its right cheek.

The building is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 describes it as a Police Barrack valued at £3 10s. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 records it as a Police Barrack, yard and garden occupied by the constabulary, leased from Sir John Stewart Baronet and valued at £5 15s. The property continued as a police barracks until 1882, when it was divided into two separately leased houses at £2 5s each, with various changes of occupier thereafter. In 1919 the building was taken over by Carrickmore Co-operative Society Ltd and amalgamated back into a single building valued at £9. Valuers' notes from 1934 indicate recent renovation, describing it as "a splendid little house in first class, or in fact, new condition" with small but serviceable bedrooms, all modern conveniences including electric light, and a good situation at the end of the village. Notes suggest it had been used as business premises a few years prior.

The house is set on the street front of Carrickmore with a series of detached outbuildings of no architectural interest to the south, aligned parallel with the main house. The rear is accessed through a wrought-iron entrance gate via the carriage-arch at ground floor of the west bay.