Ederney Post Office, 19 Main Street, Ederney, ENNISKILLEN, BT93 0DH

Ederney Post Office is a mid 19th-century building, constructed between 1840 and 1859, that represents a rare survival of an early 20th-century social institution. It stands mid-way down the gently sloping Main Street in Ederney, a rural village where the street retains considerable integrity of scale and character. The building itself remains largely unspoiled, with fine original windows, doors, a fanlight, ashlar chimneys and an arched entry that together constitute significant architectural and historical merit.

The building is three-bay and two-storey with a pitched roof of natural slate. It features fine ashlar sandstone chimneys, cast iron rainwater goods to the front and plastic rainwater goods to the rear. The street façade faces due west.

The three upstairs windows to the front have exposed weight boxes and are six-over-six sashes with fine glazing bars, apparently original. Of the upstairs rear windows, one has exposed weight boxes but no glazing bars, whilst two others are six-over-six sashes with fine glazing bars but without exposed boxes. Two further rear windows — one large downstairs and one small narrow upstairs — are modern metal fittings.

The Main Street façade is dominated by the central post office entrance in the centre bay. The door is sheeted with a fanlight above, both recent but reasonably appropriate. On either side of this are fixed windows with twelve panes each, arranged three wide by four high. The right-hand window retains very fine glazing bars and is clearly older, with a red post box fitted into one quarter. The left-hand window is recent with chunky glazing bars. The house door at the extreme right of the front appears original, with sheeting, a heavy transom and a very fine light above. At the extreme left is an open segmental arched entry with bedrooms above, the arch interrupting the plaster quoins. The entire front is rendered in wet dash in sand and cement, probably recent, with plain plaster bands of 50mm around all openings including the arch. Stone cills are painted. The rear retains its original lime wet dash without plaster bands, and the rear arch of the entry is also segmental.

Historically, although this side of Main Street was developed by the 1830s, the 1834 valuation records show the area consisted of single to one-and-a-half storey dwellings and public houses, some thatched, with the tallest measuring only 12 feet 6 inches. The plot configuration shown on the circa 1838 village plan bears little resemblance to the present arrangement. A building matching the current structure appears on the 1859 village plan and is recorded in the 1858–60 valuation as a small drapery shop, measuring 11 yards by 8 yards by 2 storeys (19 feet high), leased by John Monaghan to Catherine Sweeny, with a ratable value of £8. Monaghan was also the lessor of the neighbouring property to the south, suggesting he may have been responsible for constructing both buildings given their similarities. The village post office had previously been located in a building a few doors south, now a public house. Thomas Drury took over the tenancy in 1889, followed by Catherine Drury in 1919. The exact date when the property became the village post office is unclear from valuation records, but the interior detailing suggests a conversion in the 1920s to 1930s. A rear overgrown garden adjoins the building.