Farmhouse, 39 Crewe Road, Crew, Glenavy, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT29 4NG

Farmhouse at 39 Crewe Road, Glenavy

A detached symmetrical two-bay, two-storey vernacular farmhouse built around 1830, located south of Crewe Road in the townland of Crew, Glenavy. The building now stands in poor repair but retains several original external features including a windbreak porch on the south elevation.

The house is rectangular in plan with a single-storey lean-to extension at the south and single-storey outbuildings attached to each gable. The roof is pitched with natural slate and clay ridge tiles. Two rectangular smooth rendered brick corbelled chimneystacks rise through the roof without pots. Half-round uPVC replacement rainwater goods are supported on existing cast-iron brackets. The walling is roughcast lime rendered, with rubble stone largely exposed at the north elevation.

The windows on the principal (south) elevation are 2/2 horizontally divided timber sliding sashes set within square-headed openings with painted reveals and painted projecting masonry sills. The rear elevation contains a combination of timber sliding sash and metal casement windows. All doors are ledged and braced timber sheeted. The principal elevation faces south and is two bays wide, with a central windbreak porch containing a square-headed timber sheeted door with transom light and a corrugated metal pitched roof. The entrance is flanked by single windows on each side, with three equally spaced windows at first floor level.

The west gable is abutted by single-storey outbuildings with corrugated metal pitched roofs and a series of timber sheeted and corrugated metal doors. The rear elevation is abutted at its centre by a single-storey lean-to extension, flanked on the left by a nine-pane metal casement window at ground floor and a 2/2 timber sliding sash at first floor. The east gable is abutted by a single-storey extension with corrugated metal pitched roof and timber sheeted door at the south.

The setting is rural, with a perpendicular replacement dwelling and east-west aligned outbuildings located to the south. The house is accessed by a gravel laneway from Crewe Road at the east via decorative cast-iron gates supported on roughcast rendered piers with painted pyramidal caps.

Historical Context

The parish of Glenavy comprises a low-lying fertile agricultural area to the east of Lough Neagh. The upper part of the parish gives way to hilly pasture. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–3 shows the area dotted with cottages and farmsteads, and it has remained largely agricultural to the present day. A contemporary topographical survey of 1837 found that "the soil is well cultivated, and there is very little waste land or bog". A quarterly fair held in Glenavy town was principally for horned cattle and pigs, and there was additional income from the cotton and linen industries, with a large cotton mill in Glenavy and much flax spun and woven in the cottages.

The current house is sited within the better arable land in the district, lying between the 100 foot and 300 foot contours. The land below 100 feet was liable to flooding in winter, whilst that above 300 feet ran to pasture, furze and rough grazing. The entire area experienced population decline during the second half of the nineteenth century as people drifted from rural districts into Belfast, leaving often only the older generation to work the farmland.

A small rectangular structure is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–3, which had been extended to the east and west by the time of the second edition in 1858. A smaller structure, possibly an outbuilding, is shown to the south. More recent maps show that the outbuilding was extended to the west and a bungalow was built on the plot in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Griffith's Valuation of 1862 shows that the occupier, John Clarke, rented his small farm of just over 19 acres and the farmhouse from the Marquess of Hertford. The house and outbuildings were valued at £1 15 shillings, a standard valuation for a simple vernacular dwelling. The house presently on the site appears to be a rather more substantial structure than this valuation suggests, and it is possible that the house was raised at some point in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The building, along with its traditionally constructed outbuildings, forms an interesting group and exemplifies how vernacular architecture in the area was adapted to the changing needs of rural life. However, it does not meet the criteria for listing, and there are better examples listed elsewhere in the area.