241 Moira Road, Broughmore, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 2TU

A detached two-bay one and a half storey rendered local authority house built around 1910, representing a typical example of early twentieth-century public housing retaining all original fabric but in an advanced state of disrepair.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing north, with a front entrance porch and lean-to to the rear, set on the south side of Moira Road within its own site. The pitched natural slate roof is finished with clay ridge tiles and cement verges. Two redbrick chimneystacks sit at either gable end, supported by decorative timber brackets and moulded timber bargeboards. Cast-iron guttering sits on a timber fascia with timber sheeted eaves and cast-iron downpipes. The walling is painted rendered with ruled and lined finish and a projecting render plinth course.

The front elevation comprises two bays with square-headed window openings featuring painted masonry sills and 6/6 timber sash windows with ogee horns. A gable-fronted entrance porch abuts the main elevation, topped with a terracotta ball finial to its pitched roof. The door opening faces west and retains its original sheeted and glazed timber door. The east gable contains a pair of window openings to the upper level. The rear elevation has a single window opening to the right and is abutted by a rendered redbrick lean-to with felt-covered roof and sheeted timber door. The west gable has two window openings to the upper level and a single slender window opening to the ground floor containing a 4/4 timber sash window.

The house sits within a small front garden enclosed by a hedgerow and a pair of wrought-iron gates on iron posts.

The house was constructed in 1911 by Lisburn Rural District Council and was valued at £1 10s. It was purchased outright from the council in 1911 by James Johnston, a 34-year-old Methodist farm labourer who lived there with his wife Mary and their three young children. The 1911 Census Building Return describes it as a second-class private dwelling containing five rooms with a fowl house and shed as its only outhouses. The house first appears on the Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1920-21.

This dwelling is a typical example of the labourers' cottages built throughout Ireland following the Labourer's Acts, first passed in 1883. These acts enabled local authorities, including Lisburn Rural District Council, to construct over 50,000 new cottages for landless labourers with state financial assistance. In Ulster, just under 10,000 such cottages were built or improved between 1891 and 1911, although construction continued after Partition. Most were simple, functional dwellings constructed on the outskirts of major urban areas and villages.

The house has lain vacant for several years and has fallen into a state of dilapidation. A shed at the rear of the yard was formerly used as a religious meeting hall but has similarly fallen into ruin. Planning permission was granted in 2011 for the building to be replaced with a new dwelling.