41 Edendarriff Road, Ballynahinch, Co Down

A complex comprising a water attendant's dwelling and a lime dosing plant with airwell.

Water Attendant's House

A one and a half storey, two bay dwelling positioned on the west side of the road, with its gable facing the road. The building is rectangular in plan, orientated east-west.

The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with plain painted wooden bargeboards, moulded concrete kneeler stones, and ogee cast-iron gutters. A distinctive and attractive red brick chimney rises from the centre of the ridge, finished with yellow brick stepped quoins and a matching cap.

The walls are constructed from squared rubble Silurian stone in irregular courses over a projecting basal course. Yellow brick is used in projecting eaves, stepped quoins, and along the top of the base course. Windows and door openings are trimmed with yellow brick heads and jambs featuring stepped reveals and stop-end chamfers. All window openings have shallow segmental heads and chamfered painted cills, likely concrete. The windows are 2/2 timber-framed sliding sashes unless otherwise noted.

The main facade faces north. At the left is a one-storey porch with pitched natural slate roof, raised yellow brick verges, and concrete kneelers. Four granite steps and two concrete steps lead up to a painted tongue-and-groove boarded door set in the left cheek, with a small electric light above. A window is set in the west-facing gable wall of the porch; the right cheek is blank. To the right of the porch, on the main block wall, is a single window. The wall continues rightward to enclose a yard.

The east gable has two window openings at ground floor level and two at attic floor level aligned vertically. The south wall is blank except for a single window to a bathroom at ground floor left. An electric light is affixed at the right corner and a satellite dish at the left.

The west gable is abutted on its left side by a single-storey monopitched return along the inside of the yard's north wall. This has an artificial slate roof and plastic gutters, with a window to a half landing above and a window to a back bedroom above right—a modern 1/1 top-hung plastic replacement of the original sash.

The yard projects south and west of the dwelling, with its entrance on the east wall. The yard wall is similar to the dwelling in construction and yellow-brick trim, coped with rock-faced blocks. The original wide entrance now has smooth render infill with a small sliding metal garage door inserted. Square masonry gate pillars flank the original opening, each with yellow brick quoins and projecting flat concrete caps. A boiler flue projects from the west wall of the yard.

Lime Dosing Plant and Airwell

Just north of the house stands a four-stage square tower built from quarried random Silurian rubble masonry, all strap-pointed. (An original drawing indicates it is in fact stone-faced reinforced concrete.) Each stage is delineated by a flush granite platband. The walls are plain except for a small circular ventilator on the top stage of the west wall and a roller-shuttered door on the east wall. The date '1985' is inscribed on a plaque set into the second stage on this wall. A low yard wall abuts the north wall, with a metal door at the east and a communications aerial at the west.

A short distance north of the dosing plant, lying on the actual pipeline, is an airwell. Measuring approximately 3 by 2.5 metres in plan and 75 centimetres high, it is constructed from reinforced concrete with a crowned roof containing a metal inspection lid.