Former gardener's house Tandragee Road Lissummon Co.Armagh BT35 6LW

A single storey, three-bay former gardener's house, built around 1875, stands on the west side of Tandragee Road, three miles south of Poyntzpass, County Armagh. It was constructed within the grounds of St Mary's Church of Ireland, located to the northwest.

The house is built of rubblestone with painted lime render and cement render in places. It has a hipped natural slate roof (replacement) with decorative fish-scale slates to the front (north-east) and side (south-east) slopes. A red brick chimney occupies the centre of the roof, now collapsed. The building incorporates a single storey rear return with a pitched roof, and features exposed rafter ends to projecting eaves.

The front elevation (north-east) presents a symmetrical three-bay façade with a projecting gabled porch to the centre. Either side of the porch are window openings containing 3/3 timber sliding sash windows, some with glazing missing, currently behind corrugated iron sheeting. Hood moulds surmount the front window openings, with brick exposed beneath the painted render. The porch itself is cement rendered with fish-scale slates to its roof. A tall cement-rendered plinth extends below window cill level across the front.

The side elevation (north-west) has a single window opening to the centre of the front block, with remnants of a timber sliding sash window. There is no hood mould. The tall cement-rendered plinth continues here. The rear return façade contains a single window opening with remnants of a metal-framed window. The rear elevation (south-west) shows the main block abutted to the left by the single storey return, which has a door opening with a timber-sheeted door. The south-east elevation appears to be a blind façade, largely obscured by vegetation at the time of survey.

The house was first valued in 1875 as the residence of John Gibson, leased from Reverend John H Townsend, the then incumbent of St Mary's Church. It first appeared on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906, positioned within the church curtilage and alongside the main Newry road. Although its character resembles a gate lodge, no direct access route to the church or parsonage ran beside it, though a footpath to the church existed some 80 feet away.

At the 1911 census, the house was occupied by William McGivern, a gardener, who leased it from Reverend Nelson. The building then contained two rooms and housed McGivern, his wife, and seven children. The First General Revaluation of the 1930s recorded the dwelling as comprising a kitchen, bedroom, scullery and store, with cement floors and plaster ceilings. The valuer described it as a "very fair little place" and noted it was occupied rent-free in exchange for services. The house remained in church ownership through at least the 1950s, occupied by a succession of tenants.

The dwelling is located off a wide layby on the main Tandragee Road, with St Mary's Church of Ireland to the south-east, with a field between. Former vernacular dwellings and outbuildings stand immediately to the west. The house is recorded in the register of historic monuments as an example of historic building of local interest, but is assessed as being of insufficient special interest to meet the criteria for listing.