Water Superintendent’s house, Silent Valley Reservoir, Head Rd, Annalong, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4RR

Water Superintendent's House, Silent Valley Reservoir

This is a two-storey, three-bay granite dwelling of L-plan built in 1900, designed by L. L. Macassey, Engineer to the Belfast City and District Water Commissioners, and constructed by P. McAleenan, a Castlewellan building contractor. The house demonstrates considerable formal architectural character through its style, proportion, understated embellishment, and functional plan form, making it distinctive in an area otherwise characterised by vernacular buildings.

The walls are constructed of squared and coursed granite rubble over a chamfered plinth, with finely dressed quoins. The gabled roof is covered in natural slates with projecting gable copings rising from moulded knee stones, and cast-iron rainwater goods set over projecting eaves courses. Stepped ashlar chimneys stand at each end of the main section of roof. The building is dated by an inscription reading '1900' on the projecting left-hand gable.

A shallow projecting return extends from the left end of the south-facing elevation. A slated veranda supported by three red-painted cast-iron columns runs across the south elevation, with the main entrance positioned at its west end adjoining the return. The entrance features a plain timber door with finely dressed jambs. All windows on the south elevation have finely dressed segmental heads and jambs, splayed cills, and 2/2 sliding sashes. The ground floor contains paired windows on either side of the door; the first floor has three single lights, one of which sits within the gabled section at left. The west elevation contains a single ground floor window at the right-hand side and two symmetrically placed first floor windows, detailed as on the south elevation. The north (rear) elevation includes a gable to the right-hand end and a small single-storey flat-roofed extension off-centre towards the right, fitted with a modern top-hung casement window. Single-storey outbuildings abut the left-hand ground floor, with a modern timber-sheeted door centrally located in the left-hand bay and two windows (detailed as for the south elevation) to the first floor. A high rear wall encloses a yard containing single-storey monopitched buildings abutting the east and west walls; the western building projects beyond the dwelling line and incorporates a chimney. Vehicular entrance doors pierce the back wall of the yard.

The original internal room configuration and original features are respected. The house retains its original features throughout.

The building holds considerable historical and group value in its association with Belfast's water supply scheme. It was constructed to house the superintendent who would oversee the Silent Valley Reservoir, which formed part of the Belfast City and District Water Commissioners' Mourne Scheme to supply Belfast with water. From 1901, water was diverted off the Kilkeel and Annalong Rivers to supply the conduit. Construction difficulties with the dam across the Kilkeel River (the Silent Valley) led to the abandonment of the Dunnywater Reservoir proposal.