Lurgancanty House, 24 Lurgancanty Road, Lurgancanty TD, Warrenpoint, BT34 3QW

Lurgancanty House is a large two-storey farmhouse, probably built before 1834 and extensively remodelled and extended around 1910 to 1914, at which point the canted bay windows and porch appear to have been added and the roof replaced or raised.

SETTING

The house sits in a rural location approximately 4.85 kilometres north-northwest of Rostrevor, on the west side of a quiet, tree-lined stretch of country road. The east end of the house faces onto the roadside. To the south there is a long sloping garden enclosed by trees; to the north lies a collection of outbuildings arranged around a relatively small yard, with a larger farmyard beyond that. Historical maps suggest that the field to the north of the farmyard was a productive garden at least from the mid to later 19th century. A long north-to-south wooded area encloses the property to the west.

GENERAL APPEARANCE

The house is broadly rectangular in plan. The front (south-facing) elevation has full-height canted bay windows on either side of a single-storey porch. To the east (road-facing) gable there is a large single-storey lean-to, which appears to be used as a shed. To the rear there is a relatively small single-storey gabled projection.

The front walls are smooth rendered with quoins and a bevelled plinth. The gables are in plain render, the rear in roughcast, and the rear projection in lined render. The double-pitch roof has an overhang with exposed rafter ends and is covered in what appears to be natural slate with red clay ridge tiles. There are three rendered chimneystacks; the position of the second stack, which sits east of centre, may indicate the original extent of the house or at least marks a different phase of development. There is a metal skylight to the rear (north) side. The bay windows and other projections also have slate roofs, though some slates have fallen from the east lean-to. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and replacement PVC.

The east lean-to merges into a long single-storey gabled shed. To the west, the house is abutted by a small single-storey timber shed whose mono-pitched roof forms a catslide with a two-storey outbuilding to this side. This outbuilding meets another at a right angle, together enclosing the west and north sides of the small concrete yard at the rear of the house. The yard is enclosed to the east by the shed on that side and a vehicle gateway. To the north of the gateway is a further smaller single-storey shed. A larger farmyard lies beyond to the north.

FRONT (SOUTH) ELEVATION

The front elevation has an asymmetrical arrangement suggesting alteration on at least one occasion. There is a bay to the left and another to the centre-right, with the porch between them. Both bays have hipped roofs and three windows with timber sash frames to each floor; the upper-floor windows have segmental heads. Both bays also have cill courses to each floor and an intermediate course resembling a cornice, which runs across the main portion of the façade. The porch has a panelled timber door and a hipped roof that was originally flat. Directly above the porch is a somewhat squat window with a modern timber frame. At the right-hand (east) end of the main façade there are windows to each floor, both with mullioned and transomed timber frames. The elevation terminates to the east in the blank side wall of the lean-to.

EAST ELEVATION

The lean-to has a small window — its frame survives but there is no glazing — with a doorway fitted with a plain sheeted door to its right. Further right is the east face of the shed, which has a single window with a three-over-three timber sash frame. The exposed upper floor of the house gable is blank.

WEST ELEVATION

The ground floor is abutted by the timber shed described above. The exposed upper floor of the house gable is blank.

REAR (NORTH) ELEVATION

Like the front, the rear elevation is asymmetrical in arrangement, suggesting one or more alterations. To the far left there is a small window with a plain timber sash frame. To its right is a low doorway with a timber door, and to the right of that a slightly larger window with a similar frame. The gabled projection, positioned towards the centre-right, has a doorway on its east face and a window with a metal frame on its north (gabled) face. At first-floor level there are three roughly evenly spaced windows with two-over-two timber sash frames, along with a further window set at a slightly lower level — presumably serving the stairwell — with a mullioned and transomed timber frame. The upper-floor windows are considerably larger than those at ground-floor level.

OUTBUILDINGS

The two-storey outbuilding to the north of the yard appears to be largely rubble-built and is mainly limewashed, with a natural slate roof. Its south façade has a variety of randomly arranged openings at ground-floor level: three windows with metal frames and two doorways with timber sheeted doors. To the upper level there is a single loft doorway to the left. The rear (north, farmyard-facing) façade has several similar loft openings and a large full-height vehicle doorway to the far right (west).

The outbuilding on the west side of the yard is partly constructed in concrete block with what appears to be an asbestos tile roof. On its east façade at ground-floor level there is a doorway with a sliding door and a relatively large loft opening above.

The small shed at the northeast corner of the yard has a small window on its north façade and a doorway with a sheeted timber door on the west gable. To the south of this shed there is a lean-to that appears to be of concrete block construction with a corrugated-iron roof and a door and window on its south façade. Between this lean-to and the main two-storey outbuilding there is a further shed, constructed entirely in corrugated iron.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The 1834 Ordnance Survey map shows a building on this site with a similar plan to the present house but without the east lean-to, and quite possibly without the bay windows either. The 1835 valuation records the building as measuring 40 feet by 23 by 15, with an additional section of 15 by 23 by 14, and several outbuildings measuring 26 by 11 by 6, 21 by 17½ by 7½, 24 by 16½ by 5½, and 28 by 15 by 5½. A note in the valuation indicates that this last outbuilding was later replaced by one measuring 30 by 18 and two storeys in height.

Also belonging to the property at this time, located approximately 250 metres to the south of the house on the other side of the road along the Moygannon River, was a flax mill and store measuring 29½ by 18½ by 6 and 34½ by 17 by 6 respectively. The mill was noted as having a good situation and a good water supply. Despite this, it is not mentioned in the contemporary Ordnance Survey Memoir for Clonallan parish, nor is it marked on the 1834 map. At this date the whole property was in the hands of Jonathan Savage, who appears to have lived in the vicinity — if not on this exact site — since at least 1826.

By the 1860 Ordnance Survey map the single-storey lean-to to the east gable is shown, and the flax mill is specifically marked. Around 1861 the whole property had passed to William Savage. The valuation book of that year records the house dimensions as 13 yards by 8 by two storeys, 5 by 8 by two storeys, and 4 by 3 by one storey, with outbuildings of 8 by 4 by 1, 7 by 6 by 1, and 10 by 6 by 2. The flax mill's dimensions are not recorded at this point, but it is described as having four stocks and one bruising machine consisting of three rollers, working approximately eight months a year for ten hours a day.

William Savage appears to have died before 1864. By 1884 John Savage is recorded as the occupant. In 1889 the rateable value of the whole property was reduced from £19 to £16, and fell again in 1893 to £13, with valuers noting that the mill had been very little worked for some years. Subsequent valuation books indicate that it had fallen completely idle by around 1904, and it disappears entirely from the record in 1925.

At the time of the 1901 census, Mr Savage — a 41-year-old farmer — was living in the house with his wife and their six young children. The house was noted as a first-class dwelling with five rooms in use. In 1915 the rateable value of the house was raised from £6 to £10, indicating that work was carried out around that time. Given the present appearance of the building, this work is likely to have involved the replacement or raising of the roof — which earlier valuations suggest had been at two slightly differing levels — and the addition of the bay windows. The house is believed to have remained with the descendants of John Savage.