95 Aughnagurgan Road, Newtownhamilton, Co Armagh BT35 0EB

This building was demolished prior to November 2021.

A detached two-storey three-bay former shop, built around 1932-33, stood at the corner junction of Blaney Road and Aughnagurgan Road, south-west of Newtownhamilton. The building was recorded in December 2019 before demolition.

The structure was a fine example of an early 20th century local shop, executed in a simplified late Arts and Crafts or Domestic Revival style. It displayed an attractive yet restrained, functional aesthetic appropriate to its commercial purpose, with ground-floor accommodation housing a shop and private accommodation above for the owner's use.

The pitched natural slate roof carried roll-top terracotta ridge tiles and two yellow brick gable chimneystacks with stepped masonry coping. Rainwater goods were a mixture of cast-iron and plastic, fixed to a plain timber fascia with timber bargeboards to the gable ends. The walling was mostly unpainted roughcast render with smooth render platband under the eaves and a smooth shallowly projecting plinth.

Square-headed window openings with plain reveals and projecting masonry sills contained multi-paned timber casement windows throughout. The symmetrical principal elevation faced east, with three windows to the first floor and the shop frontage to the ground floor. The shop frontage was finished in painted smooth render under a projecting moulded stringcourse, with mounted lettering reading 'J. GRAY & CO. LTD'. A centrally placed double-leaf timber door stood under an eight-paned transom, flanked by two window openings containing timber casements covered by metal mesh window grilles. The doorway and windows were recessed from the frontage with chamfered reveals to the surrounds, opening onto a concrete path at the front with steps to the south.

The south elevation had two first-floor windows with masonry lintels, plain reveals and projecting sills, covered by wrought-iron window bars, with remnants of an original cast-iron downpipe affixed to the walling. The ground floor accommodated a hipped one-storey extension with matching decoration.

The north elevation featured a decorative painted timber bargeboard to the gable apex, two first-floor windows with masonry lintels, plain reveals and projecting sills, and a mono-pitched one-storey extension to the ground floor with matching decoration; a boarded-up timber sliding sash window was covered by wrought-iron window bars.

The rear (west) elevation contained a pitched one-and-a-half storey extension to the south and a two-storey flat-roofed rear return to the north. Several corrugated iron outbuildings stood to the rear, with the rear yard closed off by a corrugated iron gate to the south and a timber shed to the north. A gravelled space at the front gave directly onto Aughnagurgan Road.

The building occupied an elevated plot at the junction of Blaney Road and Aughnagurgan Road, with housing situated to the north and east. Its prominent siting on this elevated corner location commanded uncompromised views that would once have attracted business and ensured the building acted as a local landmark.

The shop first appeared in the valuation book in 1933, indicating construction in that year or within a year or two previously. It was recorded as a 'house, shop, office and yard' with 'small garden', in the ownership of James Gray & Co. and valued for rating purposes at £13-10-0. The owner was likely the same 'J. Gray & Co. Ltd.' of Castleblayney who advertised for a manager with knowledge of the ironmongery and hardware trade in April 1934, and was certainly the 'J. Gray & Co. Ltd., Altnamackin, South Co. Armagh' advertising stoves and surplus A.R.P. fire hoses in May 1946. According to the valuations, the shop itself appears to have remained open until at least 1957.

At the time of recording in December 2019, the vast majority of original external historic fabric remained in situ, most notably the shop frontage, multi-paned fenestration and signage, with the exception of several damaged windows. The building had been of significant social and economic importance to the local community, serving the surrounding farms and local families throughout much of the 20th century.