14 Main Street, Forkhill, Newry, Co Armagh, BT35 9SQ

14 Main Street, Forkhill, Newry, Co Armagh BT35 9SQ

A much altered two-storey, three-bay house with outbuildings to rear. Although prominently sited in the village, the house and associated outbuildings are not of special architectural or historic interest.

The house is aligned east-west and set below and to the east of Main Street, bound to the east by the Forkhill River. It has a pitched natural slate roof with two cement-dashed and painted chimneys, one to each gable. Overhanging boxed eaves carry ogee aluminium rainwater goods. The principal elevation faces south with cement-dashed and painted walls, a smooth rendered base course and bands to each corner. At the centre is a semicircular headed entrance with smooth cement rendered surround, fitted with a modern varnished timber door with matching glazed timber sidelights and a sunburst fanlight above. To either side are 8/8 uPVC top-hung casements (mimicking sashes) with concrete cills and smooth rendered surrounds. Three similar windows are aligned above on the first floor. The left gable is blank. The rear elevation is almost completely abutted by a two-storey return; the exposed section is blank. The right gable has a 6/6 top-hung casement to first floor right.

The rear return is detailed as the main block. Its left (west) facing elevation has a landscape window to ground floor centre and a window to first floor right. The rear elevation has a landscape side-hung casement to ground floor left, a modern door to right of centre, and a small window to right-end. The first floor has two windows, one to centre and one to right-end. The right (east) facing elevation has two windows to each floor, all 8/8 casements. Its right-end is completely abutted by a single-storey conservatory with monopitched natural slate roof. The south cheek has a modern uPVC door, the principal east face is four windows wide, the north cheek is blank, and the west face has a pair of French doors.

Beyond the domestic yard to rear are a number of outbuildings with rubble stone walls and pitched natural slate roofs unless otherwise stated. These include a gardener's house (now roofless), a barn, and a granary.

The barn is aligned east-west and encloses the domestic rear yard to the north. It is two-storey with numerous timber louvred openings and a rendered and painted south face. Its right gable has a loading door and three square recesses to ground floor. The rear (north) elevation has two six-panelled timber doors, one to ground floor left and one to first floor right. The right-end is abutted by the granary.

The gardener's house is single-storey, two-bay, and aligned north-south to the east side of the yard. It is now roofless with a brick chimney to each gable. At the centre is a tongue-and-groove sheeted door flanked by a 2/2 sliding sash window. Its left gable is abutted by a lower animal house with pitched corrugated metal roof. The rear elevation and right gable are blank.

The granary is on the west side of the yard and is two-storey with a hipped natural slate roof. Its rear elevation backs onto Main Street. The principal elevation faces east and is abutted to the left-end by the barn. The ground floor has three semicircular headed door openings, that to left being infilled. The first floor has two window openings and a loading door to right-end. The right gable has a large door opening accessed by a ramp. The rear elevation has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door to right-end. The left gable has two louvered openings.

The house is prominently sited to the northwest of Forkhill Bridge on entry into the village. It is enclosed to Main Street and rear by a rubble stone wall with stone copings. A pair of finely dressed granite gate piers of square section with trefoil recesses in the copings support arrow-headed wrought-iron railings. A pair of similarly detailed gates are hung on decorative birdcage pillars with matching trefoil recesses in copings.

Although a building is shown here on the 1835 Ordnance Survey map, the existing ground plan does not appear until 1907, indicating a later 19th century rebuild. However, as the Valuation plot could not be determined, the precise date of this change could not be ascertained from the Valuation Revision books. The building is recorded as dating from 1880 to 1899.