Survey Data
Reg No
41307016
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Railway station
In Use As
Office
Date
1855 - 1900
Coordinates
271963, 320647
Date Recorded
05/03/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached multiple-bay single-storey former railway station, built 1860, extended c.1890, with projecting gable-fronted two-storey bay towards middle, and with projecting gable-fronted single-storey end-bay to east, and having signal box to west end. Now in use as office. Pitched slate roof with sections of concrete tiles to east bay pitches, grey clayware ridge tiles, painted timber bargeboards to gables, and replacement rainwater goods. Rendered walls to all elevations except trackside elevation. Coursed limestone walling to track-side elevation with tooled ashlar block-and-start quoins and chamfered plinth. Exposed brick and timber to signal cabin. Rendered walls elsewhere. Triangular-arch openings with chamfered sandstone surrounds and sills, windows having four-over-four pane and two-over-two horizontally-paned horned timber sliding sash windows; pointed-arch openings to track-side elevation of first floor of projecting middle bay, with sandstone hood-mouldings and block-and-start surrounds and sills, and three-pane timber casement windows. Square-headed window opening to ground floor of same, with sandstone hood-moulding and rubble stone relieving arch. Two-bay two-storey signal-box attached to west end of station, having pitched slate roof with timber barge-boards having spearhead finial and pinnacle to west; red brick walls laid in stretcher bond to ground floor, timber-framed upper floor with battened timber walls and having segmental-arch window openings to ground floor and pseudo-three-centred windows to upper floor. Replacement double-leaf door towards east end of building and replacement metal door to yard side elevation. Platform and tracks to north. Former stationmaster's house (41307007) to south of station.
Appraisal
Ballybay Station is a good example of a small-town railway station. Its historic significance lies in its architectural merit and in its social and economic importance to the town in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Despite evident alterations to the building, perhaps necessitated by its adaptation since the closure of the railway, the building retains its scale and architectural composition. The building has been constructed in a fashion typical of the Victorian era and the fine masonry skills, including decorative hood-mouldings of sandstone, demonstrate the status for which the building was intended. The building's merit as part of a group of railway structures which retain their setting further enhances the appeal and appreciation of this attractive station building.