This is a small cottage near Trillick on the border
of Fermanagh and Tyrone, photographed about midday on 6 August
2001. It is not a listed building, nor would we suggest that it
should be, but it is not without interest. Its owner believes
it was built about 1790, and was the gatelodge to an earlier large
house that was destroyed in the 1920s. He has enjoyed living in
it as it had "a good atmosphere", and he had improved
it over the years with new plaster, floors and (sadly) windows,
and it was capacious and apparently fit. However to meet the mandatory
fitness requirements it would have had to have a ground floor
on one level and a kitchen with a particular layout. The owner
would have qualified for a £25,000 improvement grant, but
with the payment of VAT on any repairs this would have been effectively
£10,000 less than the £30,000 grant offered by the
NI Housing Executive for a replacement dwelling. Expecting to
stay in the house for another ten years or so, he decided to opt
for the larger grant with the prospect of a house "guaranteed"
(against what - aircraft impact? - subsidence?) for ten years
and supposedly requiring no maintenance during that period.
Look at the picture above again. The owner was living in that house the week before the picture was taken. Over the weekend he had moved into the new bungalow on the right. The following week, the hedge would be removed to create DoE-approved sightlines for the new bungalow, and instead of being discretely hidden it will be yet another glaringly obvious new bungalow in our countryside.
But the demolition contractor has arrived. Now click on the right hand picture below, and keep clicking to the end of the story...
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