THE MANOR HOUSE,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay, two-storey rendered stone house, built c.1825. Rectangular on plan facing west with a two-storey castellated return abutting the rear, built c.1900 and three-storey water tower to the reentrant angle. Located on the south side of Main Street in the heart of Eglinton village, having a range of single and two-storey white-washed and rendered rubblestone outbuildings to the south arranged around two courtyards.

Hipped natural slate roofs with rolled lead ridges and uPVC guttering to bracketed overhanging eaves and a combination of cast-iron and uPVC downpipes. Cement rendered chimneystacks with clay pots. Ruled-and-lined cement render over rubblestone walling, partially exposed to the rear elevation, with stone-encrusted paneled quoins to the north elevation and return only. Largely original 6/6 timber sliding sash windows, without horns and much cylinder glass on cut stone sills. Early twentieth-century timber casement windows to the return.

Principal west elevation is three windows wide and abutted to the right by a single storey flat-roofed canted bay window having margin lights to the 4/4 timber sash windows. The left bay is lit by a tripartite timber sliding sash window (2/2,6/6,2/2). Round-arched central door opening with flat four panelled timber door flanked by fixed sidelights and surmounted by a spoked and webbed timber fanlight with cylinder glass. Door opens onto a stone step within a small garden facing the side elevation to the former courthouse (HB01/03/009).

Secondary north elevation (to Main Street) is two windows wide with a tripartite timber sliding sash window to ground floor left and a round-arched door opening to the right with timber doorcase, as per above, housing a flush-panelled timber door with reeded detailing. Door opens onto large stone step to small gravel front area enclosed to the road by a low rendered wall and wrought-iron railings.

East rear elevation abutted by two-storey return and further projection to the reentrant angle with a water tower rising by a further level, built c.1900. Roof hidden behind castellated parapet wall with cast-iron hoppers and downpipes breaking through at its base.

The south side elevation is abutted by a lower two-storey white-washed rubblestone wing, while the south elevation to the return runs flush to this elevation and is three windows wide. The side elevation has exposed rubblestone walling with red brick flue to the centre and a rendered chimneystack rising through the eaves.

Outbuildings:
East block: Attached two-storey three-bay, rubblestone building, slated hip roofed with single storey, facet roofed with rolled lead ridges link block to main house. East elevation thin lime render on rubblestone with single storey lean to to south end, south and west elevations, unpainted render, plain and ruled and lined respectively. Windows to east, single glazed, latticed iron casement lights, to west, replacement side hung and top hung timber multi paned casements.

West block: Attached two-storey two-bay, rendered hip roofed with rolled lead ridges, stepping down to linear single storey, rendered to west, thin lime rendered to east, replacement timber casement windows, single storey lean-to to two-storey portion on east side.

South block: West block turns at right angles into south block, one-and-a-half-storey, hipped and slated stable block with rooflights and replacement windows adjacent stable doors with large rectangular stain glass overlights and half dormer hoist door slated with slated cheeks, to south elevation. A rendered chimney to either end. Half dormer hoist door at east end as previous. North elevation, four segmental arched double door openings, brick and rubblestone thin lime rendered, replacement doors with infill top to arch, window to either side of these openings, replacement casements.

South range:
Brick and rubblestone linear range, two-storey stepping down to single storey outbuildings, hipped slate roofs with clay ridge tiles. Range lime washed to north and uncoated to north. Schist rubblestone wall linking outbuildings next to main house to south range outbuildings on west side of yard.

Setting:
Located on a landscaped site to the south of Main Street in the centre of Eglinton village. Small area to the north and garden to the east are enclosed to the road by a low rendered wall with cut stone coping and cast-iron railings with matching iron gates supported on tooled sandstone piers. Main vehicular entrance to the east providing access to the southernmost yard via a gravel drive. Small rear garden to the south enclosed by three ranges of white-washed outbuildings having hipped natural slate roofs and largely sheeted timber doors. The garden is enclosed to the east by a two-storey building with white-washed rubblestone walling and bipartite latticed iron casement windows to the east elevation, cement rendered to the west with replacement timber casement windows. The southernmost yard is enclosed by white-washed outbuildings with some original flagstones and cobbles to vehicular entrances and some remaining timber sliding sash windows. This yard is enclosed to the west by a tall rubblestone wall with an arched opening to an orchard area to the west.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron / uPVC
Walling Ruled-and-lined cement render over rubblestone
Windows Original timber sash / timber casement

Historical information

The Manor House in Eglinton was built as part of the improvements carried out in the village, then called Muff, by its landlords, the Grocers’ Company of London, in the 1820s and 1830s. Curl (p. 168), writing in the mid 1980s, described it as ‘a reticent two-storey building of stucco with stone dressings, sash windows, a hipped roof, and elegant fan-lights.’

The building was originally intended to be the village inn, but never served as such. In 1825, William Campbell was paid £5 for plans for the inn. He may have been the draughtsman, rather than an architect. Curl (p. 168) suggests that the general arrangement and designs of most of the new buildings in Eglinton was the work of Charles Warner, the Grocers’ agent, and Richard Fowler, a land surveyor.

In 1827, it was used as the headquarters of a Grocers’ deputation visiting the estate and in that year a stable block to the rear was built. It was also agreed that the inn would not be let until further improvements had been made. The structure is marked, but not named on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map.

A report of the estate from 1835 noted that the inn ‘has not yet been employed as such [but] serves as an occasional residence for the agent, Charles Warner Esq., and a permanent one for the sub-agent.’ In July of that year, by which time the agent and sub-agent were, respectively, John Wiggins and his son Henry, it was proposed that the inn would be altered to provide more suitable accommodation for the sub-agent.

The original entry in the First Valuation fieldbook, dating from c. 1835, lists the occupiers of the building as ‘Cuthbert [the sub-agent] & Warner’. However, these names were crossed out and replaced by that of Henry Wiggins (no date is recorded for this change). The building is recorded as such:

Building Code Length Breadth Height
House 1B+ 49½ 30 25
House 1B+ 20 14½ 16

The fact that two houses were listed might possibly be interpreted as referring to the main house and a return. The valuation of the building was given as £32 5s. 6d. The Ordnance Survey Memoir of Faughanvale of 1838 noted that the building cost £1,200 and made the comment that ‘The offices and internal accommodations are excellent.’

In Griffith’s Valuation the property was in the possession of Henry Wiggins and the buildings were valued at £28. Following his purchase of much of the Grocers’ Company estate in 1877, Scotsman James Davidson moved into the Manor House. Davidson was from Murlingden, Brechin, Forfarshire. He died in Cork in 1881 and the Manor House passed to his son Charles John Lloyd Davidson, a major in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

The 1901 census return shows that the house was the home of 78-year-old Margaret Jane Davidson, James Davidson’s widow, who lived there with a cook and a parlour maid. The House and Building return indicates that the house possessed 10-12 rooms and had 10 windows in front; it was rated in the first class. The Valuation Revision Book shows that the value of the buildings was increased from £28 to £40 in 1901. This was probably due to the construction of the castellated return on the east side.

In 1911, there were no Davidsons resident in Eglinton on the night of the census and the Manor House would appear to have been occupied by William McGlinchy, a land steward, and his family. (In 1901, McGlinchy was the coachman at the Davidsons’ other house at Fallowlea.) At this time the House and Building return indicates that the house had 13 or more rooms and 12 windows in front, these changes probably due in part to the construction of the additional return at the beginning of the twentieth century.

C.J.L. Davidson died in 1941 and was succeeded by his son K.B.L. Davidson. In the early 1980s part of the building was converted for use as an art gallery and craft shop, while today bed and breakfast facilities are offered. In 1993 repairs to the castellated extension were carried out, including the recovering of the flat roof and dry rot treatment.

References

Primary sources:

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
First Valuation fieldbook, c. 1835 – VAL/1/B/550A
Valuation Revision Books, 1860-1929 – VAL/12/B/32/6A-F
First Northern Ireland General Revaluation Books, 1935 – VAL/3/B/6/7
First Northern Ireland General Revaluation Books: Annual Revision Lists, 1936-57 – VAL/3/C/6/8
Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/15/1
Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1853 – OS/6/5/15/2
Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1905 – OS/6/5/15/3

Northern Ireland Environment Agency
First Survey record – HB/01/03/010
HB Records – HB/01/03/010

Secondary sources:

Published sources
James Stevens Curl, The Londonderry Plantation, 1609-1914 (Chichester, 1986)
Alan Rogers, The Twice-Born Village: Muff Eglinton (Co. Londonderry) (New University of Ulster, 1984)
Angélique Day & Patrick McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, vol. 36 (Belfast, 1996)
Alistair J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979)
Brian Mitchell, Historic Eglinton (1994)

Online sources
Dictionary or Irish Architects: www.dia.ie
1901 and 1911 census (www.census.nationalarchives.ie)
www.themanorhouseeglinton.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

T. Historic Importance
U. Historic Associations
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered stone house, located on the south side of Main Street in Eglinton village and built c.1825 as part of the improvements carried out in the village, then called Muff, by its landlords, the Grocers’ Company of London to designs by William Campbell. The building was originally intended to be the village inn, but never served as such. Instead, it served as an occasional residence for the agent and a permanent residence for the sub-agent of the Company before being converted into a single dwelling in 1877.
Rectangular on plan facing west with a two-storey castellated return abutting the rear, added c.1900 and three-storey water tower to the reentrant angle. Occupying a prominent position, the Manor House represents the most substantial nineteenth-century structure in the centre of the village. The house retains its original external appearance including much original fabric to the interior in addition to retaining an impressive range of outbuildings on a mature landscaped site. The boundary walls and railings, together with gates at the entrance and around the various outbuildings, significantly enhance the character of its setting.