RECTORY

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached two-storey coursed rubble stone house, built 1825 to the designs of Edward Farrell. Square on plan facing South West with a single-storey hipped roof rough-cast render extension and stone outbuilding to the South East side and a single-storey stone return with a slate pitched roof to the NE side. Single-storey pitched-roof to the rear abuts a stone wall to the NE side which encloses rear courtyard.

Hipped slate roof with lead roll ridge has two rough-cast rendered chimneystacks to the SW and NE sides of ridge each having four terracotta clay pots. Cast-aluminium rainwater goods throughout. Deep over-hanging eaves. Coursed rubble squared stone walling with fine lime pointing, wedge-shaped stone voussoirs to window heads. Original 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with horns to ground and first floor level on painted masonry sills.

South West front elevation is three bays wide; three-sided canted bay on ground floor has a coupled 1/1 timber sliding sash window (with horns) to the front and a single of the same to each side, canted bay has a leaded roof with rolled ridges; slightly off-centre semi-circular arched doorway with integrated plain glazed side lights and a raised-and-field six-panel timber door with brass fittings and an Adam-style fanlight over; there is a 6/6 timber sliding sash window bay to the right side of doorway; first floor has two 6/6 timber sliding sashes, aligned with bays on ground floor. SW elevation to adjoining rough-cast rendered extension contains a stepped access link between extension and the main house, access link has a painted vertically sheeted timber door flanked by three-panel sidelights; SW elevation to extension has a large segmental arch headed multi-pane timber casement window. There is a high rough-cast rendered wall adjoined to the SE side of the extension containing a pair of vertically sheeted gates flanked by a high rough-cast rendered piers, walls abuts the NW side elevation to stone outbuilding; SW gable-end elevation to outbuilding has a blind red-brick bay at apex.

North West elevation of main house is three bays wide each having 6/6 timber sliding sashes on painted masonry sills.

North East elevation to the rear has a 6/6 timber sliding sash window to the right side on ground and first floor level; there is a blind bay on first floor level to the left side above adjoining stone rear return having a slate pitched roof, a small 6/3 timber sliding sash window with a rendered band surround to the NW elevation and a multi-pane uPVC window with a rendered band surround to the extension gable, SE side of rear return has a square-headed timber door to the right of a uPVC triple multi-pane window, SE side walling is of rough-cast render on a smooth-rendered plinth.

South-east side elevation of main house comprises of a large square-headed bay with a plain rendered surround on ground floor level having a pair of French uPVC doors flanked by large single pane sidelights with a rectangular transom light over. Left side of SE elevation is abutted by adjoining access link to rough-cast render extension. There are three square-headed windows on first floor level, each having a 6/6 timber sliding sash, left side bays are grouped with singular bay to the right side of the elevation.

Rough-cast rendered extension has a segmental arch headed window on the SE elevation and a pair of square-headed timber doors to the SW elevation.

The stone outbuilding is a linear structure with spans the length of the rear courtyard with a corrugated asbestos pitched roof; openings have either red-brick surrounds or stone wedge-shaped voussoirs; window bays have operational timber sliding sashes; there are a central pair of large vertically sheeted timber farm doors with original iron strap-hinges and galvanised lock bar, doors are set within a segmental red-brick arched opening; uPVC rainwater goods to outbuilding.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast-aluminium
Walling Stone / rough-cast render
Windows Timber sliding sash

Setting:
Located on a historically significant site to SW of St. Canice's Church (HB01/03/007), accessed via Mill Path, a tree-lined avenue just off Main Street within the historic Plantation village of Eglinton, formerly known as Muff. The present building was built on the site of the former castle (LDY 015:008). The ruins of the castle stood on the site until 1823 until the Rectory was built; the only remains of the castle today are said to be the cellars under the Rectory.

Historical information

The rectory 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. The site chosen for the rectory had been the location of the early seventeenth-century castle (LDY 015:008) built by the Grocers. (The 1905 Ordnance Survey map actually has the words ‘on site of castle’ after ‘Rectory’.)

The castle was demolished in 1824 and some of the materials were used in the construction of the rectory. Designs for the house were prepared by Edward Farrell, an architect in Bishop Street in Derry (who was paid £2 for the plans and travelling expenses), and the building contractor was Bernard Murray. The work had been completed by the end of 1825. The cost of building the rectory was reckoned to be £1,050.

The First Valuation of c.1835 identifies the house as the Glebe House which was then in the possession of Rev. John Conroy. The dimensions of the house were given as 35 feet square and 22 feet high with the valuer deciding to ‘settle at’ a valuation of £10. The rectory’s square plan is also shown on the 1830 Ordnance Survey map.

On the 1853 Ordnance Survey map, however, the structure is represented as a rectangular building, suggesting an extension to the original structure. Griffith’s Valuation (1858) shows that the buildings were valued at £13 10s. Following the departure of the Grocers’ Company in the late 1870s, the immediate lessor of the property becomes the Representative Church Body. At the time of the 1901 census the rector was the Rev. William Smith. The House and Building Return shows that the rectory had seven windows in front and there were eight rooms in occupation.

In 1994 a programme of renovation was carried out which included a general redecoration, repairs to the roof, renewal of the leadwork, repointing of chimneys and internal replastering and reflooring. In 2008 plans were submitted to demolish a modern flat-roofed extension to a corner of the front elevation that was used as a porch and study and to reinstate the original front bay and front door. The proposals also involved the construction of a new extension to the side and rear to replace an existing pitched-roof extension.

References

Primary sources
1. PRONI, First Valuation fieldbook, 1830s – VAL/1/B/550A
2. PRONI, Valuation Revision Books, 1860-1929 – VAL/12/B/32/6A-F
3. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/15/1
4. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1853 – OS/6/5/15/2
5. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1905 – OS/6/5/15/3
6. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1924 – OS/6/5/15/4
7. NIEA, First Survey Card
8. NIEA, HB Record

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

Online sources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects (www.dia.ie)
2. 1901 census: www.census.nationalarchives.ie
3. NI Sites and Monuments Record: LDY 015:008, accessed 17/12/2012 via Map Viewer on NIEA website: www.NIEAni.gov.uk

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

R. Age
T. Historic Importance
S. Authenticity
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Detached two-storey coursed rubble stone house, built 1825 to designs by Edward Farrell and located within a historically important Plantation village (formerly known as Muff). Square on plan with a single-storey stone gabled return to the NE side and single-storey hipped roof rough-cast rendered extension, added 2008, to the South East side. A well proportioned building with robust late Georgian detailing, including multi-paned sliding sashed windows and a distinctive fanlight above the entrance. Good interior, with original joinery. A new glazed opening to the rear is not sympathetic.
Set well back from Main Street behind a mature landscaped garden and hedging, it is accessed via double gates and a tree-lined driveway. A range of gabled rubble stone outbuildings significantly enhance its setting and form an enclosed yard together with a combination of rubble stone and rendered walling to the southeast.
Of historical importance as the present building was built on the site of the former castle (LDY 015:008); some remains of the castle are said to be the cellars under the Rectory. Group value with St Canice’s Church of Ireland (HB01.03.007) means it is also valuable from a social perspective to the local community within Eglinton village.