Enagh House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1860, with attached two-bay two-storey block to rear on north-east side. Square on plan facing south-east and located on mature landscaped grounds overlooking Enagh Lough to the northwest of Clooney Road. Currently subdivided into self-contained flats.

Hipped natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and four rendered chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots. Moulded cast-iron guttering to sheeted overhanging eaves and cast-iron downpipes. Painted rough-cast rendered walling with smooth rendered quoins. Square-headed window openings with sandstone sills and 6/6 timber sliding sash windows having slender convex horns and some cylinder glass.

Front symmetrical (south-east) elevation is three bays wide and has a central single-storey flat-roofed square-plan entrance porch with square-headed door opening to the right cheek having timber panelled door. Door opens onto single stone step to front gravel area.

Side (south-west) elevation is four windows wide to first floor with a single-storey three-sided canted bay window to the right and a replacement multi-pane timber lean-to conservatory to the left.

Multi-bay rear (north-west) elevation with advanced two-storey hipped roof section to the left abutted by a single-storey hipped roof return which is in turn abutted by a small lean-to projection. Various window configurations including Wyatt type window to the right and some 4/4 timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed door opening to the centre with replacement timber panelled door and sidelight. Door opens onto a paved rear yard enclosed by a rendered wall and a single-storey hipped roof structure aligned parallel with the rear wall.

Side (north-east) elevation is abutted to right by a two-storey hipped roof block; exposed section to left has a central single-storey three-sided canted bay window to ground floor flanked to each side at first floor by single 6/6 timber sliding sash windows.
South-east face of two-storey block has a 4/4 timber sliding sash window to right to each floor and a door to left at ground level with a further replacement timber panelled door to first floor left accessed by an external steel stair. North-east face has an 8/8 timber sliding sash window to ground floor right and a window opening to ground and first floor left (both obscured at time of survey).

Setting:
Set within mature landscaped grounds overlooking Lough Enagh to the front and rear. The house is accessed via a gravel laneway opening onto Judges Road via a pair of iron gates hung on octagonal cast iron piers. To the north of the house is a range of altered two-storey and single-storey rubble schist outbuildings with corrugated iron and natural slate roofs. Window and door openings are dressed in red brick. A further single-storey former pig shed is located further to the north and is now utilised by a fishing club. A scheduled church/graveyard (LDY014:015) is located a short distance to the north-east.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Painted rough-cast render
Windows Timber sliding sash

Historical information

Located in the townland of Templetown, Enagh Lodge was built around 1860 by Adam Murray Alexander. No buildings are shown on the site on either the 1830 or 1853 Ordnance Survey maps. Nearby is the old graveyard of Enagh containing the ruins of a medieval church. It has been suggested that the site of the house may have been deliberately chosen so that it could enjoy the views of the ruined church.

The house appears as a new entry in the first volume of the Valuation Revision Books where it is listed as the property of Adam Murray Alexander. No date is indicated, but the entry would have been written in the early 1860s. The buildings on the site are given a valuation of £25. Adam Murray Alexander was from a family with long-established connections with the north-west. He was the son of John Alexander (d. 1852) and Hannah Murray (d. 1814), a descendant of Col. Adam Murray, one of the defenders of Derry during the siege of 1689. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was a barrister and Judge of the Supreme Court of British Guiana – Judges Road, the road on which Enagh Lodge stands, was presumably named on account of this.

The construction of Enagh Lodge occurred around the same time that a deed was issued (1862) by which the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners conveyed the townlands of Enagh, Templetown and Stradreagh More (in all, some 469 acres) to Alexander forever, subject to a perpetual yearly rent of £104 3s. 7d.

Adam Murray Alexander died in 1874 and was buried in the nearby Enagh graveyard where his tombstone states that he was of ‘Enagh Lodge’. He was unmarried and his property passed to his nephew, Charles Murray Alexander. By 1880 the occupier of the house was Charles Armstrong Smyth. Surviving from 11 May 1895 is a lease of Enagh Lodge from Lieutenant Colonel Charles Murray Alexander to Charles and Mary Charlotte Armstrong Smyth. An entry of 1897 in the Valuation Revision Books indicates that the house was improved and extended at a cost of £700. The valuation of the buildings was consequently raised to £40.

Charles Armstrong Smyth died in 1906 at Monte Carlo and the property passed to his widow, Mary. She died in 1920 at Mentone in France. The house subsequently passed into the possession of the Hill family. In the mid 1980s the house was divided into flats. At this time an external steel staircase was constructed to provide access to first floor flats. In addition, repairs were carried out to the chimneys and roof. In 1995 approval was given to demolish the gate lodge and build a chalet on the site.

References

Primary sources
1. PRONI, Griffith’s Valuation, 1858
2. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/14/1
3. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1853 – OS/6/5/14/2
4. PRONI, Valuation map, c. 1908–c.1918, VAL/12/D/5/14D (based on Ordnance Survey map published in 1907)
5. PRONI, Ordnance Survey map, 1933, OS/6/5/14/4
6. PRONI, Ordnance Survey map, 1954, OS/6/5/14/5
7. PRONI, Ordnance Survey map, 1964, OS/6/5/14/6
8. PRONI, Valuation Revision Books, 1860-1930, VAL/12/B/32/12A-F
9. PRONI, First Northern Ireland General Revaluation Books: Annual Revision Lists, 1936-57 – VAL/3/C/6/9
10. PRONI, Valuers and Revaluation Binders, 1956-75 – VAL/4/C/6/3/14/7
11. PRONI, Lease from Lieutenant Colonel Charles Murray Alexander to Charles Armstrong Smyth and Mary Charlotte Armstrong Smyth, both of Stradreagh, Co. Londonderry, and of Dunninald Castle, Co. Forfar, of Enagh Lodge, Co. Londonderry, 11 May 1895, D4121/F/2/A/3
12. NIEA, First Survey Card
13. NIEA, HB Records

Secondary sources
1. Burke’s Family Records (1976)
2. Daniel Calley, City of Derry: An Historical Gazetteer to the Buildings of Londonderry (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013)

Online sources
1. PRONI, Will Calendars: www.proni.gov.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A substantial detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1860, extended c.1890s and subsequently converted into flats in the mid 1980s. Rectangular on plan with attached two-bay two-storey block to rear on north-east side. The building displays many external characteristics typical of the style and proportions of a building of this type. The internal sub-division into flats has resulted in the alteration of the internal layout and loss of some detailing although the surviving internal fabric is of good quality. It is a good example of a rural mid nineteenth-century house on extensive landscaped grounds overlooking Lough Enagh to the east and west. Its setting which includes fine iron entrance gates and the nearby scheduled church and graveyard (LDY014:015) adds to its interest.