St Margaret's Rectory

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-bay two-storey-over-basement detached former Rectory with attic, pre-dating 1830 and remodelled in the Gothic style c.1840; situated to the north side of Crevolea Road in Aghadowey, south of Coleraine. Rectangular footprint to original Georgian house with small return to rear, extended c.1840 to incorporate canted ends to north and south and a two-storey gabled block to rear, creating an L-shaped plan. Two-storey gabled bay and single-storey porch to front (c.1840) forming an L-shaped projection; gabled bay abutted by a two-storey extension with hipped roof (lower); and shallow two-storey flat-roof extension to rear.

Steep hipped natural slate roof with leaded ridges and hips; plain bargeboards to gables. Three rendered chimneystacks having two tall clay pots and paired chamfered shafts; plain rendered chimneystack to gabled block to rear. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on projecting eaves with box eaves; cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. Walling is painted ruled-and-lined render with plinth course and raised quoins. Windows are a variety of refurbished Gothic multi-paned double-hung timber casements, in blocked stucco surrounds with projecting painted sills; those to first floor have cusped glazing bars and margin panes in square reveals (unless otherwise stated); those to ground floor of canted bays are bipartite cusped Y-tracery Gothic-arched casements with quatrefoil and coloured glass panes in pointed-headed reveals.

The principal elevation faces east; two-storey gabled bay to right of centre abutted at left cheek by the single-storey porch and to east by the two-storey extension. To right of gabled bay is a window at first floor and a window with carved spandrels at ground floor; to left are two bipartite cusped Y-tracery windows to first floor and a window to ground floor. Extension has profiled multi-paned window to first floor over Gothic multi-paned window with margin panes and carved spandrels. Porch is surmounted by decorative cast-iron balustrade and lead-lined cornice, having raised-and-fielded four panel timber with brass door furniture and pointed-headed three-light transom in a pointed-headed lined stucco reveal; accessed via two concrete steps. To left cheek of porch is a slender pointed-headed cusped lancet window with decorative blocks to head.

Canted south end has a window to first floor and ground floor at each facet. Gabled block at left (c.1840) is three windows wide at first floor; two cusped square-headed windows at ground floor (that to right is bipartite).

The west (rear) elevation has gabled block to right; at left, set back and breaking into eaves, is a gabled bay rising above centre of roof-line, containing a four-paned timber casement window; two-storey flat-roof extension beneath has two (slightly projecting) six-paned timber casement windows at first floor; ground floor has four-paned timber casement window and a segmental-headed arch entrance with stone steps to former servants entrance at basement. Contained within arched recess, to rear wall of house, is a 4/4 sash window at ground floor and a bipartite 2/2 sash window with horns in a segmental-headed recess to basement. To right of extension is a pointed-headed multi-paned timber stairwell window with coloured glass panels, over a 6/6 timber sash window with margin panes and horns. West elevation of gabled block has 4/8 timber sash window over a side-hung bipartite three-paned timber casement window; timber-sheeted entrance door with cast-iron knocker and slated lean-to extension at right; lean-to extension has two four-paned windows and opens to east with a timber-sheeted door.

Canted north end has a window to first floor at each facet. Bipartite Gothic window with carved spandrels to central facet only at ground floor.

Setting:
Situated on a large mature site to the north side of Crevolea Road, in Aghadowey, south of Coleraine. To rear is a gravelled yard with two-storey roughcast rendered slated outbuilding (HB03/03/008B). Also to rear yard is a squared blackstone circular well with slated timber canopy over. Yard enclosed to north by a rubblestone garden wall with pointed-headed arch entrance of red-brick to main garden at north and east. Wide variety of mature trees on the site, particularly to north. To northwest is a kitchen garden still in use. Bounded to road to south by a roughcast rendered wall with cement coping, having square piers with pointed cement caps and supporting replacement cast-iron gates to vehicular entrances at southwest and southeast; small cast-iron latch gate to centre. Main entrance to southeast is gravelled.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Painted ruled and lined render
Windows: Variety of double-hung timb
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

St Margaret’s Rectory, assessed by Rowan as a ‘curiously pretty’ and ‘waywardly irregular’ Regency house is pre-1830 in date (extended c1840) and was a linen mansion before later becoming a rectory. (Rowan) It is shown, uncaptioned, on the first Ordnance Survey map of 1831-2 as rectangular on plan with a small return and the large barn, still present on the site today, is also shown. A large expanse of bleach green was laid out beside the house.

At the time of the Townland Valuation (1828-40) the occupier was Henry Hunter and the house and offices were valued at £15.2s. Henry Hunter appears to have owned the adjoining bleaching concern in partnership with Messrs McFarland and Hemphill. (OS Memoirs) OS Memoirs state that the bleach green in Ballybritain is the oldest in the parish and therefore predates 1744, suggesting that the house itself may also be, at its core, of an early date. (OS Memoirs) The thickness of the masonry walls constituting the earlier part of the house lends some support to this contention.

The house was subsequently taken over by the Orr family who had come to the Aghadowey district in the mid-eighteenth century. William Orr, captain in the 75th Regiment, (died 1873) married Susan, daughter of Averil Lecky of Castle Lecky and had two daughters, Margaret who died as a child in 1836 aged 13 and Alicia who also died prematurely of consumption. The current house is named ‘St Margaret’ after Orr’s lamented elder daughter. (Mullin; Will of William Orr)

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists William Orr as the occupier and values the house and outbuildings at £27. The house sits on a plot of over 89 acres and is shown on the second edition of 1849-52 as significantly extended in size both to the front and to the rear. William Orr died in 1873 leaving everything to his ‘dear wife’ Susan and requesting her to distribute twenty pounds among the poor of the parish. (Will of William Orr) After the death of Susan Lecky Orr in 1883 (Will of Susan Lecky Orr), the house was taken over for use as the rectory for Aghadowey parish, the Rev William Colquhoun listed as occupier from 1885, when the valuation was also reduced to £22, perhaps in view of the change of use.

Residency of the house then changed with incumbency of the parish. At the time of the 1911 census the rector was Englishman Robert W W Alexander, 39, who retained a cook as a domestic servant. (1911 census) At the time of the First General Revaluation of the 1930s the accommodation was listed as, on the ground floor, three receptions, a kitchen, scullery and pantry, on the first floor, four bedrooms, study and bathroom/WC and three disused bedrooms in the attic. The valuer described the house as in good repair. Water was supplied by hand pump to a tank.

The house remained a rectory until at least the 1970s and was listed in 1977. Major renovation schemes to restore the house and stables took place in the 1980s and 90s and the building remains in domestic use. (HB file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/11/1 First Edition OS Map 1831-2
2. PRONI OS/6/5/11/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-52
3. PRONI OS/6/5/11/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/11/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/51 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/12/A/5/1 – Valuer’s Notes c1900
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/1A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/A/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
10. Griffith’s Valuation online
11. 1901/1911 census online
12. HB file – 03/03/008
13. PRONI Will of William Orr died 2nd December 1873
14. PRONI Will of Susan Lecky Orr died 2nd December 1883

Secondary Sources

1. Day, A., P. McWilliams, English L., eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Londonderry VI, 1831, 1833, 1835-6, Vol. 22.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1993.
2. Mullin, Rev T H "Aghadowey, A Parish and its Linen Industry" Belfast, 1972
3. Rowan, A “The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster” Penguin, 1979

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

St Margaret’s Rectory is a three-bay two-storey-over-basement detached former Rectory with attic, pre-dating 1830 and remodelled in the Gothic style c.1840; situated to the north side of Crevolea Road in Aghadowey, south of Coleraine. Retaining its Victorian appearance from the 1840s remodelling, the house is an important representative example of the change in taste in domestic architecture during the early to mid nineteenth-century. Sensitively refurbished in recent years by the present owners, much of the Victorian detailing is intact, including a fine array of Gothic fenestration. An irregular internal layout characterises the remodelling of the Georgian house, illustrating the change of preference in the use of internal space. Prominently sited and highly visible along Crevolea Road, the house makes an important contribution to architectural character of the surrounding area. It has group value with the well-preserved outbuilding to rear (HB03/03/008B), and a mature garden including a partial walled garden add to its rural setting. St Margaret’s Rectory is of significant architectural and historic interest.