Presbyterian Manse

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A mid-Victorian two-storey three-bay detached rock-faced blackstone manse associated with Portrush Presbyterian Church (HB03/10/025A), dated 1850 and located to the west side of Main Street in Portrush town centre. L-shaped plan with M-profile roof return to rear, single-storey canted bay to south and projecting entrance porch to front.

Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, rendered chimneystacks having clustered flues, tall clay pots and raised curvilinear gables with finials. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on projecting eaves band. Walling is coursed blackstone with painted smooth rendered quoins and smooth rendered chamfered plinth with rubble stone base course; ruled-and-lined render to west and north elevations. Windows are generally 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash with horns in smooth rendered surrounds with projecting painted sills and label moulds to ground floor.

The principal elevation faces east; projecting gabled bay to right and projecting entrance porch to re-entrant angle. Gabled bay has 2/2 window at each floor (top sash diminished in height); window to first floor left at left cheek. Left bay has window to curvilinear gablet and window at ground floor; window over porch at centre. Porch is painted smooth render with moulded cornice; raised to front with decorative shield moulding. Pointed-headed timber-casement window to left cheek in shallow recess with decorative spandrels. Opens to west with a panelled-and-glazed timber door accessed via a stone step. Door has Art-Nouveau style leaded-and-stained glass panels, brass door furniture and a pointed-arch fixed timber tympanum, all in a shallow recess with decorative spandrels.

The south elevation has two windows at each floor; carved datestone to gable reads A.D 1850.

The west elevation has a window to each floor at left; abutted at right by the M-profile return with two 4/4 windows to first floor and three 1/1 windows at ground floor. Right cheek has two windows at first floor; canted bay to ground floor left and window at right. Left cheek has two windows to first floor left; window and modern timber-sheeted door to ground floor left.

The north elevation has a window to ground floor centre; abutted at right by a modern concrete shed.

Setting:
Corner-sited at the junction of Manse Avenue and Main Street, directly north of Portrush Presbyterian Church (HB03/10/26) and set back from the road with rendered boundary wall topped with cast-iron railings and steel railings. Slightly raised site with four steps to front pathway, flanked by lawn to either side. Boundary wall to south has square gate piers to centre with pointed caps, giving access to neighbouring church. To front are square piers with pointed caps and a cast-iron latch gate. Large tarmacadamed car-park to rear.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Coursed blackstone
Windows: Timber-framed sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The Presbyterian manse at Portrush is dated 1850 and first appears on the second edition OS map of 1853. The double pile extension to the west of the house was added c1900 and a single-storey coal house to the north in around 1930. (OS maps; Valuation records) A stable block located to the west of the main house and contemporary with it has recently been demolished.

The house is listed in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) as the residence of Rev Jonathan Simpson minister of the adjoining Presbyterian church. Dimensions are given for the L-shaped main house and single-storey return and for the stable block. Buildings are valued at £23.10s and the property was leased from the Earl of Antrim. Rev John Simpson was installed at Portrush in 1842 and initially concerned himself with completing a church building, which was achieved in 1844, using in part donations collected in America. In 1848 Rev Simpson again travelled to America to collect donations and returned with over £600 to put towards the construction of the manse. (History of Congregations)

Rev Simpson appears to have remained at the manse until his death in 1900. The house was vacant at the time of the 1901 census and valuation notes record that it was being extended in 1902 at a cost of £400 by the addition of a double-pile extension to the west which increased the valuation to £35.10s. At the time the manse had three sitting-rooms and 6 bedrooms, a bedroom later being sacrificed to give a bathroom. By 1903, Rev John McConnell had moved into the manse. McConnell lived with his second wife and two adult daughters, both born in Australia where McConnell had been minister of Brisbane from 1885 until his return to Ireland. The manse is recorded in the census as a ten-room house of the first class. The next resident was Rev McConnell’s successor as minister, Rev John Stanley Pyper, who was installed in 1912. Valuation records of the early 1930s show a plan of the house laid out as it is today with a single-storey coal house having recently been added to the north. Outbuildings (now gone) to the side included a double-height stable and garden house with a further single-storey outbuilding adjoining. The Rev Kyle Alexander was next to occupy the house in 1951 and the building remained a manse for some years although it is now church offices and guest accommodation, having been used as a guest house for a time. (Brett) The building was listed in 1977 and re-roofed in the 1980s. The railings were replaced c1993. (HB file)

Brett suggests a possible attribution to Charles Lanyon who may have adjudicated in a dispute between Rev Simpson and John Williamson, the architect of the neighbouring church. Brett finds the style ‘somewhat reminiscent of the work of Lanyon in his Jacobethan mood’ while Breffny and Ffolliott note its early revival of curvilinear gables. (Brett; Breffny and Ffolliott)
References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/2/1 First Edition OS Map 1831-2
2. PRONI OS/6/1/2/2 Second Edition OS map 1853
3. PRONI OS/6/1/2/3 Third Edition OS Map 1906
4. PRONI OS/6/1/2/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1921-31
5. PRONI OS/6/1/2/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1946-50
6. PRONI OS/8/42/1-2 – Town Plans of Portrush (1895-6)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/30B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
8. PRONI VAL/12/A/1/120 – Valuer’s notes (1902)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/6/2A-E – Annual Revisions (1859-1895)
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22A-D Annual Revisions (1895-1930)
11. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/30 First General Revaluation 1933-57
12. PRONI VAL/3/D/1/15/A/22 First General Revaluation 1933-57
13. HB File – 03/010/025
14. 1901 census
15. 1911 census

Secondary Sources

1. “A History of Congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland 1610-1982” authorised by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Belfast: Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, 1982 (available at www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com)
2. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of County Antrim” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996
3. De Breffny, Brian and Ffolliott, Rosemary “The Houses of Ireland: Domestic Architecture from the Mediaeval Castle to the Edwardian Villa” London: Thames and Hudson, 1984
4. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in North Antrim including the towns of Portrush, Ballymoney and Bushmills” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1975

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

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

A mid-Victorian two-storey three-bay detached rock-faced blackstone manse to Portrush Presbyterian Church (HB03/10/025A), dated 1850 and located to the west side of Main Street in Portrush town centre. Displaying proportions and detailing typical of the late-Victorian period, much of the architectural fabric is intact. The internal layout is unchanged and some elements of a typical mid Victorian interior survive. Although the setting has been partially altered by the addition of a parking area to rear of the house, the manse has group value with the neighbouring Presbyterian Church and together they form an important group. Of significant social interest, the Manse continues to serve the Presbyterian community of Portrush.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R- Age, S - Authenticity