Dromore House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively compact, two-storey detached late Georgian house of c.1820s with flat-roofed entrance porch of c.1859 and rear extension of c.1900. The building is set on the south-west side of Coolyvenny Road, roughly 5km south of Coleraine. The property is separated from the road by its outbuildings, faces away from the road and is shielded from the open countryside by mature trees.

The front elevation faces south-west, for ease of description this is referred to as south and the naming of all other façades follows this convention.

The front façade is symmetrical with a central, single-storey projecting porch raised above a short flight of stone steps to the front door. The door opening is flat-headed and the timber door is panelled and part glazed; to either side there are sidelights. To both cheeks of the porch there is a paired window, each with 6/6 timber sash frame. The porch has a projecting cornice with blocking course over. On either side of the porch there are two window openings, with five evenly spaced openings to first floor. Openings are flat-headed; frames to ground floor are 6/6 while those to either side of the first floor are 6/3; the central first floor opening has been converted to a French windo with side hung casements each with three lights.

The west façade is much obscured by shrubbery; it is gabled and merges with the side of the rear return. Windows are set mainly on the left side and are as before. There is a small window opening lighting the roof space; this has a 1/1 sash frame.

The north façade has three two-storey returns set at the right side. The original is tallest and has a pitched roof, on its north face is attached a lower two-storey lean to return; in the internal angle with the main house is a further two-storey flat-roofed return. Window openings are all flat-headed; those to the original return are all 6/6 sash while others are mainly 1/1 sash.

The east façade is gabled; to the right of centre there are two window openings, one to the ground floor and one to first. Openings and frames are as before.

The main roof and that to the the original return are pitched; each is natural slate and has red fireclay ridges. Rainwater goods are cast-iron. The northerly return has a lean-to slated roof. Eaves and verges are without overhangs. Walls are topped with a shallow eaves course and are finished with ruled and lined render.

Setting

The house is set in a mature garden. The random rubble stone boundary wall runs along the roadside with the gateway to the house at right and the gate to the farmyard at the left end. From the road a tree-lined avenue leads through a gateway of round conical capped pillars and wrought iron gates down the west side of the house to the forecourt. The house looks across lawns to the boundary hedge and trees. At the east side double gates in a high wall give access to the rear yard. On the right east side of this yard is a detached building, now in use as a garage. Set ahead and between the house and the road is another enclosed yard and a grouping of farm outbuildings. Parallel with the house is one long range; this incorporates a series of rooms used variously as byres and stables. Across this yard, on the north side, along the road there is a piggery and a metal clad hay shed. The outbuildings are finished with roughcast render and have slated pitched roofs. This yard is enclosed on the west by the return of the south outbuilding and on the east by a wall in which there is a pair of simple wrought iron gates between round pillars; these give onto the short lane leading to the road though a similar gateway.

Historical information

An L-shaped house of the same orientation and broadly similar plan to the present is shown on the OS map of 1831-32. To the rear a long outbuilding much like that of today, but minus the projection to the north-west, is also depicted. In the valuation of November 1832 the house is noted as the home of a Mr. [?William] Gamble, with the dwelling and offices rated at £15. Unfortunately the 'house book' containing the dimensions of the property has not survived, but the relatively high rateable value suggests that the present building was indeed standing at that point. The style of the property, however, indicates that it may have been relatively newly built then, possibly dating from the mid to later 1820s.

On the revised OS map of 1849-51 a large off-centre projection is shown on the front of the house, whilst the return is longer, stretching back to the large outbuilding to the rear. One would almost think that a new house had been erected in the place of that of 1832, however, the 1856 valuation indicates that the building was ‘not new’ at that point, indicating, in their reckoning, a property of 25 years or more. The dimensions for the house are recorded as 40ft x 23 x 18 for the main block and 16 x 16 x 17 and 16 x 12 x 12 for the components of the return, which appears roughly similar to the present structure minus the porch; the large outbuilding is also noted -90 x 19 x 10, with two smaller structures of 20 x 17 x 8 and 21 x 12 x 6. The property at this point was in the possession of a James Sinclair with Adam Smith the immediate lessor and the rateable value £16. In 1859 it rose to £20, but whether this was as a result of any major change to any of the buildings (perhaps the addition of the porch), is not known.

In 1868 a William Hayden is listed as the occupant with George Dunbar, (of Woburn House, Co. Down), the lessor. Hayden was followed by the ‘Misses Torrens’ in 1872, Rev. James Smith, who appears to have been minister of Crossgare Presbyterian Church took up residence, and between this date and 1922 Dromore House appears to have acted as a Manse. In 1892 the rateable value fell to £14 with the valuer reporting that the house was ‘old and dilapidated’; if some repair work were carried out to the building in the years following, this could explain why the staircase detailing looks late Victorian / Edwardian. The flat-roofed extension to the rear may have been added around the same time, although nothing is mentioned by the valuers; its plate glass sash windows are suggestive of the early 1900s.

In 1922 a Samuel A. Smyth took up residence. The house was acquired by William Torrens in c.1933 and appears to have remained with his relatives until 1970 when the house (but not the surrounding land) was sold to a Professor P.J. Newbould, who was still in residence in 1972.

The property at one point could boast a gate lodge, built some time between 1832 and 1849, which stood to the north of the house itself. This was demolished

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL1A/5/11 OS map, Co. Londonderry sheet 11, with valuation
references, 1831-32
2 PRONI VAL1B/59 First valuation, Macosquin parish, 1832
3 PRONI VAL2A/5/11 OS map, Co. Londonderry sheet 11, with valuation references, 1849-51(-56)
4 PRONI VAL2B/5/9B Second valuation, Macosquin parish, 1856
5 PRONI VAL12B/30/11A Annual valuation revision book, Drumcroon ED, 1860-63
6 PRONI VAL12B/30/11B Annual valuation revision book, Drumcroon ED, 1864-80
7 PRONI VAL12B/30/11C Annual valuation revision book, Drumcroon ED, 1881-89
8 PRONI VAL12B/30/11D Annual valuation revision book, Drumcroon ED, 1890-98
9 PRONI VAL12B/23/11E Annual valuation revision book, Drumcroon ED, 1899-1910
10 PRONI OS6/5/11/3 OS map, Co. Londonderry sheet 11, 1904 [The scale of this map is too small to determine whether the flat-roofed extension is shown.]
11 PRONI VAL12B/30/11F Annual valuation revision book, Drumcroon ED, 1911-29
12 PRONI OS6/5/11/4 OS map, Co. Londonderry sheet 11, 1923
13 PRONI VAL3B/6/1 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Drumcroon ED, 1935
14 PRONI VAL3E/5/2B First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Drumcroon ED, 1935-56
15 PRONI VAL4B/5/5 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Drumcroon ED, 1956-72

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Relatively compact, two-storey detached late Georgian house of c.1820s with flat-roofed entrance porch of c.1859 and rear extension of c.1900. Dromore House is a well-preserved example of a small late Georgian country residence/strong farmer’s dwelling, with equally well preserved setting. The building has witnessed some external changes, most notably the large entrance porch (perhaps c.1858-59); this has been well executed and adds to the overall character of the building. As a whole it is a good example of the type and is a notable survival in this genre.