St James' Old Rectory (AKA Earls Gift)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached five-bay two-storey Georgian house, built c.1790, located to the east side of Longland Road. Rectangular-on-plan with two-storey canted entrance bay to west, added c.1850; two-storey return to north-east; recent single-storey hipped sunroom extension to south.

Roof is hipped natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles over corbelled eaves course; timber eaves and raised sandstone verges to pitched return; roughcast chimneys with various clay pots. Walls are roughcast over smooth rendered plinth. Windows are square-headed timber framed 9/6 sliding sash; 6/3 sliding sash to first floor; timber casement windows to return; all have painted masonry sills.

Principal elevation faces west; central bay is abutted by canted bay; exposed sections at left and right each contain two windows at each floor. Canted entrance bay consists of round-arched-headed entrance opening with moulded surround and archivolt surmounted by pedimented canopy containing square-headed double-leaf timber panelled entrance doors surmounted by sunburst fanlight; entrance flanked by recessed cast-iron boot-scrapers; accessed by six sandstone steps; single window at first floor; 6/6 sliding sash window to north and south cheek at ground floor.

North elevation contains two windows at each floor left; one window at each floor right; abutted at left by return.

East elevation contains, at left, two 6/6 sliding sash windows at ground floor surmounted by two 6/3 sliding sash windows at first floor; round-arched-headed stairwell window at centre; abutted at right by return.

South elevation contains single 4/4 sliding sash window at first floor left; 6/6 window at centre; single window at right; abutted at ground floor by sunroom extension containing uPVC windows.

North elevation of return contains five windows at first floor; at ground floor, two windows at left and single window at right. East gable is blank. South elevation projects at left, containing vertically-sheeted timber entrance door at centre flanked at left by single window and at right by large square-headed opening with corrugated metal door; two windows at first floor; at right, central replacement timber entrance door is flanked at left and right by single window; three windows at first floor.

Set within mature grounds with enclosed yard to south-east bounded by rubble walling, roughcast on west elevation, and with small raised lawn to front of principal elevation, with masonry steps and roughcast low walling. Multi-bay single-storey stable block with central gabled bay containing pair of segmental-headed carriage arches to south-east; roof is pitched corrugated metal; walls are roughcast; vertically-sheeted timber doors to stables. Further enclosed farmyard to south containing a range of roughcast outbuildings.

Site bounded to road at south and west by recent random stone walling, accessed through pair of square piers with concrete coping supporting pair of steel gates; bounded to east by rubble walling; bounded to agricultural land at north by timber fence.

Roof Natural slate
Walls Roughcast
Windows Square-headed timber framed sliding sash (painted timber top hung replacement to rear return)
RWG Cast-iron half-round gutters and round downpipes

Historical information

The house appears to date from the late eighteenth-century, indicated by styling and proportions. The entrance bay to the west was added at a later date, c.1850, indicated by the entrance door to the hall within, which appears formerly to have been external, and accessed by stone steps. The form of the return, including chimney position and fenestration, suggests that originally, the right (east) bays may have been a separate three-bay two-storey house, built c.1820, within the grounds, later joined to the main house by the central section.

The building and a formal garden are shown on the first edition OS map (1832), captioned ‘Earls Gift’. At this date the entrance bay on the west elevation is not shown and the main house appears to extend further to the south than it does today. The stable block at the rear of the house is also shown on the first edition. By the second edition (1853) the entrance bay has appeared and by the fourth (1951) the extension to the south has gone.

The Townland Valuation records a ‘dwelling, portico, return, additions, offices and office shed’ (with measurements given for each portion of the building). The house is occupied by the Rev. Charles Douglas and valued at £28, with a deduction made for ‘…inconvenience of situation’.

Lewis writes in 1837 that, “The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Derry, and in the patronage of the Marquess of Abercorn : the tithes amount to £1350. The glebe-house was erected in 1792, by aid of a gift of £100 from the late Board of First Fruits: the glebe comprises 1192 acres.”

Griffith’s Valuation of 1858 records the property as a ‘house, offices and land’ (a piggery is also included in the description). It is valued at £56.8s, and it is noted that the ‘…house has been greatly improved since the last valuation’ and is worth ‘£50’.The occupier is the Hon. Rev. Douglas Gordon, and it is freehold.

Valuation Revisions record the occupier as the Rev. George John Holmes and it is valued at £54. The occupier is revised to the Church Temporality Commissioner in 1878 and revised to Rev Frederick Clarke in 1876. It is leased from the ‘Representative Body’ in 1877; the valuation is originally £40 and is revised to £30 in 1876 as ‘valuation of house reduced by order of commissioner April 1876’. The valuation is decreased to £29 in 1887 and to £27 in 1889. Three outbuildings are added under the same site reference in 1887 valued at £1 each. The occupier is revised to G. H Gatchell in 1898.

A Parish history booklet also dates the rectory to 1792, ‘…a large house with living accommodation for the many servants required to run both the house and farm at the same time. During this period the parish was not directly involved with the repairs and maintenance with the rector’s residence… [this changed with disestablishment]. The maintenance of the rectory began to create problems and in 1960 it was proposed to sell it and use the proceeds from the sale of the orchard field towards a new rectory [however]…it was decided to repair the rectory. The total cost of repairing it, in 1963 came to over £5,000.' (p.41) In 1978 a site for the new rectory was chosen.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/6/3/1 -First Edition OS Map (1832)
2.PRONI OS/6/6/3/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1853)
3.PRONI OS/6/6/3/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905)
4.PRONI OS/6/6/3/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map (1951)
5.PRONI VAL/1/B/639B-C -Townland Valuation (1820-1840)
6.PRONI VAL/2/B/6/42B -Griffith’s Valuation (1858)
7.PRONI VAL/12/B/42/6A-G -Valuation Revisions (1860-1923)

Secondary Sources

1.Rowan, A. Buildings of Ireland-North West Ulster. Penguin Books.
2.Etd Rev. E.T. Dundas B.A. The History of Donagheady Parish. Published by the Tyrone Constitution (date not known).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Detached five-bay two-storey Georgian house, built c.1790, located to the east side of Longland Road. The house is plainly detailed externally with little ornamentation apart from the moulded door surround to the principal entrance and displays good style and proportions in its fenestration and tall slender chimneys. The house, originally a Glebe house for nearby St James Church of Ireland (HB10/09/001), is set within its original mature grounds, which include the original stable block, enclosed yard and a range of outbuildings to the south.