Parochial House ('Strabane Presbytery')

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, imposing, three-storey parochial house of 1898, in a vaguely Tudoresque ‘institutional’ freestyle, with stone façade, various gables and bays, and tall chimneystacks. The house is set at the end of a long, straight, tree-lined drive off the east side of Barrack Street, with the church it serves located to the south.

[Although this building is set on a SW-NE axis, for the purposes of this description SW will be read as W etc.]
The building is roughly U-shaped, with wings to W, S and E. It is constructed in a squared, rock-faced grey stone [?limestone] with porches, canted bays, quoins, dressings and stringcourses in ashlar sandstone. The roof is gabled and slated with decorative red clay ridge tiles and sandstone parapets with kneelers and finials. In general, the window openings are a mixture of single and two-light flat-headed openings, which, to the ‘public’ faces of the building, are largely filled with horned timber sash frames with plate glazing to public faces of the building. Many of the windows have rock-faced relieving arches over.

Front (west) elevation
The front elevation faces roughly W and is asymmetrical. This elevation consists of a low (but still three-storey) portion to the far left, a taller full-height gabled bay, with two-storey canted bay, to right of this, and a broad, three windows wide section to right again with the single-storey entrance porch set between the intersection of this and the bay.

The porch is roughly square in plan and has a tall parapet (with cornice and stringcourse), which obscures the roof. To the front face of the porch there is a large pointed-arch doorway with the right hand (E) end of the arch supported on a marble column with floral capital, and the left hand end supported by a decorative corbel. The arch has a moulded archivolt and (uneven) trefoil panels to the spandrels. Set beyond the arch is another smaller pointed arch opening, set within which a panelled timber double door with fanlight with stained glass. There are several stone steps to the door.

To the left of the doorway is the gabled bay, with ground and first floors of which are largely taken up with a canted bay. This canted bay has windows to each face, with that to the front face a two-light opening with the lights separated by a sandstone mullion with colonnette (all the two-light windows to the ground floor have a similar detail- those to the upper floors have plain mullions). This arrangement is repeated to the first floor of the bay with a tall parapet (with stringcourse and cornice) obscuring ther roof. To the second floor. To the second floor (on the main gabled bay) there is another two-light window, with a a patterned sandstone panel to the apex of the gable.

To the left of the gabled bay (on the lower section) there are two wndows to each floor, decreasing in rise the higher the floor. All the windows to this section rest on cill courses.

To the right of the porch there are two, two-light windows, with two more directly in line with these to the first floor. To the right of the latter windows there is a smaller window with an unusual five-light timber frame, with two large cusped lights surmounted by three smaller one. To the second floor there are are two more two-light windows, both partly set within gabled half-dormers, with decorative panels, finials and drops to the gable itself. To the left is a smaller window.

South elevation
The S elevation consists of a full-height bay to either end, almost identical to that to the front elevation, but with the addition of a roundel panel just above the second floor window (see below). Between these is a three windows wide section, with a porch, as front, set in the intersection of the latter and the bay to the left. The panel on the bay to the left depicts the Virgin Mary, whilst that to the right bay is a date stone which reads, ‘Strabane Presbytery 1898. The Right Rev. Mons. O’Hagan P.P. V.F. The Most Rev. J.K. O’Doherty D.D. Bishop of Derry’.

To the ground floor between the porch and the right bay there are two windows. To the first floor between the bays there are three windows. There are three more windows to the second floor, that to the centre larger and set in a gabled dormer as those to the front elevation.

The E elevation consists of a large three-storey section to the left and a much smaller two-storey section to right. To the ground floor of the former section there are two widely-spaced windows, with three windows to each of the other two floors, those to the second floor considerably shorter. To the ground floor of the of the two-storey section there are three windows, that to right very narrow. To the first floor there are two shorter windows. A tall rendered wall extends fromt the N end of this section, enclosing the yard (see below).

The N façade of the N wing consists of two gables, that to rght taller and narrower. A single-storey lean-to section extends from left hand side. This lean-to is finished as the main house and has a flat-arch doorway, with timber-sheeted door, to its SW face. To the right of the lean-to there are two relatively small windows, with two more taller windows to the first floor.

To the W façade of the N wing the is a doorway (as lean-to) roughly to the centre of the ground floor, with a window to left. To the first floor there are two windows, with another to right of these set at an intermediate level. This window has margin panes. To the second floor there is a similar arrangement of smaller windows, with that to the centre and that to right both having margin panes.

To the (narrow) N façade of the S wing there is a window to each floor, decreasing in size the higher the floor. The first and second floor windows have margin and lattice panes.

To the far left on the E façade of the W wing there is a window to each floor similar to those described previously, but with margin and lattice panes to all. To the right of these there is a similar window set at an intermediate level between ground and first floor, with a doorway (as lean-to) to right again to the ground floor. To right again there is a two-storey lean-to with a small window to each floor. Above this bay there is a second floor window, as those windows to far left. To the right of the bay there is a much larger three-storey bay, whose ‘lean-to’ roof merges with pitch of the main roof. To the ground floor there is a single window with vertical glazing bars (two panes over two). To the first floor there is a similar window, with another to right set at an intermediate level between the ground and first floors. There is another similar window above this to an intermediate level between the first and second floors., whilst to second floor proper, there is a small window.

To the ground floor of the N gable of the W wing there is a lean-to, finished as the rest of the house. To the E face of this there use to be a doorway, but this has been converted to a window (which has a recent timber frame made to resemble sash. The lower half of the former doorway is blocked in cream-coloured brick. To the second floor of this façade there is a window.

The tall chimneystacks (five in all) are made of the same material as the house, with the upper narrower portion of each stack having curved ends. The rainwater goods are made of cast-iron, with square downspouts and moulded guttering to the ‘public’ faces of the house, round downspouts and rounded cuttering elsewhere.

To the N side of the house is a yard which is finished in concrete. The yard is enclosed to the E and W side by tall walls. The wall to the W is finished as the house itself and is shaped so as to diguise the present of the lean-to to its E side. This wall incorporates a carriage gateway with sandstone pillars with bevelled bases and edges and curved pyramidal caps, enclosing a pair of recently replaced decorative iron gates. The E wall is finished in unpainted roughcast, but has a similar gateway.

To the N side of the yard there is a two-storey gabled outbuilding, finished in unpainted roughcast to the S and E, with the W gable finished as the house. The roof is slated roof and there is a single rendered chimneystack. To the ground floor of the S façade of this outbuilding there is a window to far left with muli-pane timber frame, then a doorway with timber-sheeted door, thern another (similar) window, another doorway, and then two flat-arch carriage doorways, both without doors. To the first floor there are six symmetrically arranged ‘window’ openings with louvers, with a loft doorway (with timber-sheeted door), set between the middle windows.

There is a small garden to the W of the building, with a larger one to S. To W again is a a tarmac-covered forecourt / parking area, to the W of which is the long dirve (which is also covered in tarmac).

Historical information

As the datestone tells us, this parochial house (‘Strabane Presbytery’) was built in 1898, serving the neighbouring Church of the Immaculate Conception, itself completed in 1895.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31G Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
2 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31H Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
3 PRONI OS/8/25/2/1-3 OS town plan of Strabane (1905)
4 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
5 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31J Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
6 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31K Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
7 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31L Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
8 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31M Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
9 PRONI VAL/3B/7/14 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Strabane UD (1935
10 PRONI VAL/3C/7/23 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, annual revisions, Strabane UD (1936-57)
11 PRONI VAL/3G/159/1/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1936-55)
12 PRONI VAL/3G/159/2/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1951-55) [Sheets 1 and 3 are currently missing.]
13 EHS OS map (1:10,000 scale), sheet 72 (1983)

Secondary sources
1 Michael G. Kennedy et al., ‘The Church of the Immaculate Conception’ (1995)
2 Bradley, Jim et al, ‘The Fair River Valley: Strabane Through the Ages’, (Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2000)

Other
references
1 EHS HB10/14/012 First Survey report (11 Feb 1970)

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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large, imposing, three-storey parochial house of 1898, in a ‘institutional’ freestyle, with stone façade, various gables and bays, and tall chimneystacks. A good example of a large late Victorian residence, this building is mainly original both inside and out, and, taken alongside the cathedral-like gothic church it was built to serve, posseses a definite group value.