Strabane Grammar School, 4 Liskey Road, Miltown, Strabane, Co Tyrone

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, irregular two storey former gentleman’s country residence of c.1836, with some Picturesque / Tudoresque influences, believed to be the work of William Vitruvius Morrison, converted to a grammar school in 1955-56, and greatly extended to the rear in 1959. The building is set within spacious grounds on the east side of Liskey Road, less than half a mile south of Strabane itself.

The original building consisted of a large square two-storey N-facing block, with a narrower two-storey return to the SE; all of this survives, but large, two-storey modern style sections of 1959 extend from the E and W sides of the latter. The original section is finished in painted roughcast with an ashlar sandstone base course and painted render surrounds to the window openings. Most of the windows appear to have been enlarged. The overhanging roof has gable ends of various sizes, bargeboards with decorative mouldings, and curved soffits. The roof itself is covered in an artificial slate and all chimneystacks have been removed.

The front elevation is asymmetrical, with a large gable to the left and an almost central full-height gabled bay. To the ground floor of the latter is a large semicircular-headed archway, which appears to have been originally open but which is now filled with a wrought-iron security screen with ‘gate’. The archway has a bevelled sandstone reveal and drip moulding. Above the archway there is a projecting sandstone course with dentils. To the first floor of the bay there is a window with recent replacement casement frame.

To the ground floor to left of the bay there is a tall window with a four-light mullioned and transomed timber frame. To the first floor this side of the bay there is a large window with recent replacement frame. This window appears to have been enlarged as it sits off-centre within the gable. On the ground floor to the right of the bay there is a large (roughly square) window with a six-light mullioned and transomed timber frame. To the first floor (and out of line with the ground floor opening) is a broad window with recent casement frame.

The left hand side of the E elevation is now completely taken up with later 20th century additions. To the right is the E façade of the main section of the original house. This façade has a symmetrical arrangement of openings. To the ground floor are two square single-storey bays –possibly Edwardian additions- with hip-roofs and mullioned and transomed windows. To the first floor there are two relatively small windows with recent frames. Both windows are partly set within a gable.

The W elevation consists of the main section of the original house, to left, and much of the original return, to right. To far right the building merges with the 1959 additions. To the main section there are three windows to the ground floor, with four-light mullioned and transomed frames to the two larger outer windows, and a recent frame to the smaller centre window. To the first floor there are three large (probably enlarged) windows with recent frames. To the ground floor of the return there is a (probably enlarged) window to left with recent frame. To the left of this (beyond a now redundant chimney breast) the is a modern slight flat-roofed entrance bay. To the first floor there are three windows, two of which are identical being located within half-dormers and having four-light mullioned and transomed frames. The window to left is much smaller and has a recent frame.

Despite the modern additions, part of the rear façade of the main section is still visible. This façade consists of two gables of differing size. The gable to left is now largely covered by part of part of the modern extension, but an upper level window (with recent frame) is still exposed. The gable to the right (which is larger) has an enlarged window to each floor, both with recent frames.

To the immediate N of the original building is a car park, to the W a lawn. To the E is a recently erected single-storey prefabricated block of classrooms.

Historical information

On the OS map of 1833-34 the original ‘Milltown Lodge’ is shown, a long two-storey building, which appears to have faced westwards and which possessed a series of single and two-storey mainly thatched outbuildings largely located to the south side. In 1832 the house recorded by the valuers as the home of General Hamilton, however, following his appointment as agent to the Abercorn estate, Milltown Lodge passed into the hands of Major John Humphreys.*

At some point between 1834 and c.1836, Humphreys demolished the original dwelling and replaced it with the somewhat larger ‘Milltown Lodge’. Documents within the Abercorn Papers suggest that this new house was built to designs by William Vitruvius Morrison, who was probably brought into contact with Humphreys through work he had carried out for the Duke himself at Baronscourt. The house appears to have been complete by at least 1839, with the documents stating that it cost £2,000 to construct, with the gate lodge amounting to £120. Both the house and the lodge bear the marks of Morrison’s ‘many gabled cottage style’.

The Humphreys family remained at Milltown until 1881. The next occupant was William Harpur, whose family retained Milltown until 1954/55, when the building was acquired by Tyrone Education Committee for use as a new non-denominational grammar school for boys and girls - Strabane Grammar School.

The school, initially designed to cater for 89 pupils, opened in 1956. In 1959 a large new classroom extension was added to the south, allowing the pupil intake to rise to 225. Further ‘temporary’ classroom blocks has been erected to the north and east of the original building.

[*The hymn writer and poet, Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander (nee Humphreys), lived at Milltown between 1833 and 1850, when she married Rev. William Alexander. Mrs Alexander wrote three of her best known hymns while at Milltown, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, There is a Green Hill Far Away’ and ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’. They were printed in a collection published in 1848 entitled ‘Hymns For Little Children’.]

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/638A First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38)
3 PRONI VAL/1B/638B First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38)
4 PRONI VAL/1B/638C First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38)
5 PRONI OS/6/5/5/1 OS map, County Tyrone sheet 5 (1833-34)
6 PRONI D.623/A/267/1-24 Abercorn Papers Letters from James Pettigrue to the Duke of Abercorn (1836-39)
7 Lewis, Samuel, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837)
8 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846)
9 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856)
10 PRONI VAL/2B/6/41 Second valuation, Camus parish (1857)
11 PRONI VAL/2D/6/18A Valuation town plan of Strabane (1857 [-59])
12 PRONI VAL/2D/6/18B Valuation town plan of Strabane (1857 [-59]) [PRONI also holds a microfiche copy of this plan, catalogued under the ref. T/2933/4/252.]
13 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31A Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED(1860-64)
14 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31B Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1864-73)
15 ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester, 1870)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31C Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1874-81)
17 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31D Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1882-91)
18 PRONI OS/8/25/1/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
19 PRONI OS/9/22/2/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
20 PRONI VAL/12E/187/1/1-12 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1884 [-1908])
21 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31E Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
22 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31F Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
23 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31G Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
24 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31H Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
25 PRONI OS/8/25/2/1-3 OS town plan of Strabane (1905)
26 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
27 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31J Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
28 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31K Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
29 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31L Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
30 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31M Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
31 PRONI VAL/3B/7/14 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Strabane UD (1935
32 PRONI VAL/3C/7/23 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, annual revisions, Strabane UD (1936-57)
33 PRONI VAL/3G/159/1/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1936-55)
34 PRONI VAL/3G/159/2/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1951-55) [Sheets 1 and 3 are currently missing.]
35 'Belfast Telegraph', 11 October 1952, p.8; 19 January 1955, p.2; 27 January 1956, p.4
36 'Derry Journal', 1 April 1953, p.5; 3 February 1954, p.2; 7 September 1956, p.9
37 'Belfast News-Letter', 21 January, 1953, p.6; 24 February 1953, p.4; 28 July 1953, p.3; 23 December 1953, p.2
38 EHS OS map (1:10,000 scale), sheet 72 (1983)

Secondary sources
1 ‘The Architecture of Richard Morrison and William Vitruvius Morrison (Irish Architectural Archive, 1989), p.123
2 Dean, J.A.K., ‘The Gate Lodges of Ulster- A Gazetteer’ (Belfast, 1994), pp.145-46
3 Bradley, Jim, et al, ‘The Fair River Valley: Strabane Through the Ages’ (Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2000)

Other
references
1 EHS HB10/14/016 First Survey report (19 Feb 1970)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large, irregular two storey former gentleman’s country residence of c.1836, with mild Picturesque / Tudoresque overtones, believed to be the work of William Vitruvius Morrison. The building was converted to a grammar school in 1955-56, and greatly extended to the rear in 1959, with many of the windows enlarged in process, the chimneys removed, and the interior layout and detailing considerably altered. The building does not have sufficient architectural character to warrant listing.

The building was once home to the 19th century poet and hymn writer Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander.