Clanmurry

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay early-nineteenth century house with mid-twentieth-century additions, located at Quilly TD, west of Dromore. T-shaped on plan with canted single-storey porch to east, and single-storey portico and kitchen extension to south.

Hipped natural slate roof with leaded ridges and hips, and plain rendered chimneystacks with simple caps. Ogee cast-iron rainwater goods over boxed eaves. Walling is painted rendered without plinth. Windows are timber sliding sashes, 6/6 to ground floor, 3/6 to first floor, with moulded architraves to main block, plain entablature to ground floor, and painted masonry cills throughout; plain reveals to rear elevation and return. Mid-twentieth century entrance door having ten flat panels and three-pane transom over, in moulded architrave with plinth block.

Principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged, three openings wide about a projecting canted entrance porch with plain entablature; the porch has a continuous wide projecting stone plinth; the door is to south, 6/6 window to east flanked by 2/2 sashes (horizontally divided) to canted sides.

South elevation of main block has a window to each floor; that to ground floor is tripartite 6/6 with 2/2 sidelights. The main elevation is extended at ground floor by a single storey extension; the right section (mid-twentieth century) comprises a portico on two Tuscan columns flanked by half-columns, with cornice and leaded blocking course; now infilled with contemporary glazing and French doors. To its left is a modern kitchen extension in similar style, with tripartite window.

The rear elevation is centrally abutted by a substantial full-height return, four windows deep (unequally spaced). The exposed section has two first floor windows to each side, and a ground floor window to left bay. The right bay and return (south) are completely abutted to ground floor by the extension (see above). The rear elevation has a window to first floor and two windows to ground floor; rear access is via a timber sheeted door to left side.

The north elevation has a window to each floor, as south.

Setting:
Clanmurry is set within substantial landscaped gardens to front and rear, including a walled garden to west; the house is completely concealed from the road by mature planting which surrounds the gardens; to south is a paved terrace with pond at lower level to south, accessed from a gravel forecourt by a small wrought-iron pedestrian gate. To rear is a long rectangular coach yard bounded to west side by a two-storey outbuilding with pitched slate roof. The outbuilding has roughcast walling to east (yard-facing elevation) cut back to expose granite quoins; the rear (west) elevation overlooks the walled garden and is English garden wall bonded redbrick with a concrete skirt; replacement windows and timber sheeted doors on plinth blocks. Separate two-storey outbuilding of little interest. The walled-garden is bounded by a rendered wall; running along its west perimeter is a dirt lane with wrought-iron gates. Main access avenue at east, accessed via a pair of square rendered panelled piers with shallow pyramidal caps, and eroded cast-iron gates. A modern house in the style of a gate lodge is under construction at the time of survey, and flanks the entrance. There is a secondary access lane to west, leading to the rear yard.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber sash
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Clanmurry House, a two-storey Georgian gentleman’s dwelling with associated outbuildings in the townland of Quilly, was constructed prior to 1834 and first appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map. The map records that only the dwelling, which followed the current T-shape layout, had been erected at that time; an outbuilding was located to the rear of the house but was taken down prior to the second edition map in 1858. Clanmurry was the residence of a Mr. William McClelland, a local linen merchant, in 1837; McClelland’s property was valued at £15 17s. in the Townland Valuations of the 1830s.

Between the first and second editions of the Ordnance Survey maps there had been considerable construction work carried out at Clanmurry. All of the surviving outbuildings, including the single-storey gate lodge to the southeast of the site, had been constructed by 1858; an additional outbuilding was also constructed to the south of Clanmurry’s current southernmost outbuilding, however this was taken down sometime after the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1973. Further, by c. 1860 William McClelland let a nearby beetling mill; this was owned by Waldron Burrowes, and in the 1830s formed part of his property of Lagan Lodge (HB17/13/018A). McClelland presumably utilised the mill as part of his linen business. As a result of the alteration to the site Griffith’s Valuation (1861) valued Clanmurry, which was also let by Waldron Burrowes of Lagan Lodge, at £42; William McClelland continued to reside at Clanmurry until his death in 1864 when his widow Mary McClelland took possession (PRONI Wills).

Mary McClelland followed her husband in 1867 at which time the house was let to a Mr. William Jardine whom the Ulster Street Directories note operated a hemstitching and finishing business in Dromore’s Market Square, known as William Jardine & Co. By 1864 Waldron Burrowes had sold Clanmurry to the Church Temporalities Commissioners, however by the 1880s the property was let to the Jardine family by the Irish Land Commission who took control of Church-held properties from 1881. By 1891 William Jardine vacated the property (possibly due to his death however there is no will to confirm) and a Miss Elizabeth (Eliza) Jane Jardine took sole possession of Clanmurry; at the same time the valuer noted that two of the outbuildings at the site were no longer used and accordingly the value of Clanmurry was reduced to £37.

The 1901 Census records that Eliza Jane Jardine (59, Unitarian) was the owner of the William Jardine & Co. business and resided at Clanmurry with her nephew Charles McCaw Baxter (23), who was employed as the factory manager, her sister Sarah McCaw Baxter (55) and a number of domestic servants. The census building return described Clanmurry as 1st class dwelling that consisted of 14 rooms and was also a considerable farm possessing a large number of out offices including a stable, two cow houses, a dairy, piggery, fowl house, a boiling house, laundry and a barn, located in its numerous outbuildings. By 1911 there had been little change to the site and Eliza Jane Jardine continued to reside at Clanmurry House until her death in 1926 at which time her nephew Charles McCaw Baxter took possession (PRONI Wills).

Clanmurry’s website states that the house was originally constructed in 1820 during the height of the Linen Industry. Clanmurry was originally occupied by William McClelland who was likely a member of the McClelland family who were one of the most respected linen families in the Banbridge area. The family settled in Banbridge from the mid-18th century and originally resided at Millmount (HB17/04/017); however by the late-18th century they had vacated the site. Robert McClelland established the Banbridge Weaving Factory in Banbridge in 1865, however it is not known exactly what connection William McClelland of Clanmurry had to the family that resided at Millmount and Belmont House (HB17/07/029) (Rankin, p. 50).

According to Rankin, William Jardine was a relative of George Crawford Lindsay (1813-1885), a linen merchant and local magistrate who resided at Moorlands (HB17/07/038); on a family tree Rankin includes, Jardine appears as Lindsay’s son but is married to an Elizabeth Simms Lindsay. Rankin states that the Lindsay family originated from Scotland and settled at Tullyhenan in the aftermath of the 1641 Rebellion. In the 18th and 19th centuries the family established themselves as one of the most respected and connected families in the local Linen Industry occupying many of the impressive merchant’s manors in the area including Tullyhenan House (HB17/13/006), Moorlands, Ashfield House (HB17/13/014A), and (through William Jardine) Clanmurry.

Doloughan states that William Jardine established his business, William Jardine & Co. at No. 30 Market Square in Dromore (HB17/15/015), but also bleached and dyed yarn at properties on the Lurgan Road. In 1929, when the business had passed to Eliza Jane Jardine and her nephew Charles McCaw Baxter, the dyeworks factory on the Market Square was damaged in a fire, however the Hemstitching factory was not damaged in the blaze.

Clanmurry House was listed in 1977; the site continued to be occupied by the Baxter family until at least the First Survey in 1969 when a Mr. J. E. Baxter resided there. In 1985 the house was purchased by John and Sara McCorkell who have converted the former merchant’s manor into a traditional Bed & Breakfast. The most recent family to occupy of Clanmurry are also historically interesting; from 1778 the McCorkell’s owned the McCorkell Line, a passenger shipping line which primarily transported passengers from Ireland, Scotland and England to the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. A number of paintings of shipping vessels within Clanmurry House are reminders of the family’s nautical history.

The single-storey flat-roof extension and entrance porch with pillared entrance was constructed between the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1903-16) and the current edition in 1973. Since the map was surveyed in 1973 the southernmost outbuilding, first constructed by 1858, has been taken down whilst the nearby outbuilding (which is now the southernmost structure) has been mostly demolished, only the western portion remains. The single-storey gate lodge to the south-east of the dwelling still survives and was described by Dean as ‘a most unremarkable lodge of standard plan’ dating from c. 1840 (Dean, p. 70).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/23/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/23/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/23/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/23/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1916
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/23 – Townland Valuation map c. 1830
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/342 – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21A – Annual Revisions 1864 – 1876
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21B – Annual Revisions 1876 - 1885
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21C – Annual Revisions 1885 - 1900
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21D – Annual Revisions 1900 - 1908
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21E – Annual Revisions 1909 – 1930
13. PRONI Wills Catalogue (22 Feb 1864; 2 Aug 1867; 26 Apr 1926)
14. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)
15. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
16. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
17. First Survey Record – HB17/13/019 (1969)
18. Ordnance Survey Map – 202-3 (1973)

Secondary Sources

1. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
2. Doloughan, A., ‘Dromore old mill race’ Dromore: Dromore and District Local Historical Group, 1993.
3. Rankin, K., ‘The linen houses of the Bann Valley: The story of their families’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007).

Online Resources

1. Clanmurry Bed and Breakfast Website: http://www.clanmurry.com/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Clanmurry is an early nineteenth-century two-storey three-bay house, with twentieth century additions. The house is composed on symmetrical plan about a substantial mid-twentieth century porch, the original proportions and detailing survive and much original fabric. The setting is extensively landscaped, including a walled garden and outbuildings, which are of some interest although compromised by modernisation. The walled access from the rear gate is most unusual and of note. Clanmurry is one of several large houses in the immediate vicinity with connections to the local linen industry, representative of industrial prosperity and contributing to the historic character of the local area. It is a good example of the type in original condition and in a largely original setting.