Percy Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached two-storey-over-basement three-bay red-brick gabled house; built c.1860 to designs by Thomas Turner and located on a mature site to the south side of Church Street west of Dromore town centre. T-shaped on plan.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks having four tall clay pots; decorative bargeboards and fascia with drop finials to gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on decorated projecting timber eaves; cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. Walling is Flemish-bonded red-brick with lime and aggregate pointing on a sandstone plinth. Windows are 1/1 timber-framed sash with projecting granite sills, square-headed to ground floor and round-headed to first floor.

The principal elevation faces north; all ground floor openings have slated label over. Projecting entrance bay to centre is symmetrically arranged with dual entrance at ground floor and two windows at first floor (that to right with leaded stained glass); left cheek has a margin paned sash; right cheek has two round-headed openings, one blind, one with margin paned stained glass and rectangular blind opening over. Left and right bays have a blind opening and window to basement. Dual entrance comprises two raised-and-fielded six-panel timber doors, that to left is the main entrance and has brass door furniture; modern leaded-and-stained glass window to first floor right. Exposed basement is enclosed to either side of the entrance bay by a brick walled enclosure with stone coping and corner pier. Left side has a 1/1 window with margin panes to ground floor and a half-panelled timber door. Right side has blind opening to centre at first floor and left at ground floor; round-headed leaded-and-stained glass window to ground floor right.

The east elevation has window to first floor and canted bay with fish-scale slates to ground floor.

The south elevation has gabled bay to centre; window to first floor and half-panelled timber door and window to ground floor. Left and right bay have a window with slated canopy to ground floor.

The west gable has a window to first floor and canted bay window with fish-scale slates to ground floor.

Setting

Set on a large mature site opposite the old Station Master’s house, to the south of Church Street. Bounded to road to north by random coursed rock-faced stone wall and screened by mature trees with entrance to northwest; square ashlar gate piers having chamfered shafts and Gothic pointed caps supporting cast-iron gates; cattle grid to entrance and tarmacadamed driveway to front of house. To east is modern L-shaped building housing garage and granny-flat. To north is a timber-sheeted gate to Church Street in round-headed granite reveal accessed by a path cut into steep earthen bank. Sandstone steps to garden at North.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: brick
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Percy Lodge, a two-storey redbrick cottage, was constructed c. 1860 for William McMurray, proprietor of Thomas McMurray & Co., a linen and bleaching business established in 1750 by William’s father, Thomas McMurray (Bassett, pp 390-391). Percy Lodge was originally known as Dromore Cottage and was designed by Thomas Turner (d. 1891), an architect and county surveyor for Cos. Cavan and Dublin who designed a mixture of public buildings and grand private residences, one example of which is Tullyhenan House (HB17/13/006) which he designed in c. 1860. Percy Lodge does not appear on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Dromore in 1859 or Griffith’s Valuation in 1861.

The valuation sources suggest that the property was constructed between 1861 and 1864 when it was first recorded in the Annual Revisions as a house, valued at £31, leased from the Irish Church Temporalities Commissioners (administers of the Church of Ireland’s estate) and occupied by William McClelland. Thomas Turner’s plans, which are held by the current owner, are dated 1859.

The Annual Revisions note that the bleach mill of Thomas McMurray & Co. Was situated next to Percy Lodge and was valued at £90. Bassett records that Thomas McMurray & Co. Were ‘manufacturers of linen and cambric handkerchiefs, and bleachers and finishers’ who were established c. 1750 when hand loom weaving remained the principal method of production; the Dromore factories were established in 1827. Upon Thomas McMurray’s death the company was inherited by his son William McMurray who made Percy Lodge his permanent residence; in 1886 Thomas McMurray & Co. Possessed international agencies based in London and Paris (Bassett, pp 390-391).

William McMurray continued to reside at Percy Lodge until his death in 1897 (PRONI Wills); upon his death the cottage and adjoining bleach mill was reduced in value to £24 and purchased outright by S. R. Murphy & A. W. Stevenson of Belfast and Lurgan. The 1901 Ulster Town Directory noted that ‘these gentlemen have built on the large field [adjoining Percy Lodge] a large weaving factory and a number of dwelling houses ... The factory ... Fitted up with looms for weaving linen fabrics, and is capable of holding 400 to 500 looms.’ Murphy and Stevenson let Percy Lodge to James Alexander Doak who was employed as the linen factory manager. The 1901 Census notes that Doak (32, Presbyterian) resided at Percy Lodge with his wife Jane (35) and their two infant children; the census building return described Percy Lodge as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of 12 rooms and possessed two stables, three cow houses, a fowl house and a barn amongst its sole out offices.

James Alexander Doak continued to reside at Percy Lodge until at least the late 1930s (Belfast Gazette). The First Survey Record notes that the building was constructed in 1859, however this may simply have been the date of the designs that are in the current owners possession; the building itself does not appear on Griffith’s Valuation in 1861 although it is possible that the house had been constructed prior to that time and was simply not included in the valuation. Percy Lodge was listed in 1975 and continues as a private dwelling.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/21/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/21/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/21/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/21/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1919-20
5. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/13 – Townland Valuation map c. 1834
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
7. PRONI VAL/12/E/122/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan c. 1861-c. 1906
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/122/3/4 – Annual Revisions Town Plan 1906 – c. 1935
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10A – Annual Revisions 1864-1878
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10B – Annual Revisions 1879-1891
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10C – Annual Revisions 1892-1898
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11A – Annual Revisions 1899-1910
13. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11B – Annual Revisions 1911-1919
14. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11C – Annual Revisions 1920-1930
15. Bassett’s Directory of Co. Down (1886)
16. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
17. Belfast Gazette (20 Aug 1937)
18. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1918)
19. Ordnance Survey map – 202-4SW (1973)
20. First Survey Image – HB17/15/036A (1984)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of Mid Down: Hillsborough, Dromore, Dromara, Ballynahinch, the Spa, Drumaness and Saintfield’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1974.

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

R. Age
S. Authenticity
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Percy Lodge is a detached two-storey-over-basement three-bay red-brick gabled house; built c.1860 to designs by Thomas Turner. A particularly fine example of the work of Turner, proportions and detailing are typical of the period and are largely intact. The dual entrance is an unusual design feature and much historic fabric and detailing survives, as well as the plan form. The setting largely survives, with the original boundary wall and gatescreen to north. Percy Lodge is a good example of a Victorian house designed by a well known architect, in its original setting.

General comments

New listing criteria R & S to be added when available. NO'R 11.10.13