The Old Rectory

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A T-shaped house with a single-storey 3-bay front block in Italianate style, and a 3-storey return to the rear which is located in a sunken basement area. Main entrance front faces south-east.

Entrance elevation is symmetrical with one window to each side of a central projecting porch. Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; terracotta ridge tiles; overhanging eaves on shaped brackets with flat plastered soffit. Moulded cast iron gutters with cast iron downpipes.
On entrance front: on axis with front porch, behind ridge of main roof, on the rear wall of the front block, is a broad chimney stack, smooth cement rendered with projecting moulded cornice; 6 original octagonal pots.
Walls smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with moulded projecting plinth, moulded stringcourse below eaves brackets, and slightly projecting broad end piers to extremities.
Entrance porch is gabled with a pediment supported on a shaped rendered bracket in front face above a semi-circular arched window set in a semi-circular arched recess; window is arched timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 6 over 6 with horns, and radial lights to head. Left-hand side of porch contains a shallow semi-circular arched recess; right-hand side of porch contains an original rectangular timber 4-panel door surmounted by a radial fanlight, set in a semi-circular arched recess; modern tiled doorstep; modern black plastic lamps mounted on wall each side of door.
Wall to each side of porch contains a large Venetian window: arched timber central light, sashed 2 over 1 with margins, without horns; rectangular timber sidelights, 1 over 1 with margins, without horns; set in a raised lugged smooth rendered surround with rectangular mullions, rising on a deep projecting bracketed sandstone cill with edges repaired in cement.

Left-hand gable of front block: wall rendered as previous, without stringcourse; overhanging verges with timber barge boards on shaped brackets; moulded gutters and soffits return from front and rear elevations for a short distance forming an open pedimental feature to the gable with a decorative moulded cartouche in the apex above a large Venetian window which is similar to those of entrance front with addition of a bracketed cornice over the central light; bottom portion of scroll of each bracket to cornice is missing.

Rear of front block, at left-hand wall of rear return, has roof slated as previous, with a short blank wall; eaves as to entrance front with moulded cast iron gutter and downpipe.

Left-hand wall of rear return: wall smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with three window openings each to ground floor and basement, and one window to first floor in a gabled dormer. Roof slated as previous, with dark toned ridge tiles. PVC gutter with PVC downpipe to right-hand extremity and cast iron gutter to left-hand extremity.
Basement windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, 8 over 4, without horns, modern replacements to original pattern; projecting stone cills. Ground floor windows are original sliding sashes, 8 over 8, with horns; central opening is blind. First floor dormer is semi-circular arched, 3 over 6, with radial tracery lights, with horns.
Large basement well with coved outer corners to rubble stone retaining wall, whitened, with large Tardree granite coping; rectangular gateway to rear yard, containing a modern scrolling iron gate; area covered with grass.
Rear elevation of return is 3-storey of double pile form with twin gables each with a chimney at the apex; walls smooth rendered, lined and blocked; chimneys have moulded projecting cornice and two original pots each. Inner verges have projecting copings which look like concrete; outer verges flush. Cast iron soil pipe and PVC downpipe from cast iron hopper. A rectangular water tank is situated on the valley of the two roofs.
Two windows to first floor one in each gable: rectangular timber sashes as previous, 8 over 4, with horns; one window at ground floor level of house, narrow rectangular timber sash, 6 over 6 without horns; one window at basement level of house, sashed 8 over 4 without horns, modern replacement to original pattern; iron bars affixed. Two doors at basement level, rectangular timber 6-panel with top panel glazed, replacements for original glazed and panelled doors of different pattern. Projecting forward at each extremity of rear elevation are roughly coursed basalt rubble screen walls containing a gateway each, leading to the basement wells or open basement areas at each side.
Right-hand wall of rear return: walling and roof similar to left-hand side except window arrangement different with two windows in first bay to left at intermediate levels due to half landings of stairway. All windows sashed as previous, 8 over 4 to basement level; 6 over 6 and 8 over 8 to ground floor; and 6 over 6 with radial tracery lights to first floor dormer, all without horns. Left-hand window to basement level has iron bars affixed. Basement windows and right-hand window to ground level all new replacements to original pattern. Dormer has had new cement repairs to left-hand kneeler or bracket but not accurately to original shape. PVC soil pipe at basement level. Large basement well as previous to left-hand side of rear return with similar walling and gateway to rear yard; area paved with concrete slabs.

Rear wall of front block at right-hand wall of rear return is as previous to other side of rear return.

Right-hand gable of front block is similar to left except brackets of cornice over window are intact.

SETTING: The building stands in a rural area on a corner site between two roads, set well back from either road front behind mature trees, shrubs and hedges. Approached by a main entrance gateway which is comprised of a pair of octagonal cast iron posts with a pair of original looped iron gates, flanked each side by short curving screens of looped ironwork railings on low rendered plinth walls; driveway of tarmac which ends in a tarmac area in front of the house and continues on to a rear gateway in a shared driveway. Grounds laid out with lawns surrounded at rear by mature trees.

REAR YARD AND OUTBUILDING: Rear yard is gravelled, with a partly concreted and partly gravelled raised terrace across the rear of the house, up four steps. Screen walls projecting from rear elevation of rear return extend to form boundaries of yard, with rubble copings. Gateway in one facing south-west, comprising square brick piers, whitened, with flat sandstone caps, and mounted with a pair of double gates in modern ironwork of appropriate design.
Rear boundary of rear yard occupied by a gabled outbuilding containing a garage and stores; wall facing into yard rendered with wet dash; cast iron gutter and downpipe; roof slated as previous to house; one rectangular timber sliding sash window, 6 over 6, with horns; one sheeted timber half-door; one modern preformed steel garage door; one rectangular opening without door.
Outer face of boundary wall to rear yard to left of yard gateway is of rubble masonry whitened; adjoining gable of yard outbuilding is rendered with a wet dash, whitened, with a circular opening in the apex. Rear wall of outbuilding is roughly coursed basalt rubble. Outer face of boundary wall to north-west side of rear yard and adjoining gable of outbuilding are of basalt rubble.

Historical information

Built by the Thompson family of Muckamore Abbey as the rectory for St Jude's Church of Ireland church; precise date of building not known but it appears on the OS map of 1857; architect not known but stylistically it may be attributed to Charles Lanyon, who had earlier designed the church, and may be dated to the 1840s.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 50 (but not named).
Secondary Sources
1. R. Pierce and A. Coey, Taken for Granted (NIHBC, 1984), p 121.
2. Dublin Builder, 1 July 1865, p 170 (reference to the Thompson family having built the 'parsonage').

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
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

This is an Early Victorian house in an ornamentally treated Italianate style of distinctive proportions, plan form, and spatial organisation. Its front block is notable for the unusually palatial display of large Venetian windows, two to each of the main front rooms. It enjoys a pleasant setting and is of considerable local interest as a work attributable to the prominent Irish architect, Charles Lanyon, who was active elsewhere in this locality.