Aghaderg Lodge, 41 Scarva Street, Loughbrickland, Co Down, BT32 3NH

Aghaderg Lodge is a symmetrical three-bay, two-storey detached house located east of Scarva Street in the centre of Loughbrickland village. The original house on the site dates from around 1770, though the current building predates 1833 and was constructed in the early 19th century. It served as the local Presbyterian manse from 1880 into the mid-20th century, and is now in use as a private dwelling. It is a relatively well-preserved Georgian house with some early fabric, good proportions, and architectural detailing largely intact, though with evidence of later remodelling.

The building is rectangular on plan and has a two-storey return, a two-storey extension, and a single-storey flat-roof addition to the rear, along with a single-storey modern extension to the south. The roof is hipped natural slate with a leaded ridge and hips, and there are rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are carried on projecting eaves. The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render. Windows throughout are tripartite double-hung timber sliding sash with projecting granite sills, except where noted otherwise.

The principal elevation faces south-west and is three openings wide on each floor. At ground floor centre is a six-panel raised-and-pointed timber door with brass door furniture, surmounted by a cast-iron spider-web fanlight and fronted by a lattice porch with a gabled roof. The north-west gable has a 2/2 timber casement window to the first floor left.

The north-east (rear) elevation is abutted at the left by the two-storey return, which is considered likely to be the earliest part of the house, with a two-storey flat-roof extension filling the re-entrant angle, and the single-storey flat-roof addition abutting to the north. The return has a pitched roof with clipped verges and a rendered chimneystack to the gable; there is a 1/1 paired window to the first floor at the gable, and windows at both first and ground floor on the north elevation. The south elevation of the return has uPVC doors to the right and a canted bay window to the left. The two-storey extension is three windows wide to the first floor and is abutted at the right by the single-storey addition, which has a timber casement window and a modern panelled-and-glazed timber door. The south-east gable has a timber casement window to the first floor left, abutted at ground floor by the modern extension.

The house is set back from the road behind a roughcast rendered boundary wall with rendered piers and masonry caps. Directly in front of the house is a low smooth rendered wall with masonry coping topped by metal railings; at the centre are two slender granite gate piers with pointed caps supporting a wrought iron gate. To the north-west, vehicular access to the rear yard is provided via electronic cast-iron gates, which are original, set on smooth rendered gate piers with pointed caps. Further to the north-west is No. 47 Scarva Street, which was previously the gate lodge to Aghaderg Lodge but is now much altered and separated from the site. The rear yard contains a garage to the north and a stable block to the south-east, and is enclosed to the east by a rubble stone wall with a modern farm gate leading to a paddock that was formerly the kitchen garden. The ground in front of the house is paved and planted with shrubs. A walled garden to the south is accessed via a gothic arch with a metal latch gate, with a further gate in the east wall leading to the paddock.

The history of the site begins with a house built around 1770, most probably by Edward Trevor in his role as land agent to the absentee landlord Charles Whyte. The Whyte family later constructed Loughbrickland House to the north. A surviving lease held at PRONI between Charles Whyte and Edward Trevor confirms that Trevor obtained a tenement in Loughbrickland in 1770; this passed to Andrew Marcus Trevor in 1790, and to Helen Trevor in 1853, both of whom are recorded as occupiers in 19th-century valuation records. In its early years the house stood on a large plot with a substantial stable block to the north, now lost, and the gate lodge at No. 47 at the head of a driveway leading to the rear of the building. The house is first shown in identifiable form on an estate map of 1819, described as the property of Major Trevor (for ever), noted as a cabin, gardens and so on, with a footprint similar to today's, including a rectangular return partially abutting the main house. Major Trevor was a member of the prominent Trevor family; Marcus Trevor, later Viscount Dungannon, had married the daughter of Marmaduke Whitechurch, who was originally granted the lands around Loughbrickland by Queen Elizabeth I in 1585.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 shows the main dwelling house abutting a narrow return to the rear. Valuation records indicate that the house and return were subsequently reversed, so that what is now the rear return was originally the main part of the house. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records a garden of 252 feet by 22 feet in front of the house, suggesting the main house faced southwards at that time. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1859 the rear return had been extended, and it can be surmised that the reversal of the house and return took place around 1840, reorienting the house to face the road. The Townland Valuation lists the house, offices and yard at £16, in the ownership of Andrew Trevor, and gives dimensions of a two-storey house measuring 44.6 by 24 by 18.6 feet, with two returns measuring 31 by 16.6 by 13 feet and 29 by 19 by 18.6 feet respectively. Also listed are a flower garden (94 by 50 feet), a vegetable plot (465 by 160 feet), a field (480 by 138 feet), a gate house measuring 27 by 24 by 8 feet, and a second small field (150 by 156 feet). Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 records the property as belonging to John J Whyte and leased to Helen Trevor; it is described as a house, office and over 20 acres of land, with buildings valued at £20. When Helen Trevor died in 1866 the house passed to Miss Harriett Ansell, a relative of the Trevors, in 1870, and then to William Simpson in 1877.

In 1880 the house was taken over as the Presbyterian manse by the Reverend Alexander Cockburn Buchanan, having been purchased from Andrew Ansell for £320. The Presbyterian church in Loughbrickland was founded in 1610 by Scottish settlers on a site near the far end of Loughbrickland Lake, known locally as 'The Far Meetin'. At the time of the 1901 census, the Derry-born Reverend Buchanan lived at the house with his wife and adult son; the house had 21 rooms and was classified as first class. The next minister to occupy the house was Andrew Boyd, though the manse could not be identified in the 1911 census and was probably vacant at that time. Boyd was followed by Thomas Shaw Reid, who served from 1911 to 1948 and was also installed as minister of Scarva in 1927, making this a two-point charge. At the time of the First General Revaluation in the 1930s, Reverend Thomas Shaw Reid leased the house, office and garden from the Trustees of Loughbrickland Presbyterian Church. The house was provided rent-free to the minister and was revalued at £37. The accommodation comprised three reception rooms, four bedrooms, a kitchen, pantry, scullery, nursery, two box rooms, and a bathroom with hot and cold water and a separate WC. The house had electric light but water was obtained from a pump. The valuer noted the house to be in fair repair, though the rear part of the roof was in bad condition. In 1937 the valuation was reduced as it was considered too high. From 1953 the dwelling house was let to Eleanor McElroy at £1 5s per week free of taxes, and later to Liam Morton. By 1953 the outbuildings had been partly demolished to make way for a new manse, a red-brick building constructed beside the house. The house remained the manse until 1955. It continues in use as a private dwelling and is now known as Aghaderg Lodge.