Rectory, Church Street, Banbridge, ***See surveyor's comments***

Dromore Rectory, Church Street, Banbridge

Dromore Rectory is an asymmetrical, detached, roughcast-rendered house of two storeys over a semi-basement, built around 1790 and extended around 1850. It stands on the north side of Church Street in Banbridge town centre, directly opposite the Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer. It is one of the earliest surviving houses in the town and retains much of its original Georgian character and proportions, despite remodelling during the Victorian period. The listing covers the house, the boundary wall, and the gate piers.

Form and Plan

The building is rectangular on plan with a canted bay window to the west. A two-storey return, added around 1850, and a single-storey extension dating from 1932 are attached to the north. A single-storey-over-basement annexe is attached to the east gable. The principal elevation faces south and is five openings wide at ground and first floor, with three windows at basement level.

Exterior

The roof is pitched natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles and three red-brick chimneystacks with fluted shafts and masonry caps. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods run along a smooth rendered eaves band. The walls are roughcast render with smooth rendered quoins at ground and first floor; the basement is finished in painted smooth render. A continuous sill course runs across the ground floor windows.

The windows are largely Victorian replacements. At ground floor they are 1-over-1 timber-framed sliding sashes set in moulded architraves with painted sills. At first floor they are reduced in size, with segmental-headed 2-over-2 timber-framed sashes in square-headed frames, with moulded architraves surmounted by a cornice on console brackets. The basement retains a variety of timber-framed sash windows, including an original 10-over-10 window to the south elevation.

The principal entrance, positioned to the right of centre on the south elevation, is a segmental-headed Georgian doorcase — the original, and intact — approached by a splayed stone perron with six bull-nose steps and replacement metal handrails. The door itself is six-panelled timber with brass furniture, flanked by two fluted Doric columns with entasis. Above is a radial elliptical timber fanlight with a moulded archivolt and pilasters.

The west elevation features a tripartite canted bay window at ground floor, rising from basement level on the left. At ground floor there is a traditional arrangement of three openings; at basement level a single 2-over-2 half-louvred window.

The north elevation is abutted on the left by the two-storey return and extension. To the right at first floor is a round-headed 1-over-1 window with a gablet having a bargeboard and timber struts, with two timber casement windows to the right bay. At ground floor on the left is a double-leaf half-panelled timber door with transom light in a moulded architrave, and an 8-over-8 window to the left at basement level. The return has 1-over-1 windows to the first and ground floors on the right; on the left is a modern half-panelled timber door. The north gable of the return is abutted by the single-storey 1932 extension, which is of no architectural interest.

The east gable is abutted at ground and basement level by the annexe, built in a similar style to the main house with roughcast rendered walls and a rendered chimneystack to the gable with a tall terracotta pot. Five steps with modern handrails lead to a four-panelled timber entrance door in a channelled smooth rendered surround. To the right at ground floor is a 1-over-1 window in a smooth rendered architrave. At basement level there is a timber-sheeted latch door and a 1-over-1 window. The east elevation of the annexe has a 1-over-1 window at both ground floor and basement.

Historical Background

The building dates from the late 18th century — it is clearly depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 in its current form, and documentary evidence suggests it was in use as a residence from at least around 1830. It was originally used as both a dwelling and a rent office from which the estate of the Bishop of Dromore was administered. The first recorded occupant was a Mr Crane Brush, who lived here from around 1830 and was employed as land agent to Bishop Thomas Percy. During the upheavals of the late 18th century, Brush also served as captain of a local yeomanry unit financed by Bishop Taylor, formed to assist the British Army against the threat of French invasion or domestic rebellion. A local account recorded by Atkinson describes Brush looking out from the house one morning while shaving and witnessing a mob attempting to hang the Catholic parish priest of St Colman's Church; he rushed across the road and cut the priest down. In the aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion, Brush was also charged with transporting Henry Munro — leader of the Down Rebels — to Lisburn, where Munro was court-martialled and executed.

By around 1861 the building had been divided into two sections: the main block used as a private dwelling, and the single-storey eastern addition used as the Bishop's rent office. At that point a Mr George Brush continued to operate the rent office but resided elsewhere, at Gillhall in the townland of Coolsallagh. The main dwelling had by then passed to Mr Marshall Weir, a surgeon who operated a dispensary from the site; the combined value of the dwelling and dispensary was recorded at £26, with the rent office valued at £5. Weir remained at the house until 1886, when it was purchased by the Church of Ireland and became the rectory of the Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer. The rent office closed by 1889.

The first occupant as rector was the Reverend William A. Hayes, who arrived in 1889. During his tenure Hayes oversaw the restoration of the Ancient Cross of Dromore, which had previously stood in the Market Square and been used as a base for the town stocks; he arranged for it to be restored and relocated to the grounds of the Cathedral graveyard. Hayes was succeeded in 1897 by the Reverend Charles Harding, who oversaw completion of extension work to the Cathedral's north aisle in 1899 before vacating the rectory that same year. He was followed by the Reverend George Stephenson, whose household at the time of the 1901 Census comprised himself (aged 37), his wife Gertrude (aged 24), their infant son and daughter, and three servants who lived and worked in the basement. The census return classified the rectory as a first-class dwelling of 13 rooms, with a stable, fowl house, turf house, and store among its outbuildings. Stephenson remained until 1909 and was succeeded by the Reverend John William Cooke, who resided here until 1927. The Reverend Goode took possession by the close of the Annual Revisions in 1930. Since its conversion to a rectory in 1886 the house has continued in use as a residence for the clergy of Dromore Cathedral.

Writing in 1974, Brett described the rectory as "an attractive five-bay two-storey and basement roughcast house, with quoins; nice wide Doric doorcase, with fanlight, at the head of seven wide stone steps; the ground floor windows framed in architraves, coupled segmental-headed windows above." He suggested a construction date of around 1840, but this is contradicted by the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and by Atkinson's account of the building's late 18th-century origins. The rectory was first listed in 1977.

Setting

The Rectory is set back from Church Street behind a boundary of squared rubble stonework with dressed coping stones, topped by modern metal railings. At the centre, square ashlar gate piers with Gothic caps support modern gates, with a central tarmacadamed entrance flanked by lawned banks. A lawned and planted garden to the west is enclosed by a high smooth rendered wall to the west gable of the house. The front garden is enclosed to the west by a roughcast rendered garden wall with a timber-sheeted door to the yard, which is now in separate ownership. Mature trees enclose the property to the north and east. The Rectory has group value with the Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer directly opposite.