Lizard Manor, 45 Rusky Park, Aghadowey, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4AH

Lizard Manor is a large country house built around 1861 in the Georgian style, set in mature grounds to the south of Rusky Park, south of Coleraine, in the townland of Rusky. It is an impressive and well-preserved mid-19th-century country house — one of the finest examples of its type in the district — retaining a wealth of original historic detailing and having undergone very few alterations over the past 150 years. The house has significant local and historic interest through its associations with the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, a City of London livery company that held extensive lands in this area since the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century.

EXTERIOR

The main block is a symmetrical three-bay, two-storey rectangular structure with a central breakfront to the front (south) elevation and two-storey canted bay windows to the east and west sides. To the rear, a rectangular block has a single-storey extension to the west and is abutted at the north by a three-storey return, which is in turn abutted by a two-storey servants' block.

The roof is hipped natural slate with leaded ridges and hips, and rectangular and square rendered chimneystacks with corbelled caps and clay pots. Rainwater goods are plastic, carried on projecting timber eaves with sheeted soffits and carved timber brackets. External walls are smooth render on a plinth, with straight-channelled quoins, a platband between floors, and a moulded string-course below the eaves. Windows throughout are generally six-over-six timber sash without horns, set in moulded architraves with projecting stone sills, unless noted otherwise.

The principal south elevation is symmetrically arranged about the central two-storey breakfront. The breakfront is flanked by two windows at each floor. At ground floor it features a round-headed doorcase with a raised-and-fielded four-panel timber door with brass door furniture, flanked by fluted square piers whose heads are carved with swag-and-tails ornament and eight-paned sidelights. Above the door is a large timber spider-web fanlight in a broach-marked surround, resting on two semi-engaged columns with carved acanthus leaf capitals. The entrance is reached via two concrete paved steps. At first floor, the breakfront has paired four-over-four windows.

The west elevation has a two-storey canted bay with a window to each facet; the six-over-six window insertion at ground floor centre has two panelled timber aprons. The rear block is slightly recessed and two windows wide at first floor, abutted at ground floor by the single-storey flat-roofed extension, which has a canted bay to its front and windows to each cheek.

The north (rear) elevation of the main block is abutted to the right of centre by the three-storey return. The exposed section to the right of the return has four-over-four windows to the first and ground floors; the exposed section to the left has a large six-over-six window to the ground floor right, abutted by a small modern cement-rendered lean-to coal house. The west elevation of the return has three diminished windows to the second floor, three windows at first floor (the right-hand one bipartite six-over-six), and a projecting multi-paned box bay timber window to the ground floor right. The east elevation of the return has two widely spaced windows at second floor; eight-over-eight windows to the first floor left and right flanking a narrow six-over-six window; at ground floor, a bipartite six-paned timber window to the left, a modern enlarged window opening to the left of centre, and an eight-over-eight window to the right.

The servants' block is lit to the north by two windows at each floor, with a further diminutive window to the ground floor left. The west elevation has a window at each floor and a timber-sheeted door with latch handle surmounted by a timber fanlight. The east elevation has a bipartite six-over-six window to the first floor and a window to the ground floor right, with a timber-sheeted door with latch handle to the left surmounted by a three-paned timber transom. The east elevation of the main block has a two-storey canted bay to the left with a window at each facet; the rear block is slightly recessed and three windows wide at each floor.

SETTING

The house is set within large, mature, rural grounds accessed from Rusky Park to the north via a long tree-lined tarmacadamed avenue, with wrought-iron railings to the entrance and tall modern metal gates. The grounds contain a variety of mature trees. To the north of the house is an original Victorian tennis court and a large walled garden with tall Flemish-bonded red-brick walls visible from Rusky Park. To the west is a former stable block in slated red brick, comprising a large two-storey rectangular main block with a central gablet and two perpendicular single-storey wings flanking a central cobbled yard. The yard opens to the east through a square-headed carriage arch with a timber lintel. The south and south wings both have modified openings; the main block to the west retains a two-over-two timber sash window and a replacement timber-sheeted door.

HISTORY

Lizard Manor was built for the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers as a permanent residence for their local agent. The completed house first appeared in the Annual Revisions by 1861 — it is absent from both the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849–52 and Griffith's Valuation of 1856. When first completed the building was valued at £45 and occupied by Henry Anderson Esq., the company's local agent, who also served as a magistrate and Justice of the Peace. In 1861 the valuer noted that the rating was likely to increase once offices then under construction were complete; these were finished by 1864, when the estate's value rose to £55. The two-storey red-brick stable block to the west may have formed part of these offices. The servants' block abutting the northern return was used as a dwelling by the estate steward.

The company's connection with this part of County Londonderry stretches back to the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. Originally one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers was granted lands in the parish of Aghadowey. In 1614, George Canning, the company's first agent in Ireland, constructed a bawn and castle in the parish. In 1618 the company established the Manor of Lizard, comprising lands totalling 38,470 acres; the name was derived from the company's arms, which feature a lizard. Having leased their land to agents for nearly two centuries, the company resumed direct control of the Manor of Lizard around 1840, carried out a full survey of its properties, and subsequently undertook improvements including the construction of Lizard Manor on previously undeveloped land in the townland of Rusky.

Henry Anderson continued to reside at Lizard Manor until his death around 1870, when the property passed into private ownership. In 1874 it was acquired by the Stronge family of Tynan Abbey, County Armagh. The Stronge family were landowners whose principal seat was Tynan Abbey, a Neo-Gothic manor erected around 1750; the baronetcy was first conferred upon the Reverend Sir James Stronge in 1803. The valuation sources record Sir Edmond Stronge as the resident until his death around 1910. From 1889 the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers began selling portions of its estate, and in 1891 the Stronge family purchased Lizard Manor and its associated lands from the company.

The 1901 Census records Edmond Stronge (aged 78, Church of Ireland) residing at Lizard Manor with his two sons Edward (aged 30) and Sir Charles Edmond Sinclair Stronge (1862–1939). Sir Charles later became the 7th Baronet of Tynan in 1933 upon the death of his brother Sir Walter Lockhart Stronge (1860–1933). The census building return described Lizard Manor as a first-class dwelling comprising 22 rooms and a large number of outbuildings including two stables, two coach houses, five cow houses, a boiling house, and a barn. Stronge employed a large number of domestic servants, cooks, and maids. All of these outbuildings are recorded on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904, which shows the two-storey stable block to the west of the house along with a number of smaller farm buildings to the immediate north; the overall layout of Lizard Manor has not changed since 1904, although some of the minor outbuildings have since been demolished.

Sir Charles Edmond Sinclair Stronge had taken over possession of Lizard Manor from his father in 1897, though Edmond Stronge continued to reside there until his death around 1910. Sir Charles remained at the property until his own death in 1939. Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935, the property's value was increased to £150.

Upon Sir Charles Stronge's death, Lizard Manor remained in his family until 1953, when it came into the possession of Major the Right Honourable Phelim O'Neill (1909–1994), also known as the 2nd Baron Rathcavan. O'Neill served in the Second World War, was elected Member of Parliament for North Antrim in 1952 as a member of the Ulster Unionist Party, and subsequently served as Minister of Education and Minister of Agriculture; he was also appointed High Sheriff of County Antrim in 1958. O'Neill resided at Lizard Manor until 1978, though by 1972 the rateable value had been reduced to £97 as a result of a change in occupation. The house was listed in 1977 and sold the following year when O'Neill moved to County Mayo. Writing in 1979, Alistair Rowan described the manor as "a big stucco house with timber corbel brackets to the eaves and canted bay-windows on the side elevations," though his suggestion that the house was built for the Stronge family is incorrect; the valuation evidence clearly shows it was erected by the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers for their agent Henry Anderson, with the Stronges not acquiring the property until the mid-1870s.

Lizard Manor continues in use as a private dwelling and has undergone very few alterations over its 150-year history, retaining much of its original mid-Victorian character. The only notable change to the original property has been the demolition or dilapidation of some of the associated outbuildings.