Wigmore House, 10 Ballydevitt Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4DR

Wigmore House is a fine early 19th-century linen merchant's house of two storeys and three bays, situated north of the River Bann, east of Garvagh, and set within large mature private grounds. Built around 1810 and originally known as Ballydevitt, the house may incorporate fabric from an earlier 17th-century structure, and has been sympathetically restored. It is of considerable historic interest owing to its close connections with the local linen industry, and in particular with the renowned Ballydevitt linen.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The house is rectangular on plan, with a lower two-storey rear return that incorporates vestiges of an earlier structure, and early 20th-century modifications including a full-height canted bay to the north-east. The roof is a shallow hipped, pie-ended form with roll-moulded leaded ridges and hips, and rendered chimneystacks with simple moulded caps. Overhanging sheeted eaves carry cast-iron ogee rainwater goods; the rear has simple projecting eaves and a torus-moulded eaves course to the lower return. The external walling is ruled-and-lined smooth render painted white, with a contrasting plinth course and stepped quoins, and a painted masonry cill course to the ground floor of the main block. Windows throughout are 6/6 timber sashes without horns to the main block and 2/2 horned sashes to the return, except where noted, all with painted stone cills.

The principal elevation faces south-east and is five windows wide at each floor, arranged symmetrically about a central entrance. This entrance comprises a replacement timber panelled door with beaded muntin, flanked by tall slender 2/2 sidelights and surmounted by a margin-paned rectangular fanlight, the whole embraced by a pilastered surround with a moulded masonry canopy supported on scrolled console brackets. Two low stone steps address the entrance. The south-west elevation has two windows to each floor, vertically aligned.

To the rear, the full-height return abuts the main block at the left side, with a two-storey extension filling the re-entrant angle, itself further abutted at ground floor on its right cheek by a single-storey lean-to addition. The exposed right bay is lit by a single window to each floor. The extension is lit to the rear at mid-level by two small 1/1 sash windows, with a casement window to the addition. The return is further extended by a lower two-storey rear block of rendered coursed masonry construction, lit at each side by a series of windows to each floor and at the gable end, generally 2/2 but including a bipartite sash to the north-east. This block is obscured at ground floor to the south-west by a modern conservatory and accessed at the north-east by a four-panelled timber door.

The north-east elevation comprises the main block, remodelled with a canted bay at centre, and extended to the right by the north-east elevation of the full-height return, with which it is flush; the roof level is higher over the canted bay and return. The left bay of the main block has a window to ground floor and two windows to first floor, detailed as the façade. Upper-floor windows further along are segmental-headed and set within moulded architraves; the canted bay has a window to each floor at each facet; the return has two windows to each floor. A notable feature of the north-east elevation is a large 20th-century insertion to the ground floor right, with a floating hood mould above and a cartouche reading: 'Wigmore / Built 1619 AD / Rebuilt 1806 AD / Restored 1993 AD / Vires Eundo Aquirit'.

Roof materials are slate, walling is render, windows are timber sash, and rainwater goods are cast iron throughout.

SETTING AND OUTBUILDINGS

The house is set within large, mature grounds, largely concealed from the road and sheltered by mature trees. A tree-lined avenue leads from Ballydevitt Road, bifurcating to reach a gravel forecourt at the south-east and the stable blocks and rear entrance at the south-west. The site is entered through an alcoved gateway comprising a pair of plain square gate piers supporting wrought-iron gates.

To the rear of the house is a range of single- and two-storey stables and outbuildings enclosing a covered stable yard. This yard is particularly notable for its Belfast truss roof beneath a long lantern. The outbuildings are a mix of 19th- and 20th-century structures, generally of brick — with variegated brick to the 20th-century sections — and a rendered north-east elevation; hipped slate roofs throughout. The two-storey south-east range has been converted to disabled accommodation. There is evidence of blocked openings to the south-west elevation. The interior yard has a range of timber sheeted doors with multi-light transoms, sash windows, and original timber and iron stall divisions.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The house was built as a linen mansion and originally called Ballydevitt, at a time when the linen industry in the Coleraine area was at its peak. The finest linen cloths of the district were known as 'Coleraines'. The bleach green associated with the property dates from 1744 and was sold to Francis Bennett, who is likely to have been the builder of the current dwelling. His son Thomas Bennett lived at the house from at least 1812, and the Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe Ballydevitt — the seat of Thomas Bennett Esq — as 'built in the cottage style with a neat stone front and an avenue', noting it as the only dwelling in the parish with any pretensions to 'architectural ornament'. The Memoirs record that the house was built in 1806 and enlarged around 1828. Thomas's son Stephen Bennett of Greenfield later built a summer residence at Portrush, still surviving as Swanbank.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1831–32 shows the house and outbuildings beside an expansive bleach green and associated mill buildings, with two gate lodges. One of these lodges has since been demolished; the westernmost was originally built in a thatched picturesque Gothick style but is now much altered. By the time of Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) the house had been taken over by John Adams, though Thomas Bennett — who had moved to Castleroe — continued to run the bleaching business at Ballydevitt in association with Adams. John Adams appears to have remodelled the house around this time; the Valuation fieldbook describes it as 'new' and it was initially valued at £17 before being raised to £35. The third edition map of 1904 shows the house much as it is today, having been remodelled around 1860 and again in 1876.

John Adams's son James became owner in 1876 and added a new wing, raising the valuation to £42 10s, but died little more than a decade later. The house then passed to his sister Catherine Mary Lopdell (née Adams). The Lopdells lived primarily in Athenry, County Galway, but visited Ballydevitt regularly during holidays, bringing with them additional staff including four or five maids, a coachman and a butler, while a housekeeper and yardman remained in permanent residence.

After Catherine Lopdell's death in 1921, her son Christopher sold the mills and bleach green to the Irish Bleachers Association Ltd, who closed the bleaching business. The house and farm were subsequently purchased by the Morrisons, who renamed the property Wigmore. At the time of the First General Revaluation (1933–34), Hugh R. Morrison was owner in fee. The house, gate lodge and outbuildings were valued at £106 for the house and £20 5s for agricultural buildings. The ground-floor accommodation at that time comprised four reception rooms, a kitchen, larder, dairy, servants' hall and pantry. The first floor had eight bedrooms, a dressing room, two bathrooms with WC, and a separate WC, with servants' quarters in the rear wing comprising four bedrooms, a bathroom and WC. The house was described as 'substantially built and well finished inside and outside', with parquet floors to the hall and drawing room. There was no attic or basement; water was supplied to a tank by hydraulic ram, and a petrol engine provided electric lighting. Associated plans show a stableyard with a garage, coal store and separate greenhouse. One of the old bleach mills was in use as a riding school, and another became a mushroom house in 1938. A further garage was added to the site in the late 1930s.

The stable courtyard was covered over after 1935, and it is understood that this was carried out by the Morrisons as part of their riding school venture. Part of the house was requisitioned by the War Department in 1942, though the purpose is not recorded. In the early 1980s the house was converted to a retirement home, with the former service wing becoming private quarters. In the early 1990s, renovations included the addition of a conservatory and the conversion of the service wing into two self-contained flats.

A date plaque on the house records that it was first built in 1619, however no firm evidence for this early date has been brought forward, though the thick masonry walls to the south-eastern portion of the rear return are noted. The nearby watch house, while not close enough to form a formal architectural group, adds historical group interest to the site.