Dromore House, 88 Coolyvenny Road, Aghadowey`, Co Londonderry, BT51 3SF

Dromore House is a relatively compact, two-storey detached late Georgian country house dating from around the 1820s, with a flat-roofed entrance porch added around 1859 and a rear extension of around 1900. It stands on the south-west side of Coolyvenny Road, roughly 5 kilometres south of Coleraine. It is a well-preserved example of a small late Georgian country residence or substantial farmer's dwelling, and a notable survival of its type, with an equally well-preserved setting.

Architectural Description

The front elevation faces south-west (referred to as south for ease of description, with all other façades named accordingly). It is symmetrical, with a central single-storey projecting porch raised above a short flight of stone steps. The door opening is flat-headed, and the timber door is panelled and part-glazed, with sidelights to either side. Each cheek of the porch has a paired window with a 6-over-6 timber sash frame. The porch has a projecting cornice with a blocking course above. To either side of the porch there are two window openings at ground floor level, with five evenly spaced openings across the first floor. All openings are flat-headed; the ground floor frames are 6-over-6 sashes, those to either side of the first floor are 6-over-3 sashes, and the central first floor opening has been converted to a French window with side-hung casements, each with three lights.

The west façade is largely obscured by shrubbery. It is gabled and merges with the side of the rear return. Windows are set mainly to the left and are of the same type as those to the front. A small window lights the roof space and has a 1-over-1 sash frame.

The north façade has three two-storey returns set to the right. The original return is the tallest and has a pitched roof; attached to its north face is a lower two-storey lean-to return, and in the internal angle with the main house there is a further two-storey flat-roofed return. All window openings are flat-headed; those to the original return are all 6-over-6 sashes, while the others are mainly 1-over-1 sashes.

The east façade is gabled, with two window openings set to the right of centre — one at ground floor and one at first floor level — with openings and frames matching those elsewhere.

The main roof and the roof of the original return are pitched, finished in natural slate with red fireclay ridge tiles. Rainwater goods are cast iron. The northerly return has a lean-to slated roof. Eaves and verges have no overhangs. The walls are topped with a shallow eaves course and finished with ruled and lined render.

Setting

The house sits within a mature garden. A random rubble stone boundary wall runs along the roadside, with the gateway to the house at the right and the gate to the farmyard at the left. A tree-lined avenue leads from the road through a gateway of round conical-capped pillars with wrought iron gates, running down the west side of the house to the forecourt. The house looks out across lawns to a boundary hedge and trees.

At the east side, double gates set in a high wall give access to a rear yard, on the right-hand side of which is a detached building now used as a garage. Between the house and the road is another enclosed yard with a grouping of farm outbuildings. Running parallel to the house is a long range incorporating a series of rooms used variously as byres and stables. Along the north side of this yard, beside the road, there is a piggery and a metal-clad hay shed. The outbuildings are finished with roughcast render and have slated pitched roofs. The yard is enclosed to the west by the return of the south outbuilding and to the east by a wall containing a pair of simple wrought iron gates between round pillars, giving onto a short lane leading to the road through a similar gateway.

Historical Notes

An L-shaped house of the same orientation and broadly similar plan to the present building is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1831–32, along with a long outbuilding to the rear that closely resembles the one standing today, though without its north-west projection. In the valuation of November 1832, the house is recorded as the home of a Mr. (possibly William) Gamble, with the dwelling and offices rated at £15. Although the house book recording the building's dimensions has not survived, the relatively high rateable value suggests the present building was already standing at that time. Its style indicates it may have been relatively newly built, possibly dating from the mid to later 1820s.

On the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1849–51, a large off-centre projection is shown on the front of the house, and the return appears longer, extending back to the large outbuilding to the rear. This might suggest a new building, but the 1856 valuation records the property as "not new" — meaning, in the valuers' terms, a building of 25 years or more. The 1856 dimensions are recorded as 40 feet by 23 by 18 for the main block, and 16 by 16 by 17 and 16 by 12 by 12 for the components of the return, which broadly corresponds to the present structure without the porch. The large outbuilding is also noted at 90 by 19 by 10, with two smaller structures of 20 by 17 by 8 and 21 by 12 by 6. At this point the property was occupied by a James Sinclair, with Adam Smith as the immediate lessor, and the rateable value stood at £16.

In 1859 the rateable value rose to £20, possibly reflecting the addition of the entrance porch, though this is not confirmed. By 1868, a William Hayden is listed as occupant, with George Dunbar of Woburn House, County Down as lessor. Hayden was followed by the Misses Torrens in 1872, and then by the Reverend James Smith, who appears to have been minister of Crossgare Presbyterian Church. Between that date and 1922, Dromore House appears to have served as a manse. In 1892 the rateable value fell to £14, with the valuer reporting the house as "old and dilapidated." Any repair work carried out in the following years could explain why the staircase detailing appears to be late Victorian or Edwardian in character. The flat-roofed rear extension may have been added around the same period, though the valuers make no mention of it; its plate glass sash windows point to the early 1900s.

In 1922 a Samuel A. Smyth took up residence. William Torrens acquired the house around 1933, and it appears to have remained with his relatives until 1970, when the house (but not the surrounding land) was sold to a Professor P. J. Newbould, who was still in residence in 1972.

The property once had a gate lodge, built at some point between 1832 and 1849 and situated to the north of the house itself, which has since been demolished.