The Manor House, 69 Bridge Street, Kilrea, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 5RR

The Manor House, Kilrea

The Manor House is a freestanding, largely symmetrical two-storey Georgian-style house with a basement, built between approximately 1832 and 1835 to serve as the residence of the agent to the Worshipful Company of Mercers'. It was designed by William Barnes, architect to the Mercers' Company, and completed in 1835 at a cost of £4,000. The clerk of works was James Turnbull, a local surveyor and builder who collaborated with Barnes on several other projects, including the schoolhouse at Movanagher. The building is rectangular on plan, five openings wide, and sits within extensive mature wooded grounds on the eastern edge of Kilrea, with the south elevation overlooking the 'Washing Lough' and a golf course.

Architectural Character

The principal elevation faces north and is five windows wide, with the three central openings contained within a shallow pedimented breakfront framed by plainly detailed giant pilasters. A central pediment above the eaves course is supported on two giant plain pilasters, with further pilasters to each corner of the main and rear elevations. The walling is stuccoed, with banded rustication to the ground floor of the north elevation. The roof is double-hipped slate with grey stone ridge tiles, projected eaves with sheeted soffits, and half-round cast iron rainwater goods. Two painted off-centre chimneys rise from the east and west walls, each fitted with multiple octagonal terracotta pots.

Windows throughout are 6/6 timber sashes with plain reveals and sills. On the principal elevation, windows have slightly projecting stucco architraves; those to the ground floor are topped with plain entablatures. The first-floor central window architrave alone has lugs.

The central porch features a round-headed opening with an archivolt rising from impost mouldings, all embraced by a half-engaged Doric portico with a heavy entablature. Access is via three wide stone steps to a double-leaf round-headed six-panelled timber door. The cheeks of the porch are lit by narrow round-headed leaded-lattice windows. Although the front porch was not part of the original design, it was erected in conjunction with the house to designs prepared by Barnes.

The west elevation has a canted bay lit by three windows to the first floor and one window to the ground floor, with the remainder blocked; the lower portion is abutted by modern flat-roof additions of no architectural interest. The rear (south) elevation retains five windows to the first floor; the original walls of the main house are now internal at lower levels, where a heavily glazed two-tiered modern extension of no architectural interest advances from the basement and ground floor and extends to the east, though doors and windows in the original fabric are generally retained. The east elevation is largely blank, save for a central round-headed window to the first floor of the advancing bay and two oculi on the first and ground floor levels to the left side.

Outbuildings and Later Additions

A row of three adjoining outbuildings dating from around 1900 abuts the main house at ground floor and basement level on the east side; an 18-pane window and door at ground floor level of the original building are now internal as a result. Further flat-roof additions of no architectural interest abut the south-east re-entrant angle. The row of abutting two-storey, gable-ended outbuildings has pitched slate roofs of varying heights with uPVC rainwater goods. Walling is stuccoed; windows are replacement timber sashes, generally with stepped surrounds, with some timber casements, painted stone sills, and a combination of replacement timber panelled and modern timber doors. A large proportion of the rear is abutted by one- and two-storey flat-roof extensions advancing to the south, which are of no architectural interest.

A freestanding three-bay, hipped-roof outbuilding of coursed and squared rubble construction lies to the west of the main house, dating from the mid-19th century and contemporary with the original build. It has uPVC rainwater goods, generally timber sash windows with rendered stepped surrounds, and modern timber doors with plain glass transoms. The north bay has a central double-height segmental-headed arch, now blocked up. The south bay has an extension in traditional style along the western elevation comprising a lean-to timber and glass entrance porch. The higher two-storey central bay has two metal-framed windows to the west elevation; the east elevation comprises an advancing mono-pitched structure of timber, masonry and glass containing a concrete and masonry stair leading to a door at first floor level.

Setting

The house sits within substantial mature woodland and overlooks a golf course and the 'Washing Lough' to the south. A grassed area and houses are sited to the north and east. The front entrance is reached via a tree- and wall-lined driveway leading from the south side of Bridge Street to a car park at the front of the house; a secondary section of the drive leads south to a gravel car park to the west of the building group. The main entrance door is approached via modern concrete steps or a universal access ramp. A gravel and tarmac path circles the perimeter of the entire building group.

Historical Background

The Manor House was built following the Mercers' Company's repossession of its Londonderry estate upon the death of the final tenant, Alexander Stewart, in 1831. In Plantation times, during the colonisation of Ulster, the Worshipful Company of Mercers' — a principal Livery Company of the City of London — directly controlled an estate of 33.5 square miles around the district of Kilrea and Movanagher. By the mid-17th century the estate had been let to nominated individuals, many of whom were absentee landlords, and it fell into severe decline. On resuming direct control, the Company appointed architects George Smith and William Barnes and instigated an ambitious improvement scheme for Kilrea, carefully regulating the style and proportion of all new buildings. The Manor House was erected as the home of the Company's appointed agent, William Henry Holmes, who was the chief representative tasked with managing the estate. The original designs were quite modest and restrained, but the Company considered it necessary to have a building of suitable scale and grandeur "in order to establish the Agent as a Person of Quality."

The building first appears captioned on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857, set within extensive ornamental wooded grounds to the east of Bridge Street and north of the Washing Lough. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1830–39 record that the Lough obtained its name from the softness of its water. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856, by which time George Bicknell had succeeded Holmes as agent, the buildings were first listed at £55. The valuer noted: "This is a very elegant mansion; well built and furnished and beautifully situated near a lake." At that time the accommodation included a kitchen, basement, laundry, offices, stables, a coach house, a garden house and gate lodge, and a farm. Robert Dolling subsequently took over from Bicknell, who was himself superseded in 1878 by Sir William Holmes; during this period the Annual Revisions of 1864–78 record the value of the buildings had risen to £57. By 1887 the occupier was a James Fisher, and three other houses were included within the listing, each valued at around £1 10s., two of which were gate lodges along Bridge Street.

In the early 20th century, the eighteen rooms of the house were occupied by a doctor and Member of Parliament, James Lennox. According to the 1911 Census, fifteen outbuildings were associated with the property, though the valuation remained largely unchanged. The house remained under the ownership of the Mercers' Company until the early 20th century, but by 1935 the buildings and land were occupied by St Anne's Convent of Mercy. A Public Elementary School operated by the convent also functioned within the grounds, housed in a former stable and coach house. The three small ancillary houses continued to be occupied until the mid-to-late 20th century, and the convent remained in occupation until a similar period. In recent decades the buildings have been remodelled and extended and now function as a golf club and hotel.