St James' Old Rectory (AKA Earls Gift), Claudy Road, Donemana, Strabane, Co Tyrone, BT82 0PH

St James' Old Rectory (also known as Earls Gift) is a detached five-bay, two-storey Georgian house built around 1790, originally constructed as the glebe house for the nearby St James Church of Ireland. It stands to the east side of Longland Road within the townland of Creaghan, set in its original mature grounds, which retain the original stable block, enclosed yard, and a range of outbuildings to the south.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The house is rectangular on plan. A two-storey canted entrance bay was added to the west elevation around 1850, and there is a two-storey return to the north-east. A more recent single-storey hipped sunroom extension has been added to the south.

The roof is hipped, covered in natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles over a corbelled eaves course. The pitched return has timber eaves and raised sandstone verges. The chimneys are roughcast and fitted with various clay pots. Walls throughout are roughcast over a smooth rendered plinth. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round gutters with round downpipes.

Windows are generally square-headed, timber-framed sliding sashes: 9/6 panes at ground floor and 6/3 panes at first floor on the principal elevations, with timber casement windows to the return. All windows have painted masonry sills. The return has painted timber top-hung replacement windows to the rear.

The principal elevation faces west. The central bay is abutted by the canted entrance bay, with the exposed sections to the left and right each containing two windows at each floor level. The canted entrance bay features a round-arched entrance opening with a moulded surround and archivolt, surmounted by a pedimented canopy. Within this sits a square-headed pair of timber panelled double-leaf entrance doors topped by a sunburst fanlight. The entrance is flanked by recessed cast-iron boot-scrapers and reached by six sandstone steps. At first floor the canted bay has a single window, with 6/6 sliding sash windows to the north and south cheeks at ground floor level.

The north elevation has two windows at each floor to the left, one window at each floor to the right, and is abutted at the left by the return. The east elevation has, to the left, two 6/6 sliding sash windows at ground floor surmounted by two 6/3 sliding sash windows at first floor, with a round-arched stairwell window at centre, and is abutted to the right by the return. The south elevation has a single 4/4 sliding sash window at first floor left, a 6/6 window at centre, and a single window to the right; at ground floor it is abutted by the sunroom extension, which contains uPVC windows.

The north elevation of the return contains five windows at first floor; at ground floor there are two windows to the left and one to the right. The east gable is blank. The south elevation projects at the left, where a vertically-sheeted timber entrance door sits at centre, flanked to the left by a single window and to the right by a large square-headed opening with a corrugated metal door, with two windows at first floor. To the right of this, a central replacement timber entrance door is flanked on each side by a single window, with three windows at first floor.

OUTBUILDINGS AND SETTING

To the south-east is an enclosed yard bounded by rubble walling, roughcast on the west elevation. A small raised lawn sits to the front of the principal elevation, with masonry steps and roughcast low walling.

The stable block is a multi-bay single-storey range with a central gabled bay containing a pair of segmental-headed carriage arches to the south-east. Its roof is pitched corrugated metal, its walls are roughcast, and it retains vertically-sheeted timber stable doors. Beyond this is a further enclosed farmyard to the south containing a range of roughcast outbuildings.

The site is bounded to the road at the south and west by recent random stone walling, entered through a pair of square piers with concrete coping supporting a pair of steel gates. The eastern boundary is rubble walling and the northern boundary with agricultural land is a timber fence.

HISTORY

The house dates from around 1790, its age indicated by its styling and proportions. The addition of the entrance bay to the west is dated to around 1850, a conclusion supported by the evidence of the internal hall door, which appears originally to have served as the external entrance and was accessed by stone steps. The form and position of the return — including its chimney placement and fenestration — suggest the possibility that what are now the right-hand (east) bays may once have been a separate three-bay, two-storey house built around 1820 within the grounds, later joined to the main house by a central section.

The building and a formal garden are shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, where it is captioned 'Earls Gift'. At that date the western entrance bay is absent, and the main house appears to have extended further to the south than it does today. The stable block at the rear is also shown on this edition. By the second edition of 1853 the entrance bay has appeared. By the fourth edition of 1951, the southward extension has gone.

The Townland Valuation records the property as comprising a dwelling, portico, return, additions, offices and office shed, with measurements given for each portion. At that time the house was occupied by the Reverend Charles Douglas and valued at £28, with a deduction noted for what was described as the inconvenience of its situation.

Samuel Lewis, writing in 1837, records: "The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Derry, and in the patronage of the Marquess of Abercorn: the tithes amount to £1,350. The glebe-house was erected in 1792, by aid of a gift of £100 from the late Board of First Fruits: the glebe comprises 1,192 acres."

Griffith's Valuation of 1858 records the property as a house, offices, land, and a piggery. It is valued at £56 8s., with a note that the house had been greatly improved since the last valuation and was considered worth £50. The occupier at this date was the Honourable Reverend Douglas Gordon, and the property was freehold.

Subsequent Valuation Revision records show the occupier as the Reverend George John Holmes, with the property valued at £54. In 1878 the occupier is revised to the Church Temporality Commissioner, and in 1876 to the Reverend Frederick Clarke. From 1877 the property is recorded as leased from the Representative Body. The valuation, originally recorded at £40, was revised down to £30 in 1876 following an order from a Commissioner in April of that year. It was further reduced to £29 in 1887 and to £27 in 1889. Three outbuildings were added under the same site reference in 1887, each valued at £1. By 1898 the occupier is recorded as G. H. Gatchell.

A parish history booklet likewise dates the rectory to 1792, describing it as a large house with living accommodation for the many servants required to run both the house and farm. During this period the parish was not directly involved in the repairs and maintenance of the rector's residence, a situation that changed following disestablishment. Maintenance of the rectory subsequently became a source of difficulty, and in 1960 it was proposed to sell it and use the proceeds from the sale of the orchard field towards a new rectory. It was ultimately decided to repair the building instead, and the total cost of repairs in 1963 came to over £5,000. In 1978 a site for a new rectory was chosen.