Woodbrook, 61 Deerpark Road, Birnaghs, Newtownstewart, Co Tyrone, BT78 4LB

Woodbrook is a fine symmetrical Georgian house built around 1765 by Samuel Tagert, a linen merchant, and substantially improved around 1810. It sits on an elevated site on the west side of Deerpark Road at Birnaghs, near Newtownstewart, set within landscaped grounds and facing north-east. The house is listed at Grade B+ and the listing covers the house, its gates, and gate pillars.

The Building

The main house is a five-bay, two-storey structure over a semi-exposed basement, rectangular in plan, rendered in roughcast cement. It has a two-storey return to the rear and a single-storey wing projecting from the west side elevation at basement level. The roof is pitched and covered in artificial slate with black clay ridge tiles. A pair of rendered chimneystacks rises from both gable ends, and the gables have lead-lined skewputts (fractibles). Three metal skylights sit on the rear pitch. Rainwater goods are cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets with cast-iron downpipes, though some plastic downpipes have been fitted to the rear elevation.

The windows are square-headed throughout, with painted stone sills and projecting reveals. Original timber sash windows survive in many openings, some retaining cylinder glass. On the ground floor the windows are tripartite (the Wyatt-style windows introduced during the 1810 improvements); on the first floor they are six-over-six sashes; and in the basement there are twelve-over-twelve side-hung sashes, inserted around 2000.

The Front Elevation

The five-bay north-facing front elevation is symmetrically composed. The first floor carries five windows across the full width. At ground floor level, a single tripartite sash window flanks each side of the central doorcase — a square-headed opening with a painted stone ashlar Gibbs surround and a stepped keystone. The original five-panelled timber door has raised-and-fielded panels and original iron door furniture, with a three-paned rectangular overlight above. The doorway opens onto a semi-circular stone platform reached by seven semi-circular steps.

The Other Elevations

The east gabled side elevation is largely blank, with a pair of small attic openings fitted with replacement four-over-four timber sash windows and painted stone sills. A further square-headed basement window contains a four-pane timber casement with a painted stone sill.

The south rear elevation is generally three bays wide. Because the basement is fully exposed here, the rear effectively presents three storeys in height. An off-centre single-bay, two-storey gabled return projects from this elevation. The windows are six-over-six timber sashes on the ground and first floors, with four- and six-pane windows to the basement. A square-headed door opening on the east side of the return has a replacement timber glazed door leading down into a cement-paved basement area. A low cement-rendered retaining wall encircles the rear elevation, with concrete steps and a concrete balustrade giving access to the raised ground level to the east.

The west gabled side elevation is blank. The single-storey west wing is aligned with the front elevation and has a raised parapet and a small bellcote. A lean-to roof of natural slate falls from the screen wall. There is a door opening in the front screen wall and a pair of four-pane timber casement windows on the south side of the wing. A square-plan rear entrance porch, aligned with the rear elevation, has a pitched artificial slate roof, a multi-pane timber window facing west, and a door opening to the left. A tarmac (bitmac) area on this side forms the main parking area.

The Interior

While recent refurbishments have removed some original internal fabric, a fine staircase and other good-quality fittings have been retained, and the intact exterior appearance is broadly matched within.

Historical Background

The house was built around 1765 by Samuel Tagert. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs, compiled in the 1830s, record it as "a good 2-storey house built of stone" and note that it had been "improved and ornamented with planting" by Samuel's son, William Tagert, in the preceding twenty years. William Tagert was also a Justice of the Peace.

The house appears on the 1833 first edition Ordnance Survey map as "Wood-brook," rectangular in plan with an additional wing to the south-west. By the 1854 edition it is recorded as "Woodbrook," and a Flax Mill and Mill Pond are also marked nearby, the river having been diverted along a mill race to supply the mill. The Townland Valuation records the "house and offices" as the property of J. Taggart Esq., valued at £16 9s. Griffith's Valuation lists the occupier as Robert Taggart and the lessor as the Lord Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, with the buildings then valued at £20. By the 1860 revisions, the house had passed to James McFarlane, though the valuation remained unchanged.

The mill, described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as extensive and in good repair, was erected in 1765 as a bleach mill and converted to a flax mill in 1835. It was powered by a breast wheel fourteen feet by three feet, with a seven-foot-diameter cog wheel, a six-foot fall of water, double-geared wooden and cast-iron machinery, and was supplied by the outlet of Lough Catherine, operating throughout the year. The mill was destroyed by fire around 1946.

Samuel Lewis described Woodbrook as a "principal seat" of the parish. According to historical sources, the house was for a short time the ancestral home of the Buchanan family, among whose descendants was James Buchanan, President of the United States from 1857 to 1861. Architectural historian Alistair Rowan noted that the property was granted to the Buchanan family around 1624, and observed a bleaching green behind the house, consistent with its origins as the home of a linen merchant.

Alterations and Development

The 1810 improvements gave the house its current external character, most notably introducing the tripartite Wyatt-style windows at ground floor level and enlarging the basement windows with side-hung sashes. The first-floor five-bay arrangement reflects the original overall composition of the façade. The two-storey return at the rear was added around 1910 at basement and ground floor level, while the west wing appears always to have occupied a broadly similar footprint. The rear porch on the west gable is a late 20th-century addition. The boundary wall to the road was replaced around 1961 after a storm felled several trees, causing substantial damage to the wall, though the original gates were retained.

The Setting

The house is set back from the road with its east side elevation facing Deerpark Road. The grounds are enclosed from the road by a cement-rendered wall with a pair of rendered piers, each topped with a ball finial, supporting the original pair of wrought-iron gates. A short tarmac drive ascends to a tarmac forecourt, which extends north-west as a large lawn with mature trees and a rendered retaining wall to the west.

To the south-west corner of the house is a T-plan single-storey outbuilding with a corrugated iron roof and a vehicular roller-blind door opening into the side yard. To the south is a linear range of outbuildings: single-storey at the north end with a corrugated iron roof, and two-storey with pebbledash-rendered walls, a pitched natural slate roof, and iron casement windows, possibly built around 1770. Opposite this stands a further two-storey, multi-bay outbuilding with a pitched natural slate roof, pebbledash-rendered walls, and steel casement windows, built around 1910. A small road off Deerpark Road to the north of the front lawn provides rear access to the farmyard and marks the location of the former mill complex, since demolished.

The elevated site, mature trees, and cluster of vernacular outbuildings give Woodbrook considerable importance to the architectural heritage of Newtownstewart and the surrounding area.