Former stable yard at Servite Priory, 10 Main Street, Benburb, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, BT71 7JZ

Former Stable Yard, Servite Priory, Benburb

This is a two-storey brick-built stable yard complex of around 1888, originally constructed to serve the adjacent Manor House (now Servite Priory) on Main Street, Benburb. Both buildings are almost certainly the work of the same architect, William Henry Lynn, and were built at the same time. The whole grouping sits to the south of Main Street, approached from the east, with the stable complex positioned immediately to the west-northwest of the main house.

The complex is built in brick with a hipped and gabled slated roof and several brick chimney stacks, and is arranged around a quadrangle with the entrance wing facing east. Over the decades it has been substantially altered and extended: the south wing has been largely rebuilt, the west wing raised in height, and enlarged window openings with modern frames inserted throughout the north and east wings.

The east elevation of the entrance wing is largely one-and-a-half storeys and is dominated by a large central Arts and Crafts or Domestic Revival barbican-gate bay, which is slightly taller than the rest of the elevation. The gateway itself is flat-arched and sits within a further central gabled bay. The archway has timber stanchions with decorative brackets and low timber gates with decorative panels. The gable above features mock half-timbering extending to just under the eaves on either side, and within the gable there is a conjoined pair of mullioned and transomed windows. The gable has an overhang with decorative bargeboards. To either side of this gabled bay is a small window with a PVC frame, and to the far right of the elevation there are four similar windows.

To the right of centre on the inner (west-facing) façade of the east wing is the rear end of the archway, set within a large semicircular-headed recess which is itself contained within a gabled bay. Directly above the archway, within the recess, is a relatively large window with a circa 1950s metal frame. To the left of the gabled bay are two large ground-floor windows, one with a PVC frame and one with a two-over-two sash frame. Directly above, on the upper floor, are two windows of the same type as that over the archway, both set into shed-roofed half-dormers. To the ground floor on the right of the bay is a window with a PVC frame, with three smaller windows above on the first floor. A portion of the upper floor is in brown-red brick, indicating it dates from the 1950s when the present south wing was added. At the centre of the roof of this wing is a small decorative clock tower in timber with a lead-covered ogee roof and weather vane. To each side of the tower is a traditional clock face in black on white, with a louvred opening beneath each face.

The inner (south-facing) façade of the north wing has eleven windows and a doorway at ground-floor level. Windows one to three, four, six, nine, and eleven from the left are two-over-two sash windows, with the remaining openings being larger windows with metal frames. The doorway has timber sheeting and a two-pane fanlight. On the upper floor there are eight windows: numbers one, two, four, and eight are two-over-two sash windows set in shed-roofed half-dormers, the rest have metal frames, with only window seven set into a half-dormer. The north façade could not be seen clearly but appears, from internal evidence, to have a long series of small, squat window openings with original hopper openings at ground-floor level and slightly larger windows on the first floor.

The south wing appears wholly of 1950s construction, being largely in brown-red brick and slightly taller than the other wings. On its inner (north-facing) façade there is a colonnade at ground-floor level with a series of small pointed arch windows, which were apparently inserted relatively recently and are said to have originally belonged to a church, or possibly a convent, in Belfast. There is also a timber-sheeted door at ground-floor level. On the first floor there are a series of small modern windows. The south-facing façade has similar windows on both floors. To the left, the first floor is abutted by the linking corridor connecting to a large 1950s extension on the main house.

The west wing appears originally to have been partly single storey, as its upper section is partly in brown-red brick, mainly to the south half. To the left of centre on its inner (east-facing) façade is an archway of the same type as that in the east wing. To the ground floor left of this archway are two large windows with PVC frames, with two smaller PVC-framed windows directly above on the upper floor. To the ground floor right of the arch is a timber-sheeted door and two two-over-two sash windows, with brickwork patching indicating a window has been blocked up. On the upper floor are three windows of varying size: two appear to have PVC casement frames and the larger central window has a metal frame. On the outer (west-facing) façade of the west wing, the outer end of this archway faces outward. To its left the façade is abutted by a relatively large single-storey outbuilding with a curved roof, now used as a garage. Just above the level of the garage on the first floor are two metal-framed windows, and above the archway is a small shed-roofed dormer with a metal-framed window. To the ground floor right of the archway there is a PVC-framed window at the far right, with evidence of blocked-up windows to the left. On the first floor are five windows similar to those on the north façade of the main 1950s extension.

The building has now been largely converted to dormitories and store rooms, and is physically connected to the main house via the 1950s addition.

Historical background

The manor house and stable complex were built between 1888 and 1890 to designs by William Henry Lynn, for James Bruce, a Belfast businessman who had purchased the Benburb estate from the Powerscourt (Wingfield) family a few years previously. To make way for the new house, Bruce demolished many of the dwellings on the south side of Main Street, including Benburb House, a large residence previously occupied by a Mr Brush, who had been the Powerscourts' agent. The construction was carried out by the Belfast firm of James Henry and Sons.

James Bruce died without children in 1917, and the manor house and remaining lands — 307 acres in total — were sold to a consortium of three men: Robert Pollock and James Cooper of Enniskillen, and James Smith of Liverpool. Cooper subsequently sold his share to Pollock, and Smith sold to William Todd, who was in partnership with Robert Boyd. Todd and Boyd then bought out Pollock's share and planned to convert the house into a hotel. By 1935, however, Todd had been declared bankrupt and much of the remaining land was sold off. The building appears to have stood vacant until the beginning of the Second World War, when it was requisitioned by the War Office for use as a military hospital. After the war, Boyd put the estate up for sale and in 1946 it was acquired by the Roman Catholic Parish of Clonfeacle for £12,000. Local clergy originally intended it to be used as an orphanage or collegiate, but in 1949 they sold it for £26,000 to an American branch of the Servites, a Catholic religious order who had for some years been seeking to establish a priory in Ireland. The Servites retain the property to this day. During the 1950s a large great hall extension was added to the west end of the main house, on the site of a former large conservatory or greenhouse, and the south wing of the stable yard was rebuilt at the same time.

Whilst the complex is of some architectural and historic interest, the various alterations and additions have significantly detracted from its late Victorian character.