207 Ballymaguire Road, Stewartstown, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, BT71 5NR

A detached two-storey house over basement with attic, built about 1775 and situated in the countryside well back from Ballymaguire Road, accessed by a long lane. The house is three-bay and classically proportioned, rectangular in plan with two main storeys, a lower partially subterranean ground floor, and an attic.

The front northwest elevation is dashed render with extensive ivy cover and no door openings. It has three square-headed windows with cut-stone sills to each floor. The windows to the lower ground floor are replacement uPVC. Those to the main floor are six-over-six timber sash windows, and those to the first floor are three-over-six timber sash. The original entrance stair and door have been removed. The main entrance is now on the southwest gable, located on the left of the main floor with one window to the right. The door is a square-headed timber glazed double door with a projecting canopy supported on two Ionic columns. The canopy has a cornice detail. The door is accessed by a flight of seven tapering stone steps. There is a wide chimney to the apex of the gable.

The rear northwest elevation is dashed render with a square-headed replacement uPVC door to the centre of the lower ground floor. There are a variety of replacement uPVC windows on this level and a rendered single-storey return to the left with a monopitch artificial slate roof. Windows above are positioned identical to the front elevation. First floor windows are sash windows as before but the windows to the main floor are replacement uPVC. The northeast gable elevation is dashed render with no openings and extensive plant cover, with a wide chimney to the apex.

External walls are cement wetdash with a smooth plinth, covered on two elevations with climbing plants including ivy. The roof is pitched and covered with artificial slate, with overhanging eaves and verges. There are two rendered chimneystacks, one to the apex of each gable, each with five clay pots. Rainwater goods and fascias are uPVC.

The house sits on a lawn to the front with mature deciduous trees to the boundaries. Cast-iron gates with flanking cast-iron fence mark the entrance, with piers and side walls finished in dashed render. To the rear is a two-storey gable-ended rendered outbuilding with slate roof and a variety of timber sash windows.

The building was formerly used as a rectory. According to Canon Leslie, it was built about 1775. It is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833-34 and recorded in the contemporary valuation as an 'old house with a new addition and roof', rated at £18-4-0. Its dimensions are listed in the same valuation as amounting to 41 feet by 32 feet by 20 feet for the main block, with cellars (which included the kitchen) of 41 by 32 by 8 feet, a return of 24 by 12 by 8 feet, outbuildings of 40½ by 18½ by 15 feet, 36 by 18 by 11 feet, 20 by 16 by 8 feet, and a thatched shed measuring 45 by 16 by 6½ feet. The property also included a gatehouse at this date, its dimensions noted as 24 by 16 by 10 feet. At the time of the valuation the incumbent was the Reverend Jonathan Darley. Darley was succeeded by Reverend James Thomas O'Brien in 1837, who in turn was followed by Thomas McNeece in 1842, Reverend William Lee in 1863, Reverend William de Burgh in 1864, Reverend Thomas Jordan in 1867, Reverend Charles Leslie Garnett in 1875, Reverend William Dancy in 1894, Reverend Hugh Harvey Cunninghame in 1904, Reverend Charles Ralph Kerr circa 1929-35 and Reverend Cooper in 1956. In 1887 the gatehouse is recorded separately by the valuers, its occupant noted as William J. Ferguson and the rateable value £1-10-0.

The building has been seriously degraded with the loss of its principal entrance, re-orientation of its plan form and the loss of its original roof along with modern windows in an inappropriate style and material.