Service section of Alexander House, Main Street, Caledon, Co Tyron BT68 4TZ

Service Wing of Alexander House, Main Street, Caledon

This is the large, two-storey, rendered and gabled service wing attached to Alexander House, a substantial gentleman's residence in the village of Caledon. The ensemble sits close to the southern end of Caledon Main Street. Alexander House itself is of probable 18th century construction, but the service wing, though of pre-1830s origin, assumed its present form in around 1898 when the roof was almost certainly raised and decorative fretted gables were added. The wing is attached to the north gable of the house. The building is of special interest for its style, proportion, setting, and group value, and for its historical associations with the adjacent house, the Caledon Estate, and the development of the village as a whole.

Front Elevation

The front, east-facing elevation of the service wing is asymmetrical. At ground floor level there are four evenly spaced sash windows with Georgian panes, all in a 6-over-6 configuration. Each window has a moulded surround, and the second and fourth windows have railings above them, similar to those found on the half-landing window to the rear of the house. To the far right is an open segmental-headed carriage arch with stone dressings, believed to be limestone. There is an enclosed area to the left of the arch, with railings matching those at the front of the house.

At first floor level there are five sash windows, positioned in line with those below. These are marginally broader than the ground floor windows, though the one to the far right is slightly narrower. They have Edwardian-style glazing in a 4-over-4 configuration and each has a moulded surround matching those at ground floor level. All windows except the one to the far right have small gables above them, with decorated bargeboards incorporating ties, finials, and elaborate fretwork, sections of which have broken away. The south end of the wing abuts the house itself, and the north gable is abutted by a slightly lower two-storey building that served as the local constabulary barracks for much of the 19th century.

Rear Elevation

The rear elevation presents a complex appearance. To the far left is the back of the carriage arch, which has stone voussoirs. Directly above it at first floor level is a small sash window with vertical glazing bars in a 2-over-2 configuration. Immediately to the right of the archway is a high stone wall enclosing the yard at the rear of the wing; the archway gives access to the rear of the neighbouring property to the north. The wall has a pronounced bevel where it meets the rear of the service wing, and set within the bevel is a large segmental-arched carriage gate fitted with a relatively recent sheeted double door. To the right of the wall there are two ground floor windows with dilapidated sash frames matching those at first floor level on the front elevation, with railings above them. At first floor level to the left there is a small window with a Georgian-paned frame.

To the right of these windows extends a large two-storey hipped-roof return. The north face of the return has three windows to each floor, all with dilapidated sash frames in a 4-over-4 configuration. On the shorter west face there is a doorway to the left at ground floor level. On the south face there is a small frameless window to the left at first floor level and a larger sash window matching those on the north face. To the far right, this face of the return is abutted by a two-storey hipped-roof projection containing a timber-sheeted and glazed door at ground floor level, above which are two small square sash windows with 2-over-2 frames set at slightly different levels but close together; these appear to light a secondary stairwell. To the south of the projection extends a tall stone wall separating the yard from the garden to the south.

Materials and Roof

The service wing is rendered to match the house at the front, with rougher harling to the rear, portions of which have come away to reveal construction largely in stone, but with a section to the eaves in brick — consistent with the roof having been raised in height. The projection to the south of the return has relatively fresh, unpainted lined render. The gabled roof is slated and has two rendered chimneystacks, one to the north gable. At the intersection of the return roof with the main roof there is a large metal water tank.

Historical Background

The earliest known reference to Alexander House is Robert Barns's 1813 map of Caledon, which shows a large two-storey house on this site, apparently with a flight of steps leading to the door. The property is clearly identifiable on the 1838 valuation map, though the accompanying valuation book gives no details of its age. Several pieces of evidence suggest the house predates 1813 considerably. Barns's map records the property as belonging to a John Pringle in 1813. The Pringle family held leases on much property within Caledon from at least 1737 to the early 1800s, primarily on the western side of the street. A lease of 1737 specifically required an earlier John Pringle to build six dwelling houses each 35 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 10 feet high, together with suitable office buildings. As such stipulations typically set minimum rather than maximum dimensions, it is possible that Alexander House was built at or shortly after this date. This is further supported by the fact that successive members of the Pringle family acted as agents for the owners of the Caledon Estate from at least 1776, and as agents typically occupied high-status residences, the house may well have been standing by that date. Certain elements of the interior detailing — most notably the staircase and the architraves — also appear consistent with an early to mid-18th century date. It therefore seems probable that the house was built by the Pringle family, that it served as the agent's residence from the outset, and that it may date from around the mid-1700s.

The last Pringle occupant appears to have been the aforementioned John, who died around 1815. He was succeeded as resident and as agent by Henry Leslie Prentice, who is recorded as such in the 1838 valuation, and whose family remained there until the 1870s. The Prentice family were in turn followed by various members of the Alexander family, relations of the Earls of Caledon, who occupied the property in the later 19th and early 20th centuries.

The service wing to the north and the outbuilding complex to the rear are both shown on the 1838 valuation map. The service wing also appears on Barns's 1813 map. The outbuildings, which mainly contained stables, are known from a datestone to have been constructed in 1830. By 1860, when the second valuation map was produced, a porch had been added to the front of the house. Significant alterations were made in the later 19th century, including the addition of the large return to the rear of the service wing, the enlargement of some windows at the front of the house, and the addition of a square bay to the rear. The style of these changes — including the mullioned and transomed window frames and the fretted gables to the service wing — along with evidence from the annual valuation revision books, points to a date of 1898. The large return, however, appears slightly earlier in character, being constructed entirely of rubble, though no documentary evidence supports this. It is probable that the 1898 work included the raising of the service wing's roof, given that the front windows sit awkwardly close to the eaves, the roofline cuts across an attic window of the main house, and the uppermost portions of the walls are in brick rather than stone.

Subsequent changes to the property appear to have been largely internal, including the insertion of a large opening in the living room wall linking it with the kitchen, carried out at some point in the mid-20th century, and the removal of most of the fireplaces. In recent years the service wing has been used mainly as a store.