Derrymore House, Bessbrook, Newry, Co. Down, BT35 7EF

Derrymore House is a single-storey, thatched, U-shaped building with a basement, built around 1776. It stands within its demesne a short distance to the west of the road leading to Bessbrook, off the Newry to Camlough road, approximately one and a half miles from Bessbrook. The style has been described by the National Trust as gentrified vernacular, or cottage orné. It is a unique building of national importance, and its original design, detailing, and interior have survived, giving it exceptionally high historic interest.

SETTING AND PLAN

The building is arranged around a central court flanked by wings to the north-east and south-west. From the court, a pair of curved-walled lobbies lead to the principal reception room, known as the Treaty Room. Around the perimeter of the building, service passages and drainage moats are protected by a series of metal grilles.

ROOF AND CHIMNEYS

The thatched roof is hipped and sweeps upward over the inner side entrances and at the rear. The ridges are of the block type, with four rows of scallops exposed and interlaced between the lower pair, and the decorative treatment continues below the chimneystacks. The eaves are square cut. There are three stone-built chimneystacks with cappings and tall pots positioned on the ridgeline of each wing. The hipped roof behind the flat roof of the entrance hall is covered with natural slate, and a further stack rises from the front slope to serve the fireplace of the Treaty Room.

CENTRAL COURT

The central entrance is formed by an elliptical arched opening with a radial fanlight, containing double doors each glazed with six panes (two across, three down) above a raised and fielded panel. The sidelights have three vertical panes above a panel of reduced size. Each inner face of the wings contains three vertically sliding sash windows with a 3/3 pane arrangement, exposed frames, sash stops, and sills of traditional depth. A doorway in the north-east wing leading to the Dining Room is of six panels, with the middle two glazed and those above and below raised and fielded. Opposite, a door giving access to the Sitting Room is of similar profile.

WINGS: ENDS AND OUTER ELEVATIONS

The canted north-west end of the north-east wing contains three 6/6 vertically sliding sash windows with exposed frames and sills of traditional depth, but without sash stops. The corresponding end of the south-west wing is lit by three similar windows, but these do have sash stops.

The outer elevation of the north-east wing contains three 6/6 vertically sliding sash windows with exposed frames, sash stops, and sills of traditional depth. At the south-east end of this elevation there is a canted bay window lighting the Lounge, made up of five twelve-pane lights (three across, four down), with the central panel hinged to open, and five 3/3 vertically sliding sash windows without sash stops above. The stone sill is deep at the leading face. A further window set in the south-east wall of this room consists of a pair of twelve-pane panels (three across, four down) with 3/3 vertically sliding sash windows above, the whole surmounted by a label moulding and with a sill of traditional depth. The end walls of the Treaty Room to north-east and south-west, and that of the Bedroom in the south-east end wall of the south-west wing, have fenestration identical to this window.

Starting from the south-west corner, the exterior elevation of the south-west wing has two 6/6 vertically sliding sash windows with exposed frames and sills of traditional depth, followed by a similar window with sash stops. Next, a double door set within a plain plastered gabled surround is glazed in the two upper panels above raised and fielded panels, and is surmounted by a plain rectangular fanlight. The final opening on this elevation contains a window similar to those described, with sash stops.

LOBBIES

The curved-walled lobbies connecting the wings to the Treaty Room are entered through single doors glazed with twelve panes (three across, four down) in the upper parts and plain-faced below. These entrances are provided with door blocks and are each surmounted by a recessed rectangular panel.

TREATY ROOM

The main window lighting the south-east side of the Treaty Room is canted, with three panels at the front and two at each side. The middle front panel, glazed with six panes (two across, three down) over two plain panels, is hinged as an access door. The remaining six lower panels are each of eight panes (two across, four down). Seven 2/2 vertically sliding sash windows are placed above each panel. On each side of this window, the wall is pierced by a leaded quatrefoil set within a moulded surround, itself within a square recess with a narrow sill and surmounted by a label moulding.

HISTORICAL INTEREST

The house was built around 1776 by Isaac Corry, who represented Newry in the Irish House of Commons for thirty years from that date and later became Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer. By tradition, the Treaty of Union between England and Ireland of 1800 was drafted in the Treaty Room by Isaac Corry and Lord Castlereagh. A table on a harp-shaped pedestal, on which King George V signed the constitution of Northern Ireland, is preserved within the building.

Isaac Corry conveyed the property to William Young in 1810, who sold it to Edward Smyth of Newry around 1828. In 1859 Derrymore was acquired by the Richardson family, and Mr J. S. W. Richardson presented it together with the associated buildings and parkland to the National Trust in 1952. An official opening by Lady Margaret Wakehurst, wife of the Governor of Northern Ireland, took place on 8 June 1957.

Ordnance Survey maps of 1834–5 and 1861 show the house with the inner court built up, but the general shape, with some deviation, corresponds to the existing plan form.

ALTERATIONS AND RESTORATION

An entrance hall and other structures infilling the central court, added in the early 19th century by the then owner Sir William Young, were cleared away by the National Trust. During his tenure Sir William Young had also made some alterations to the interior.

An early attempt at thatching with Norfolk reed was not successful, and in 1963 a native appearance was restored using wheat straw and omitting the block ridge. As a consequence of the Troubles, the house was bombed on five separate occasions between 1972 and 1979. The custodian Edmund Baillie carried some of the bombs to the garden. When interviewed in February 2000 he confirmed that, owing to the damage suffered by the structure, most if not all of the timbers had been replaced and some changes had been made to the interior. A re-thatching scheme by Brian Simpson of Skerries, County Dublin, using water reed with wheat straw for the block ridge, was completed in 2003.