Manor House, 26 Middle Tollymore Road, Tollymore, Newcastle, BT33 0JJ

Manor House, 26 Middle Tollymore Road, Tollymore

This is a substantial two-storey gabled house, probably dating from the early 18th century (most likely 1720–1739), set roughly a mile northwest of Newcastle town centre. It sits gable-end on to the south side of Middle Tollymore Road and is accompanied by two large walled gardens — one of which appears to have been laid out in 1726 — and two large outbuildings of probable mid-19th century construction. The listing covers the house itself, the outbuildings, gates, walling, and garden walls.

The house may originally have served as the residence of the local landlord, James Hamilton — later 1st Viscount Limerick and 1st Earl of Clanbrassil — before he began construction of Tollymore House in the 1750s. Both James and his father are styled "of Tolemor" in letters dating from the late 1680s, suggesting the family had a house within the townland at that date, possibly the pre-1685 Magennis home inherited by James's mother, Ellen Magennis, on the death of her brother Bernard in around 1685. Whether the residence referred to in the 1680s is the building seen today cannot be confirmed with certainty, but the available evidence — including the Georgian appearance of the building, the 1726 date stone formerly on the walled garden gateway, and its depiction on James Kennedy's 1755 map of the area and on Taylor and Skinner's map of 1777 — strongly suggests an 18th century date. The house and its rear return are both shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and are recorded in the valuation records of the following year, at which time the property was graded "B+", meaning a reasonably old building in good repair, probably 18th century.

EXTERIOR

The front façade faces roughly east and is symmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor is a panelled timber door with a semicircular fanlight incorporating tracery, set within a granite surround with a keystone. To either side of the doorway — though not structurally connected to it — are narrow sidelights with lead tracery. Flanking the doorway on the ground floor are two sash windows with Georgian panes (six over six) to the left and two more to the right, with five similar sash windows across the first floor. The entire front façade is finished in an unsuitable pebble and sea shell dash render with smooth cement cill courses and rendered surrounds to the windows; this render was added around 1930 and is considered detrimental to the building's character. The smooth cement cill courses and window surrounds are also part of this later treatment.

To the left of the south elevation is the south face of a two-storey, hipped-roof section added around the 1840s. This has two windows to the first floor matching those on the front, while a modern flat-roofed conservatory extension has been added at ground floor level. To the right of this, the gable of the original house is visible; it has one ground-floor window (a mid-20th century insertion) to the right, and a narrower first-floor window above. The north face, which looks directly out onto the roadside, is blank. To the right, the gable merges with a high rendered wall enclosing the rear yard.

The rear presents a complex appearance as a result of substantial extensions added in the mid-20th century. To the left, a large, roughly L-shaped single-storey flat-roofed section contains five modern windows of various sizes, two of which are large picture windows. This extension may incorporate the fabric of an earlier rear portion of the house. To the right, this section abuts a larger two-storey return of probable pre-1834 construction. This return is gabled but has a hipped-roof section to the south dating from around the 1840s. To its west face, a small single-storey flat-roofed extension with modern windows and door has been added. This section is L-shaped and abuts a large two-storey outbuilding to the southwest. To the left of this, on the main west face of the return, is a ground-floor window with a modern frame and a larger first-floor window with a modern frame. A small section of the north face is exposed and has a sash window matching those on the front; to the left of this, the face is abutted by a relatively small flat-roofed projection with a modern window to the west and a tall chimney stack to the north. This projection appears to be 20th century in origin.

The north gable and the entire south and west facades are finished in roughcast. The gabled roof of the main house has rendered parapets and two rendered chimney stacks to the main gables. To the front, the roof is covered in roughly hewn local slate, with the size of the slates diminishing as they ascend — these slates were relaid recently using traditional timber pegs. To the rear and the return, regular Bangor Blue slates are used. The return has a rendered chimney stack to its gable. Rainwater goods are cast iron throughout.

OUTBUILDINGS AND YARD

To the rear of the house is a yard. To the north, this is enclosed by a tall rendered wall with a large vehicle entrance — possibly widened in the mid-20th century — and an accompanying pedestrian entrance.

To the south of the yard stands a large two-storey gabled outbuilding, the evidence for which suggests a mid-19th century date. It is rubble-built with a slated roof. The north face has two large elliptical archways at ground floor level, with an arched pedestrian doorway to their left. To the first floor on the left is a window with a recently installed multi-pane frame, and to the right a timber-sheeted loft doorway. This façade is whitewashed. To the east gable, the building is abutted by the small modern single-storey extension attached to the return. The west gable has an upper-level doorway with stone steps, sandwiched between that gable and the east face of the second outbuilding to the west. To the south, the ground level rises slightly and a large lean-to glasshouse has been attached, covering most of that facade; to the far right, the façade remains exposed and has a ground-floor doorway with a timber-sheeted door.

The slightly higher ground to the south of this outbuilding was formerly even higher and was surmounted by a horse walk, which drove milling machinery on the first floor of the outbuilding. All evidence of the horse walk was removed in the mid-20th century. It should be noted that neither the 1834 nor the 1859 Ordnance Survey maps show any evidence of this horse walk, nor is a mill of any kind mentioned in the valuations of 1835 and 1863. The horse walk may have been used for purposes other than milling, though as no machinery has survived on site, its precise function and the period during which it operated cannot be determined.

To the west side of the rear yard stands a second two-storey outbuilding, also possibly of mid-19th century construction. This is also rubble-built and has a hipped roof. The openings on its east (front) facade appear to have been altered over time and now consist of a modern-looking window opening to the left at ground floor level, two pedestrian doorways, and a large elliptical-arched vehicle entrance now filled with a modern up-and-over garage door. To the first floor are two loft doorways and a large roundel window. To the far right, the building is abutted by a small single-storey shed with a mono-pitched roof. The other facades of this outbuilding appear to be blank.

WALLED GARDENS AND GATES

To the east of the house, the roadside frontage is defined by a low rendered wall. Close to the house is a wrought iron pedestrian gate, and further to the east is a curved gate screen with wrought iron gates of perhaps around 1900. Beyond this is a large walled garden with high rubble walls and considerable tree growth within; the garden appears to have been unattended for many years.

Directly to the north of the house, on the opposite side of Middle Tollymore Road, is another large walled garden, laid out in a geometric fashion. The south wall has an arched gateway which apparently once bore a date stone of 1726, though this could not be located at the time of survey.

HISTORY OF OWNERSHIP

In 1835 the property, with a substantial rateable value of £14-16-3, was in the hands of a Madam de Spalier, a family apparently of French or Walloon origin, who may have acquired the building from a John Keown, listed as the local notable in Tollymore townland in the Directory of Noted Places of 1814 and Pigot's Provincial Directory of 1824. The de Spalier family retained ownership until the early 1900s, with Jules de Spalier recorded as resident in 1905. During the 1840s and 1850s, however, the house appears to have been leased to the Reverend Christopher Usher of Kilcoo Parish Church, Bryansford, who is listed as occupant in Slater's Directory of 1856. It may have been Usher who added the hipped-roof portion to the south end of the return and the two outbuildings, all of which are shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1859. By 1915 the property was home to a Mr C. McManus, who in the late 1920s sold it to an Edward McAtier. McAtier lived there until around 1935 — adding the present render to the front façade — and then rented the building out. In 1948 he sold the Manor House to Brigadier Russell, apparently at one time the Sergeant at Arms at Stormont, who completely renovated the interior and added the large flat-roofed extension to the rear. The current owner acquired the property in 1985.