Farm buildings at Derrymore House Derrymore Co. Armagh BT35 7EF

Farm Buildings at Derrymore House, County Armagh

These farm buildings form the service yard of Derrymore House, a Grade A listed cottage orné dwelling within the Derrymore and Woodhouse Demesne. The complex is a small but historically layered group of outbuildings arranged around three sides of two courtyards, with the remaining eastern side of each court enclosed by a rubble stone wall with gateway. The yard is screened from the house itself by carefully positioned belts of mature trees.

Origins and Historical Background

Derrymore House was built in the cottage orné style around 1777 for Isaac Corry, a newly elected Member of Parliament for Newry Borough who later served as Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer from 1799 to 1804. Corry held the post at the time of the Act of Union of 1800, which is said to have been drafted within the house's Treaty Room. The landscape designer John Sutherland (1745–1826) laid out the demesne around 1780, and Kevin Mulligan has suggested that Sutherland may also have designed the house itself. The demesne is among Sutherland's earliest known works and is characteristic of his naturalistic style. Belinda Jupp has noted that Sutherland's designs must have taken account of practical considerations including access to outbuildings, and it is likely that the placement of the service yard formed part of his overall scheme for the estate.

When Corry advertised Derrymore House for sale in 1807, the outbuildings were described as offering stalls for thirteen horses and standing for four carriages, confirming that a substantial service yard already existed by that date. Corry eventually sold the house in 1810 to Lieutenant-Colonel (later Sir) William Young of the East India Company, who had constructed an impressive classical entrance hall at the north end of Derrymore House by 1815, since demolished. When Young advertised the house for sale in 1815, he was said to have spared no expense in rendering the house and offices commodious and the lands productive. Young was unable to sell for some years, and the house was eventually purchased in 1828 by the Newry merchant Edward Smyth.

The demesne passed in 1859 to John Grubb Richardson, proprietor of Bessbrook Mills, who acquired it from the Smyth family. Richardson and his family did not occupy Derrymore House, having their own residence — The Woodhouse — within the demesne to the north, built around 1860. Derrymore House was let out in two halves, as recorded in Griffith's Valuation of 1862, which lists the occupiers as George Bell and Alexander Pringle, both leasing from Richardson. The house and demesne passed to the National Trust in 1952 and was officially opened after restoration in 1957. The outbuildings remain in use as farm buildings.

Development of the Farmyard

The earliest surviving outbuildings within the yard — those identified on the 1930 Valuation plan as buildings e and g — form the central core and pre-date the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834–5. These may date from the original construction of the house around 1777–80, with possible improvements or additions made during William Young's tenure in the 1810s. At the time of the Townland Valuation of 1836, two of the outbuildings recorded as having two storeys correspond roughly in their dimensions to present-day buildings e and g; one is identified in the valuation book as a barn, most likely building g. By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1862, three two-storey structures are listed within the yard, two of which again approximate to buildings e and g; the third is noted as being in a ruinous condition or demolished. Two further buildings shown to the northeast of the farmyard on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1861, used as workers' dwellings, have not survived.

Between the second edition map of 1861 and the large-scale Ordnance Survey map of 1895, the farmyard was considerably expanded, presumably by Richardson or his family following his death in 1890. Buildings a, b, c, d, h and a water tank (labelled i) were added during this period, and building f may also have been rebuilt. Valuation records partially track these changes: the valuation of the outbuildings was raised by £1 in 1870 due to the addition of new offices, and a further rise of £5 in 1881 may refer to additional outbuildings. A one-storey house valued at £2 15s was added in 1883, most likely as part of a row of workers' cottages to the north of the farmyard. This row comprised at least two dwellings, with another worker's dwelling possibly located within the farmyard itself. One identifiable occupant was William McKelvey, coachman, who appears in both the 1901 and 1911 census returns. McKelvey was from County Cavan and in 1901 lived with his wife and daughter in accommodation with four rooms and five windows to the front elevation, most likely within this terrace. The former workers' cottages to the north of the farmyard have since been heavily remodelled and now form a single dwelling.

By 1933, the First General Revaluation recorded the farmyard in detail, including building a — a barrel-vaulted, double-width structure with Belfast roof trusses — identified at that time as a garage for two cars. Although the building itself is probably earlier in origin, the roof structure appears to have been replaced in the early decades of the 20th century in order to provide an open interior without intermediate supporting walls.

The Belfast Truss Roof

Buildings with curved barrel roofs supported by timber Belfast trusses are a characteristic Northern Irish building type. A thematic survey of Belfast trusses in Northern Ireland carried out in 2003 identified seventy-five structures, of which forty were recorded in detail. The roof form was first recorded in the 1860s and was widely used for industrialised buildings up to the First World War, after which its use declined as steel trusses became more widely available. Although timber bowstring girders with any form of bracing supporting a barrel roof are now generally termed Belfast trusses, the first recorded example of a true Belfast truss — in which the bracing is arranged in a fan-like manner — dates from a building constructed in Norfolk, the trusses for which were tested by Young and Mackenzie in Belfast in 1905. The Belfast truss continued to be used for small and medium-sized roof spans up to the 1930s and beyond, including for garages and farm outbuildings. It is worth noting that the Richardson family, who added this building to the farmyard, would have had access to engineers experienced in constructing large mill sheds, which may have employed a similar roof construction. Building b also has a barrel-vaulted roof, which may similarly indicate a Belfast truss supporting structure.

Architecture and Description

The building designations used below follow the 1930 Valuation plan.

The principal elevation of the early central barn (buildings e and g) has a natural slate pitched roof with cast iron guttering fixed to a raised plaster eaves line, sitting proud of a random rubble stone wall that retains remnants of its original lime plaster render. At first floor level there is a centrally positioned barn door opening with a painted timber frame in situ, set above two shallow dressed stone arched openings at ground level. The projecting gable to the left has a flush verge; its return elevation contains an empty window opening with a stone cill at upper level, and below this a former arched opening with a dressed stone profile that has been infilled with rubble stone. This infilled opening contains a painted wood-sheeted door to the left and a one-over-two, nine-pane painted sliding sash timber window. The walls throughout are of random rubble stone with evidence of lime plaster render.

Attached to the gable and projecting to the northeast is building f, a single-storey pitched-roof shed clad in corrugated sheeting, with roughcast render and top-hung wood-framed windows. Directly opposite and abutting the front right-hand side of the barn is building h, a single-storey structure with a natural slate pitched roof and flush verge, exposed rubble stone walls, and two centrally positioned vertically clad painted timber doors and frames; the blank window apertures to the sides have perspex infill panels. Perpendicular to the gable, a rubble stone wall with square piers and wrought iron gates encloses and defines the courtyard. The rear elevations are of blank rubble stone, now overgrown with shrubbery and undergrowth.

The southerly oriented courtyard is defined by building d, a mono-pitched roof shed now covered in corrugated sheeting, positioned perpendicular to the rear of the original barn. This shed is open-fronted, with a mid-span cast iron column providing support to a simple roof truss arrangement, and spans the full width of the courtyard enclosure. To the left and perpendicular to this open shed is building b, a single-storey structure with a barrel roof covered in corrugated tin sheeting. Its rubble stone wall contains two sets of double vertically sheeted painted wooden doors, flanked by single doors on either side; all door surrounds are dressed with rustic brick quoins. To the left, an aluminium clad sliding door gives access to the double-sized garage, building a. Building a has a flush-ended double gable barrel vault with roughcast render, and to the right projects a rubble stone wall with square piers and wrought iron gates that enclose and define the courtyard.

The rear elevation of the central barn (building e) has the same roof and wall finish as described above, with two empty window openings with stone cills at upper level. On the right-hand side, a former arched opening with a dressed stone profile has been infilled with rubble stone, with an empty window opening. On the left-hand side at ground level there is a frameless door opening; at upper left there is a window aperture with a small lead-clad dormer gable above it, retaining remnants of a projecting lifting beam. The rear of building a has brick quoins to the window surrounds and to the outer left-hand corner. A window opening to the left has a concrete head with two six-pane side-hung painted timber frames; a former opening to its left is blank and infilled with exposed concrete block. The south-facing return has one opening with two six-pane side-hung painted timber frames. The rear of building b has three six-pane side-hung painted timber framed windows with brick surrounds as described above, and rubble stone walls.

Roofing materials throughout the complex are natural slate and corrugated sheeting. Walling is of exposed rubble stone and roughcast render. Windows are timber. Rainwater goods are metal.

Setting and Group Value

The farmyard is an integral part of the small late-Georgian, part-walled landscape park enclosing Derrymore House and The Woodhouse, laid out by the celebrated landscape designer John Sutherland. The complex occupies a secluded site surrounded by mature trees and shrubbery. The approach from the northeast offers views across open lawns bounded by perimeter planting, with arrival at the complex through the designed woodlands. The gated access to the courtyards defines the formal enclosure of the building group.

The outbuildings have group value within the Grade A landscape park alongside Derrymore House, The Woodhouse, Hortus Lodge, the gate lodge and gate screen, and Rose Cottage. While 20th century alterations have taken place over the years, much original historic fabric remains.