Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB10/04/001 H

Address :
Rock Cottage, 20 Drumlegagh Road North, Baronscourt, Newtownstewart, Co Tyrone, BT78 4HD

Townland:
Barons Court

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
27/05/1976 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
103-8

IG Ref:
H3579 8375

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A symmetrical single-storey three-bay former gate lodge, built c.1830, located at the northeast entrance to Baronscourt demesne, Newtownstewart. Rectangular on plan with projecting gabled bays to either end, and a twentieth-century extension to rear (south). Roof is hipped local slate, laid in diminishing courses with roll-topped ridge and hip tiles. Gables have decorative bargeboards and spiked pendentive timber finials to gables. Two oversized lozenge-shaped brick chimneystacks with corbelled caps rise from on square plinths (that to left is rebuilt). Rainwater goods are half-round cast-iron. Walling consists of random rubble stone boulders. Windows are lattice-framed bipartite timber casements with no cills with rubble stone voussoirs (to principal elevation only). Principal elevation faces north and consists of a diminutive central bay flanked by two gabled projecting bays. Central bay has a timber sheeted door flanked by a single casement; end bays each have a bipartite casement. East and west elevations are blank. Rear (south) elevation is abutted offcentre to left by a later extension. Right bay has a tri-partite four-light casement with concrete cill. The extension is roofed as house, walling is roughcast and windows are top-hung four-light casements with concrete sills arranged singly and in pairs. There is a half-glazed timber door to east cheek. The house is set close to the public road and attends a simple estate entrance set in a rubble stone estate wall with saddleback coping, alcoved to entrance. Square dressed stone piers with cross-saddle caps support a pair of interlocking-hooped cast-iron gates leading to a dirt road which provides access to woodland. The house is raised on a small lawn to front, bounded by a rubble stone retaining wall and surrounded by mature trees. To rear is a vegetable garden and a small rubble stone outbuilding with monopitched roof and two entrance openings (no doors). Roof: Local slate, diminishing courses Walling: Random rubble stone, end-bedded Windows: Timber casements, lattice paned to principal elevation RWG: Half round cast-iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

A U-shaped building, with projecting wings to north, is shown on the 1833 OS map, captioned ‘Lodge’. By the 1854 OS map ‘The Rock Ho’ is now recorded as a T-plan building, captioned ‘Rock Cott’ on the 1907 OS map. Late nineteenth century plans of the entrance gate and approach walls to Rock Cottage include a more detailed plan which shows it has been remodelled and not replaced as it maintains the U-shape, with an extension to the rear creating the ‘T-plan’ recorded on the 6” 1854 and 1907 OS maps. The Townland Valuation Records (1828-1840) records a ‘New gate house’, valued at £3.1s (under Baronscourt townland but there is a comment on the valuation placing it in Largybeg). Griffith’s Valuation (c.1859) records a lower value of £2.15s for the ‘Gate House & Land’, held in fee by the Marquis of Abercorn. This value remains throughout the annual revisions. The final revision records that the house and garden are leased by James Aiken from the Duke of Abercorn. There is no information to suggest why the building’s value may have lowered. According to Dean, Rock Cottage is a variation of Design No 2 in P F Robinson’s pattern book ‘Designs for Lodges & Park Entrances’ (1833). The similarities in design of the bargeboards to that found at the William Vitruvius Morrison-designed Milltown Lodge in Strabane, has led Dean to suggest that he may have been involved in the building of Rock Cottage (p 135). An extension to the rear is believed to have been built in the twentieth century. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI D/623/D/1/16/72 – Map of Baronscourt Park (1777) 2. PRONI D/623/D/5/43 – Late 19th Century map of Baronscourt 3. PRONI OS/6/6/17/1 -First Edition OS Map (1833) 4. PRONI OS/6/6/17/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1854) 5. PRONI OS/6/6/17/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1907) 6. PRONI VAL/1B/637A – Townland Valuation (1828-40) 7. PRONI VAL/2/A/6/17A – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64) 8. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/17 – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-1925) 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/7A-F – Annual Revision Records (1860-1925) Secondary Sources 1. Bence-Jones, M. “A Guide to Irish Country Houses.” Second Revised Edition. London: Constable and Robinson, 1990. 2. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Tyrone I, 1821, 1823, 1833-36, Vol. 5.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1990. 3. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994. 4. Lewis, S. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Vol. I.” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837. 5. O’Brien, J. and D. Guinness. “Great Irish Houses and Castles.” London: George Weidenfield & Nicolson Ltd., 1992. 6. Rowan, A. “North West Ulster: Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.” Dublin: Penguin Books, 1979. 7. The Irish Architectural Archive Dublin. [Internet Source] Available from: (Accessed 22/04/09) 8. Young, R.M. “Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the Twentieth Century.” Brighton” W. T. Pike, 1909

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

V. Authorship W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Rock Cottage is an unusual and rareexample of a rustic-styled former gate lodge of three bays, dating from the early- to mid-nineteenth century, and located at the northeast entrance to Baronscourt demesne. The gate lodge is constructed in the cottage style, likely to have been derived from a pattern book design of c.1830. It is characterised by rather idiosyncratic exaggerated rubble stone construction and the rustic feel is emphasised by oversized twin lozenge-chimneystacks and latticed windows. Local slate, laid in diminishing courses, further enhances the textural quality of the building, and is a good example of the local tradition. The rear extension has been designed in a sympatheic manner and does not detract from the building's character. Along with the other estate structures, particularly other modest dwellings such as Cloonty Cottage (HB10/04/001J) and the Old Inn (HB10/04/001G), this is an estate building of distinction, enhanced by the presence of estate gates and an unspoiled rural setting. It has group value with the rest of the listed structures on the Baronscourt estate.

General Comments

This building has been renumbered. It was previously HB10/04/002.

Date of Survey

09 April 2009