Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB11/11/001 C

Address :
Parochial House 4 Convent View Omagh Co. Tyrone BT78 5EN

Townland:
Gallows Hill

---

Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
08/01/1981 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

---

OS Map No:
137-4SE

IG Ref:
H4474 7270

---

Owner Category

Church - RC

Exterior Description And Setting

A detached three-bay two-storey-over-raised-basement stone parochial house, built c.1865, located on the south side of Brook Street. Square-on-plan, facing north. Hipped natural slate roof, red brick chimneystacks with cut sandstone cornices and plinths, ogee cast-iron gutters on carved sandstone corbels. Walling is square-and-snecked rock-faced basalt over chamfered sandstone plinth, stringcourse between ground and basement floors; straight-channelled sandstone quoins, V-jointed at basement level. Windows are segmental arch-headed painted timber 2/2 sashes with stone sills; basement has red brick surrounds, remainder have flush sandstone surrounds. All elevations are symmetrical. Principal (north) elevation has central segmental arch-headed painted timber moulded four-panelled door with central fillet and plate glass fanlight, simple frieze and cornice over, in rebated splayed surround flanked by clamp buttresses with off
setting, accessed by stone perron vaulted over sunken channel (with brick soffit), cast-iron railings with twisted ends. First floor has central bipartite square-headed 1/1 sash with double-rebated surrounds. East elevation is three windows wide. Rear elevation has windows of varying heights, centre basement has square-headed replacement door with overlight. West elevation is detailed as east. A painted timber and glazed single-pitched greenhouse is attached to a single-storey boundary wall extended west from the south elevation. There is an outbuilding court to the southeast of the house consisting of a modern flat-roofed garage to east, a multi-bay single-storey carriage house to west and a multi-bay two-storey hipped roughcast outbuilding to rear with a hipped slated roof, square-headed painted timber 3/6 sash windows, some blocked with vertically sheeted panels, a square-headed vertically sheeted door to left and a segmental arch-headed modern garage door to right. Setting:- The parochial house is situated on an elevated site with the former Christian Brothers School, now parochial hall and parish office (HB11/11/001B) and the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (HB11/11/001A) to east, and a modern parochial house to southwest. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Basalt Windows: Timber RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The building is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1905-6. Valuation Revisions from the 1860’s record the site as ‘land’, which is occupied by Julianna Murray, the lessor is James Greer. An entry in 1869 sees the occupier revised to the representatives of the Rev [M] O’Kane. The site is recorded as ‘parochial dwelling land...unfinished’, which is revised in 1869 to ‘house, offices and land’, with the building valued at £42. A note on the building reads ‘...will cost about £2000...good site and substantially built’. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/6/35/1-First Edition OS Map (1833) 2. PRONI OS/6/6/35/2-Second Edition OS Map (1854) 3. PRONI OS/6/6/35/3-Third Edition OS Map (1905-6) 4. PRONI VAL/1/D/6/6 -Town Plan of Omagh (1824-1844) 5. PRONI VAL/2/D/6/17 -Town Plan of Omagh (1849-1869) 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/6/36 -Valuation Revisions (1860-1929) 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/41/37-Valuation Revisions (1903-1929) 8. PRONI VAL/12/E/186/1/2 -Town Plan of Omagh (1882-1909) 9. PRONI VAL/12/F/7/7/1- Valuation Revisions (1930-35)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A detached three-bay two-storey-over-raised-basement stone parochial house, built c.1865 within the group of buildings now related to the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (HB11/11/001A). These form part of a larger campus inclding the Loreto Convent (HB11/11/002). Within this complex, the house is part of a group that includes the church and the former Christian Brothers School (HB11/11/001B), now parochial hall and parish office. Unusually, the building is nearly a perfect square and is symmetrical on all elevations. Although a simple parochial house, the structure is highlighted with its sandstone trim and sweeping steps leading to its unusual buttress-flanked entrance. The house is a late, but unusual, example of its type and dates from slightly after the Christian Brothers School but nearly three decades before the Sacred Heart church.

General Comments

It was built during the pastorate of the Rev. Mannasses O’Kane and a portrait of the reverend with house hangs in the parlour. Previously numbered as HB11/11/009

Date of Survey

15 January 2009