Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB16/22/032

Address :
2 Maytown Road Bessbrook Newry Co. Armagh BT35 7LY

Townland:
Mullaghglass

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Religious House

Former Use
Religious House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
252/13SE

IG Ref:
J0535 2901

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached asymmetrical two-storey Rectory, built c.1860 (architect unknown) at the junction of Maytown Road and Main Street, approximately 1km east of the village of Bessbrook, Co. Armagh. Rectory with outbuilding at south of site and glebe land consisting of two outbuildings and fields to north. Two-storey Rectory has natural slate roof of varying pitches with angled ridge tiles; two brown brick chimneystacks with yellow brick band and moulded cornice (one original, one modern); decorative painted timber bargeboards over eaves; mixture of replacement uPVC and remnants of original cast-iron rainwater goods. L-shaped footprint to Rectory with pitched slated porch to centre and pitched slated extension to east with north projection. Walling is painted roughcast render with painted smooth rendered plinth. Main block has camber-headed window openings to first-floor and porch and square-headed window openings to ground floor with two-over-two timber sliding sash with plain reveals and projecting masonry sills. Eastern projection has square-headed window openings with plain reveals and projecting masonry sills with paired one-over-one timber sliding sash windows with Tudor-arches to upper sashes. Asymmetrical principal elevation faces north. Centrally-located porch has roll-top ridge tiles and decorative painted timber bargeboard. Camber-headed door opening contains four-panelled timber door with brass furniture under plain rectangular overlight with modern light fixture mounted to wall above; door opens onto single concrete step to ground level. East elevation abutted by single-storey lean-to giving onto enclosed yard. West elevation has two camber-headed window openings to first floor and two square-headed door openings at ground floor. Rear (S) elevation has projection to centre with square-headed window openings with one-over-one timber sliding sash windows. Materials: Roof: natural slate Walling: Painted roughcast render Windows: timber, double glazed (replacement) RWG: uPVC (replacement) /cast-iron (original) Setting Two-storey outbuilding to rear (S) of Rectory. Pitched natural slate roof with single red brick chimneystack with stepped cornice. Masonry walling with granite return quoins and red brick surrounds to window and door openings. Walling painted and rendered to match Rectory on east elevation. Paired Tudor-arched sliding sash windows to first-floor on west elevation. Two single-storey outbuildings on glebe land to north, divided from Rectory land by rubblestone wall with wrought-iron pedestrian gate. Outbuildings employ same style and materials as that at rear (S) of house. Site bounded to south along Main Street and east beside outbuildings by rubblestone walling with cock and hen coping; painted roughcast rendered walling with painted masonry capping and gate piers with wrought-iron gates with floral motifs over steel cattle grid to east along Maytown Road. Garden to west and north of Rectory with stream running along site boundary to west and former well in garden. Glebe land consisting of fields to north.

Architects

Historical Information

This rectory appears to have had something of a complex early history, having served a series of widely-differing roles and being physically remodelled on at least two occasions during the 1850s through to the 1870s. The house belongs to the CoI parish of Camlough, and is the second rectory to serve the parish. The first, built in Ballintemple townland in 1796 (now 40 Ballintemple Road), was connected to the original parish church of St. Jude’s, built in 1773-74 on the south side the village of Camlough itself. Some time before 1861, in order to cater for the radidly-growing population of mill workers at Bessbrook, a small single-storey structure on this site at the junction of Main Street and Maytown Road, (which is shown on the 1861 OS map as rectangular with a small projection to the west end), was being used as a ‘school and church’. By 1864 it had been decided to build a new parish church at Bessbrook (the present Christ the Redeemer along Convent Hill - see HB16/22/021) and deconsecrate the old one at Camlough. The new church was completed in 1868 by which point services on this site had ceased and the building was repurposed to become the sexton’s house. The valuation books suggest that this process did not involve the demolition of the existing fabric, but rather the addition of a new single-storey section at a right-angle to the west side and a small porch projection to the north, creating (as a small thumbnail sketch in the valuation book shows) a planform similar to what we see today, but - it would seem - without the (now lower) section with the east. The work that was carried out was fairly substantial, raising the property’s rateable value from £4 to £14-10-0. The building did not serve in its new capacity as the sexton's house for very long, however, for some time around 1869-70 it became the residence for the then Curate of the Parishes of Camlough and Meigh, Rev. Henry William Lett. The relevant pages from the valuation book for these years are now missing, but it was undoubtedly shortly after this that the house was raised to its present height and - most likely - also extended to the eastern end, for when it was recorded by the valuers again its rating had risen to £25-10-0. The identity of the architect (or builder /architect) who carried out these alterations is not known. In his ‘Armagh Clergy and Parishes’ of 1911, Canon James Leslie tells us that the ‘present glebe house was built by a loan from the Board of Works’, but unfortunately does not provide any more details. In 1875 Meigh was joined to the Parish of Camlough and the house became the residence of the new incumbent, Rev. Thomas Jordan, who in 1877 added the outbuilding to the site (thus raising the rateable value to £26-10-0.). Rev. Jordan was succeeded by Rev. Abraham Lockett Ford in 1878, who in turn was followed by Rev. William Jones in 1893, Rev. Francis Meredith Moeran in 1895, Rev. Edward Daniel Crowe in 1897, and Rev. Henry Todd in 1900, who remained here until his death in 1942. In the 1901 census, the 40yr old Rev. Todd is noted as living here alone save for a domestic servant, with the rectory itself recorded as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with nine rooms in use. Later Rectors have included, Rev. Henry R. Rogers 1942-47, Rev. S.R. Redpath 1947-61, Rev. Alfred Stanley O’Connor 1962-65, Albert E. Crawford 1965-78, and Rev. Raymond G. Hoey (1978 – 2017). References Primary sources: 1 PRONI OS/6/2/26/2-3 OS maps - Armagh Sheet 26, 1861, 1906 2 PRONI VAL2/B/2/37D Second valuation, c.1862 3 PRONI VAL/12/B/15/22A-F Annual valuation revision books, 1865-1929 4 ‘Newry Telegraph’, 7 December 1875, p.4 5 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [see http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie] 6 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 17 November 1942, p.3; 21 March 1962, p.7; 13 January 1965, p.7; 16 December 1965, p.15; 12 April 1978, p.4; 30 November 1979, p.19 7 ‘Londonderry Sentinel’, 2 September 1947, p.3 8 ‘Portadown Times’, 8 July 1955, p.7 Secondary sources: 9 Leslie, James B., ‘Armagh clergy and parishes…’, (Dundalk, 1911), p.154-57, 371-72

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

The Parish of Camlough Church of Ireland Rectory is located at the junction of Maytown Road and Main Street, approximately 1km east of the village of Bessbrook, Co. Armagh. It was built c.1860 (architect unknown) and pertains to the Church of Ireland Church of Christ The Redeemer of 1868 (HB16/22/021). This Victorian-era building’s special interest is diminished by alterations that have taken place over the years, such as replacement uPVC windows and rainwater goods, later extensions and the addition of the second storey; the rectory does not therefore meet the legislative test for listing.

General Comments

Date of Survey

21 February 2020