Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/03/009

Address :
Faughanvale Credit Union 11 Main Street Eglinton County Londonderry BT47 3AA

Townland:
Muff

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
25/05/1976 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Bank

Former Use
Court House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
27-11SE

IG Ref:
C5265 2022

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached symmetrical, three bay, two-storey ashlar sandstone former courthouse, built c.1825, extensively refurbished c.2013 with two-storey rendered extension added to the rear. Located on the south side of Main Street in the centre of Eglinton village with a bitmac forecourt with parking bays and bitmac rear yard. Hipped natural slate roof with rolled lead ridges and a central sandstone ashlar chimneystack with stepped lead-lined capstone and clay pots. Replacement moulded steel guttering to deep overhanging timber lined eaves and steel downpipes. Tooled sandstone ashlar walling with projecting plinth course, continuous platband between floors, continuous impost course to ground floor windows, rusticated quoins and lime pointing. Round-arched window openings set within voussoired recesses having replacement multi-pane timber sliding sash windows with spoked heads and horns on sandstone sills. Symmetrical north (front) elevation is three windows wide with a central round-arched door opening set within a voussoired recess having a replacement timber paneled door and spoked fanlight with glazed hub. Door opens onto raised concrete cobble-block platform and steps with universal access ramp and steel railings. East elevation reflects the front elevation with three bays, all of which are blind shallow recessed panels except that to the north on the first floor having an original round-headed fixed-pane timber window with spoked head and some cylinder glass. Ruled-and-lined rendered rear (south) elevation is abutted by a two-storey cement rendered extension (c.2013). The sandstone platband spans this elevation with a single original 2/2 timber sliding sash window to the ground floor and replacement 2/2 timber sliding sash windows to remainder. The west elevation reflects the form of the east with three bays, all of which are blind shallow recessed panels except that to the north on the first floor at the front again having an original round-arched fixed-pane timber window with spoked head and some cylinder glass. Setting: Located at the centre of Eglinton village and set back slightly on the south side of Main Street with a bitmac forecourt providing parking bays. To either side, the rear site is enclosed by rendered walls supporting a pair of decorative circular plaques, that to the west having a heraldic shield and ribbon banner stating; “God Grant Grace”. The rear of the site is enclosed by tall rubblestone walls to the west and south with a low rubblestone wall to the east. Roof Natural slate RWG Replacement steel Walling Sandstone ashlar Windows Replacement timber sash with spoked heads

Architects

Nicholson, Michael Angelo Bridger, James Suter, Richard

Historical Information

The market/court house in Eglinton was built as part of the improvements carried out in the village, then called Muff, by its landlords, the Grocers’ Company of London, in the 1820s and 1830s. Among the changes recommended in the wake of a deputation of 1822 was the construction of a new sessions house to replace the existing one which was ‘little better than a cottage’. A central site in the newly laid out village was chosen. On 20 March 1823, Michael Angelo Nicholson, son of the well-known writer of architectural books, Peter Nicholson, was paid £5 13s. 9d. for preparing three plans, one of which was selected. Curl (pp 164-5), however, believes that Nicholson drew up general plans which were then finalised by James Bridger, a prominent figure in the Drapers’ Company. Bridger had been carpenter to the Drapers prior to being elected warden in 1818; by 1832 he was Master of the company. Curl also suggests that Richard Suter, who designed two Presbyterian churches on the Fishmongers’ Company estate around the same time, may have contributed to the design of the market/sessions house in Eglinton. The structure is shown as a square building on the 1830, 1853 and 1907 Ordnance Survey maps. On the 1907 map it is named ‘C[our]t Ho.’ In the First Valuation fieldbook of c.1835 the dimensions of the building are given as 34 feet square and 26½ feet high. The valuer made the comment: ‘Rooms too high – much room without advantage – only 2 stories [sic]’. The valuation placed on the building was £9 12s. 8d. Critical comments are also found in the Ordnance Survey Memoir for Faughanvale parish of 1838 which noted that the building’s proportions were ‘not pleasing’ for the front ought to have been longer than the depth. At that time the upper floor of the building contained a sessions room and an office for the agent of the Grocers’ Company. The front half of the ground floor was taken up by the market house (though no market had yet been held in it), while the remainder of that level was used as a dispensary. In the sessions room there was a ‘window of coloured glass tastefully ornamented’ which bore the arms of the king and the Grocers’ Company. This was possibly the ‘painted window’ for which T. Stanley of London was paid £31 2s. 5d. In June 1826. In Griffith’s Valuation (1858) the building was described as a petty sessions house and dispensary and was given the valuation of £12. The building continued to be used as a petty sessions house into the twentieth century. In 1948 the valuer noted: ‘Old court house converted into a rather inconvenient dwelling’. It was further noted ‘Old structure. Rooms too lofty especially on 1st fl[oor]’. In 1955 the value of the building was increased from £22 to £36. In 1958 the building was converted into two flats and the valuation was reduced to £18. The former court house was purchased by the Northern Bank in 1970 and the ground floor was converted to a bank. The first floor remained a flat with separate access to the rear. The valuation was increased to £44. The building ceased to be used as a bank from 1 June 2007. In August 2008 plans were submitted to convert the structure to a Credit Union and to build a two-storey rear extension. Having secured the necessary permissions, a major programme of renovation proceeded and was completed in April 2013. The coats of arms of the Grocers’ Company and Babington family placed in flanking walls abutting the building were originally placed in the wall of the gate-lodge at Foyle Park, Eglinton. David Babington had been the lessee of the Grocers’ estate prior to the company resuming control of it in 1820. References Primary Sources: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland First Valuation fieldbook – VAL/1/B/550A Valuation Revision Books, 1860-1929 – VAL/12/B/32/6A-F First Northern Ireland General Revaluation Books, 1935 – VAL/3/B/6/7 First Northern Ireland General Revaluation Books: Annual Revision Lists, 1936-57 – VAL/3/C/6/8 Valuers and Revaluation Binders, Faughan Ward, Muff townland, 1956-75 – VAL/4/C/6/3/13/12 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/15/1 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1853 – OS/6/5/15/2 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1905 – OS/6/5/15/3 Northern Ireland Environment Agency First Survey record – HB/01/03/009 HB Records – HB/01/03/009 Secondary Sources: Published sources C. E. B. Brett, Court houses and market houses of Ulster (Belfast, 1973) Alan Rogers, The Twice-Born Village: Muff Eglinton (Co. Londonderry) (New University of Ulster, 1984) James Stevens Curl, The Londonderry Plantation, 1609-1914 (Chichester, 1986) Angélique Day & Patrick McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, vol. 36 (Belfast, 1996) Alistair J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979) Brian Mitchell, Historic Eglinton (1994) Online sources Dictionary or Irish Architects: www.dia.ie Natural Stone Database: www.stonedatabase.com

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

T. Historic Importance V. Authorship X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance R. Age S. Authenticity

Evaluation

A detached symmetrical two-storey ashlar sandstone former courthouse, located on the south side of Main Street in Eglinton village. Built c.1825 as part of the improvements carried out in the village, then called Muff, by its landlords, the Grocers’ Company of London, to designs by Peter Nicholson. It was converted to a dwelling c.1948, two flats in 1958 and purchased by the Northern Bank in 1970 when the ground floor was converted into a banking hall. Its use as a bank ceased in 2007 and it was subsequently converted into a Credit Union in 2013 when it was extensively refurbished with the addition of a two-storey extension to the rear. A prominent building with robust civic presence. The external detailing and fine quality ashlar stonework are of particular note. It is a good representative example of its type and of the development of the village by the Grocers’ Company of London in the 1820s. Whilst subsequent changes in use and recent interior remodelling have resulted in some loss of historic fabric, the character and appearance of the building remains largely unaltered. Its urban setting has been well preserved and the coats of arms of the Grocers’ Company and the Babington family placed in flanking walls abutting the building, as well as the adjoining gate, are also of interest.

General Comments

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Date of Survey

11 April 2014