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Newry and Mourne Museum’s Reside Collection holds many architectural drawings and plans by Major Gerald Reside from his work as an architect. The son of Samuel Wilson Reside, who set up an architectural and engineering practice in Newry in the early 20th century, Major Gerald Reside attended Campbell College and Queen’s University Belfast. After graduating with a degree in civil engineering, he immediately joined the family architectural and engineering practice, remaining there for his entire career. The Collection includes plans for homes in the area which give a fascinating insight into how people lived at the time.
A 1948 architectural drawing by Major Reside shows a proposed dwelling house at Corgary in county Down. This plan shows the type of rural housing which was being erected in south Down in years after World War II. The absence of a bathroom and indoor lavatory indicates that a mains water supply was still absent from the majority of rural areas at the time. The bungalow consisted of an entrance porch, hallway, two bedrooms, sitting room and a kitchen with a separate larder. All of the rooms had a tiled fireplace, which would have been used to heat the property. The plan also shows a roof space area. The roof was tiled with Bangor Blue slates.
A plan for a three-bedroom, two-storey detached house in Mullaghbawn from 1948 by Major Reside, indicates a different way of living. Like the Corgary house, the roof was tiled in Bangor Blue slates, there was a fireplace in every room and off the kitchen was a walk-in larder. However, this house had both a main bathroom upstairs and a downstairs WC. This would indicate that the property was very close to a water source that allowed for the house to be plumbed. The property was also rendered with cement.
Major Reside’s work was quite varied as he designed many different types of homes in area, that reflected the owner’s needs. A plan for a house at Gransha, near Rathfriland from the 1940s shows a dwelling with different features. Featuring a statement bay window, this property was roofed with Redhill tiles. As well as being fully plumbed, with a WC and bathroom, the home had a kitchen with separate scullery and larder. Interesting, the hallway in the house had a dedicated pram space to suit the needs of a young family.
Also included in the Reside Collection are plans of works by Samuel Reside. Of note is an architectural drawing of the gate lodge to Moore Lodge on the outskirts of Newry. Moore Lodge and its gate lodge were designed by Samuel Wilson Reside c.1912 for John Hunter Moore, a solicitor in Newry and Land Agent to the Earl of Kilmorey. The three-bedroom house has a walled yard and coal shed. Like Moore Lodge, the pebble dashed house has been influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement with a distinctive veranda and a wooden seat.
The Reside Collection is one of the most important local history archives in the country and this short article gives a brief insight into one of the fascinating aspects of local social history reflected in the Collection. The house plans drawn by the Resides not only indicate the ambitions and requirements of the occupants but the skills, the range of building materials and architectural and engineering practices prevalent in the first half of the last century.
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