Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB15/14/008

Address :
Gate Lodge at Milford Manor House 3 Ballyards Road Milford Co. Armagh BT60 3NS

Townland:
Baltavarran

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
04/12/2009 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Gates/ Screens/ Lodges

Former Use
Gates/ Screens/ Lodges

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
218-13NE

IG Ref:
H8571 4306

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Picturesque, asymmetric,single-storey, red brick, late Victorian gate lodge of c.1880s, with steeply-pitched overhanging roof and an abundance of decorative detailing including shaped tile cladding and slates, bargeboards and finals, as well as a plain, unsympathetic, c.1980s rear extension. Built to serve Milford Manor (HB15/14/006), it is accompanied by an equally decorative stone-built gate screen, high Victorian in style, but apparently post-1913. The building is set at the head of the long drive to the north of the ‘manor’ house on the southern side of the village of Milford. The main original section of the building has an irregular, roughly T-shaped planform, with the later extension to the south-east. The short stroke of the ‘T’ forms the western front and faces the driveway; to the face of this gable is a canted bay while to the left side is a timber arcaded glazed porch . Walls are constructed in red facing brick. They rest on a chamfered base and have moulded string courses; the lower acts as sill and the upper lines through with the door lintel. The steeply pitched roof overhangs and has exposed rafter ends, pierced red clay cresting, a natural slate covering with ‘fish-tail’ pattern, and apex fleur-de-lys finials. One brick chimneystack sits on a plain base and has a corbelled cap and clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast-iron with ogee guttering and square section down pipes. The window openings are flat-headed and have raised brick surrounds. One original frame remains, this is a timber casement with top openers. The door openings are flat-headed with panelled timber doors. The roof presents gables to three sides and a hip to the fourth; each gable has decorative barges and collar tie. The upper portion of gables is clad with ‘fish-tail’ fireclay tiles. Eaves are overhanging with exposed rafter tails. The modern extension is constructed in matching brick but is flat-roofed and plainly detailed. The accompanyimg quadrant gate screens have square pillars with curved mahogany screens. Pillars are highly decorative and have a High Victorian, almost ecclesiastical, feel. They are formed in rock-faced limestone with polished corner colonnettes and caps with gabled and semicircular faces. The pillars are surmounted with metal finials which originally contained electric lights (this was the first dirve to be lit by electricity in Ireland). The timber screens rest on a low limestone wall.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

HB15.14.008 Gate lodge at Milford Manor This gate lodge was built to serve Milford Manor, the home of the McCrum family, one-time owners of the nearby mill, who had, in the course of the 19th and early 20th century, also developed the surrounding village of Milford. The actual date of the lodge is not altogether certain. It is shown on the OS map of 1905-06 and Dean believes it to be of c.1880 and ‘probably’ the work of Young & MacKenzie. As far as the dating is concerned, 1880 is not inconsistent with the style of the building, however, there appears to be nothing relating to it within the Young & MacKenzie papers at PRONI, nor is anything listed in the Irish Architectural Archive. Local historian, Stephen-Paul McManus, states that Dean has informed him that he based his attribution of the authorship on plans of the building he had seen, however neither Mr McManus nor this writer has been able to trace these. The valuations are of little help on either dating or architect, for in the later 19th century lodges tended to be recorded as part with the main houses they belonged to, with few listed separately as items. In the case of this lodge the valuers do not mention the building until 1909, when it was clearly standing for a number of years at that point. Its construction is obviously linked to the changes made to the Milford Manor which witnessed the enlarging and remodelling of a what was relatively modest dwelling known as ‘Milford House’ into the present sprawling (largely concrete constructed) Italianate mansion. The work of then owner Robert Garmany McCrum, these changes appear to have been carried out over a long period of time during the latter decades of the 19th century through to the early 1900s. For instance, the rateable value of the property rose from £30 in 1867 to £68 by the 1890s, increasing to £120 in 1899, with more ‘new buildings in progress’ mentioned in 1904, and a note of the following year declaring that ‘much had been taken down and rebuilt’ (presumably over a number of years) at an estimated cost of £5,336. According to McCrum family papers, R.G. McCrum appears to have designed most -if not all- of the additions to the house himself. He may have been responsible for the gate lodge also, however the obvious difference in styling and the (arguably) more accomplished design suggests it is the work of another. The occupant of the lodge in 1909 is listed as a Mary Hastings, followed by Agnes McKeown in 1913. In 1915 Milford Manor and the lodge, passed into the ownership of R.G. McCrum’s only son, William. By the 1930s William had fallen into debt and in 1936 the property was in the hands of the Northern Bank. Shortly after this the bank leased the manor house to a private boarding school for girls (‘Manor House Schools’), which remained there until 1966 when the property was acquired by the Northern Ireland Hospital Authority for use as a care home. The lodge appears to have continued to be occupied as a private dwelling throughout this whole period however; a G. McAvoy listed is as the occupant in 1957, Robert McKean in 1963, and Henry McMahon in 1967. Milford Manor was vacated in the 1988 and the building has remained unoccupied ever since. The leasehold of the lodge was acquired by the Milford Buildings Preservation Trust in the early 2000s and restored in 2007. There is an extension to the rear of the lodge whose date is not certain, but appears to be of the 1980s. Photographic evidence suggests that gate screen to the north of the lodge was added by William McCrum after 1913. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI VAL12B/10/9A Annual valuation revision book, Ballyards ED, 1866-79 2 PRONI VAL12B/10/9B Annual valuation revision book, Ballyards ED, 1880-82 3 PRONI VAL12B/10/9C Annual valuation revision book, Ballyards ED, 1883-93 4 PRONI VAL12B/10/9D Annual valuation revision book, Ballyards ED, 1893-1909 5 PRONI OS6/2/12/3 OS map, Co. Armagh sheet 12, 1905-06 6 PRONI VAL12B/10/9E Annual valuation revision book, Ballyards ED, 1910-22 7 PRONI VAL12B/10/36A Annual valuation revision book, Milford ED, 1923-29 6 PRONI VAL3B/2/3 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Milford ED, 1935 7 PRONI VAL3C/2/5 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Milford ED, 1936-56 8 PRONI VAL4B/2/7 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Milford ED, 1957-72 Secondary sources 1 Dean, JAK, ‘The Gate Lodges of Ulster- a Gazetteer’ (Belfast, 1994), pp.40-41 2 McManus, Joe, ‘Milford, Red Bricks and Golden Memories, A Village History’, (Lurgan, 2002) 3 Rankin, Kathleen, ‘The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley’, (Belfast, 2007), pp.214-17 4 Information supplied by Stephen-Paul McManus, June 2009

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This gate lodge is an attractive piece of picturesque late Victorian architecture with many fine elements of detailing. Unsympathetic rear extension notwithstanding, it is largely well-preserved externally and internally and is accompanied by an equally decorative and equally well-preserved gate screen. Sharing group value with nearby Milford Manor and the surrounding, largely contemporary mill village, this building’s setting has not been compromised and it remains an asset to its surroundings

General Comments

Date of Survey

21 May 2009