Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/01/002 A

Address :
Gilford Castle 5 Banbridge Road Gilford CRAIGAVON Co Down BT63 6DJ

Townland:
Drumaran

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
25/10/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Country House

Former Use
Country House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
220/2

IG Ref:
J0698 4797

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

An asymmetrical two-storey multi-bay Scottish Baronial style country house over concealed basement, built c.1870 and set in an extensive private demesne to the south of Gilford village. The house is U-shaped, comprising north entrance wing, garden front to west, and subservient south wing having lower two-storey service quarters attached on axis; there are turrets to north and west. The complex is arranged around a small central courtyard enclosed to east by a single storey outbuilding range. A second courtyard at south separates the south wing from the stableyard (HB17/01/002B). Complex arrangement of pitched natural slate roofs at different levels, with ashlar sandstone chimneystacks to gables having multiple clay pots; gables have saddleback coping on kneeler stones and ogee cast iron gutters are supported on a series of corbel brackets. Turrets have conical roofs with filigree finials. Walling is rock-faced Armagh limestone with tooled ashlar quoins, plinth, stringcourse and window surrounds. Windows are set in moulded stone architraves; principal elevation has a variety of mullioned and transomed-and-mullioned windows; otherwise generally 2/4 timber sliding sashes, some with original glazing. Some have label moulds and all have chamfered sills. Turrets, bays and porch are tooled ashlar limestone. Principal entrance front faces north. Irregular frontage on three levels, with single-storey projecting open porch to right of centre surmounted by a 2/2 sliding sash window within a corbelled wall-headed gablet all flanked by transomed-and-mullioned window with 2/2 sliding sash window over. To right is a wide two-storey gabled projecting bay, having box-bay with parapet to ground floor. A slimmer, three-storey gabled projecting bay abuts the left side, having full-height turret to re-entrant angle. Scots Baronial detailing throughout, with gables breaking eaves over some first floor windows. Multifoil motif to box bay parapet. The open porch is heavily ornamented with moulded three-centred arched opening having carved spandrel panels, and corner piers decorated with fretwork motif and elongated diamond panels; a fretted parapet is supported on corbel brackets, and piers are topped with ornate ball finials topped with spikes; depressed gothic opening to left and right cheeks. The entrance door is double-leaf oak panelled with brass door furniture and brass bell pull, all accessed by two stone steps. The east gable of the north wing is blank, and abutted by a single storey store, accessed from the central courtyard. It is brick built and stone faced to north elevation only. It is lit by two windows to front and one to the east gable. The store returns to south, linking with the east gable of the lower two-storey service wing, which has an enlarged window opening to first floor; original openings are 1/2 sliding sashes (diminutive to first floor right), a timber sheeted courtyard entrance door and loading door to store. The gable of the main south wing is blank. The south elevation is relatively plainly detailed, with gabled projecting right bay. The main south wing is extended to east by the lower one-and-a-half storey service annexe, which is brick built, with plain white brick eaves; openings are dressed in ashlar limestone with the exception of a door opening to right which has a replacement cement surround. The main elevation is abutted by a single storey addition, lit by a roof lantern and a transomed-and-mullioned window contained within a gabled breakfront to west. The service annexe and addition frame a paved rear courtyard; the enclosure is completed by a high wall with timber framed door, and the stableyard to south. The west (garden) elevation consists of a projecting gabled left bay with bowed bay window to ground floor, and a shallower projecting right bay with broad canted ground floor bay window; ground floor bay windows are detailed with fretted parapets. There is a bartizan on corbelled stone base to re-entrant angle of central and left bays. Courtyard: The courtyard is accessed via a timber sheeted door to east. It is paved with terracotta tiles, with geometric tiled perimeter path giving access to the rear entrance door (leading to the service corridor at south wing) and to a series of stores at east side; the path is covered by a catslide roof at east and by an overhanging first floor at south, each supported on a series of cast iron columns. Walling is painted brick (English garden wall bonded), with chamfered limestone dressings to openings and tooled limestone quoins. Irregular fenestration, including large transomed and mullioned stained glass stairwell window to east elevation of west front. The south elevation of the north front is abutted by a late twentieth-century lean-to stairwell addition, partially glazed with painted brick walling. Setting: Gilford Castle occupies an extensive private demesne, bounded by the River to west, and woodland to south and east. The house is accessed via a long sweeping approach from north, fronted by a gravel courtyard. Gardens are lawned and there is little formal planting. To rear are the stableyards and saw mill (HB17/01/002B), and located some distance from the house at south is a walled garden (HB17/01/002E). The main entrance is located close to the village (HB17/01/002C) and there is a secondary farm entrance with lodge to east (HB17/01/002D). Roof: Natural slate Walling: Limestone Windows: Timber, some transomed and mullioned RWG: Cast iron

Architects

Spence, William

Historical Information

Gilford Castle was completed c.1870 as a residence for Benjamin Dickson, a partner in the local linen thread company of Dunbar McMaster. The house replaced a much earlier castle built by a descendant of Gilford’s earliest proprietor. However, the current house was seldom lived in until the ancestors of the present owners acquired the property in the early twentieth century. ‘Gilford Castle’ is first shown, captioned, on the third edition OS map of 1901-2, situated at the heart of extensive, partially wooded grounds, captioned ‘Gilford Castle Demesne’. Earlier map editions show a much smaller building, ‘Gilford Castle’ at the edge of the demesne where it adjoins the town at ‘Castle Street’. The first castle at Gilford is thought to have been built by William Johnston, a captain in the Royal Irish Dragoons who inherited part of the Gilford estates from the grandson of Captain John Magill, a soldier in Cromwell’s army who was the early proprietor of Gilford and from whom the name of the town derives. (Logan) The first castle was probably built in the early 1700’s by Johnston who then went on to be knighted in 1714 and to become High Sheriff of Down in 1717 and of Armagh in 1721. After his death in 1722 the castle and estates passed to his son Richard, and his grandson also Richard, but with the death of Richard Johnston’s son William in 1841 the baronetcy became extinct and the castle and demesne were sold by William’s younger sister Catherine to Benjamin Dickson who built the present castle. The old castle fell into decay and was demolished in the 1860’s prior to the completion of the new building. The old castle stood on the south side of the present Castle Street close to the road and on the edge of the demesne. The new Gilford Castle, in the Scottish baronial style, was begun in the mid-1860s and completed c.1870. (Annual Revisions) The designer is said to have been William Spence, a Scottish architect resident in Glasgow who also designed a house, Elmfield (HB17/01/34A), for Dickson’s brother James. Benjamin and James Dickson were partners in the Dunbar McMaster linen thread company on which the growth and prosperity of Gilford town was largely founded. (Valuation Records; www.dia.ie) The new castle was much more centrally placed within the demesne and surrounding countryside and allowed for a grand drive entrance. The castle illustrates the use of ‘new money’ to emulate the landed gentry and position one of Gilford’s most prominent businessmen within a ready-made historical context, through the use of a Scottish baronial style and a site known for its connection back to Gilford’s early proprietor. However, Benjamin Dickson does not appear to have ever inhabited the castle. He is never listed in valuation records as the occupier and local folklore has it that when Dickson showed the house to his new fiancé she hated it so much that she refused to live in it. (Graham) The castle is first listed in valuation records c.1870 (n.d) at a valuation of £200. The Dickson brothers dissolved their partnership with McMaster in 1866, but were dissatisfied with the terms and a legal battle ensued eventually won by McMaster. They then went into partnership with their brother-in-law Thomas Ferguson of Banbridge to form the firm of Dickson, Ferguson & Co which was a power-loom weaving company. The Dicksons retired from the business in 1883. (Rankin) No occupier is noted for the castle until 1887 when it became the home of Percy Jocelyn McMaster, the younger brother of Hugh Dunbar McMaster, proprietor of Gilford Mill, who was resident at nearby Dunbarton House. The house was let from Benjamin Dickson and was revalued the same year in two parts, the part occupied by McMaster valued at £75, and a further portion also valued at £75. However, McMaster’s tenancy was short-lived and by 1891 the house was again vacant. A tenant named Purcell inhabited the castle for some time around 1896 but the 1901 census records the only occupant as the gardener/caretaker, James Emerson, who occupied three rooms with his wife and six children, his 14-year-old daughter working as a seamstress. In 1904 the house and demesne was purchased by Katherine Carleton for £15,000, the valuer noting that the cost of the building to Benjamin Dickson had been about £42,000 and that the price paid by Carleton was ‘the value of the land alone, the castle being given for nothing’. In Katherine Carleton, the castle found a long-term resident for the first time since it had been built and the 1911 census finds the 54-year-old spinster living at the castle with a female companion and two domestic servants, a cook and a parlourmaid. In 1918 the house was purchased by James F Wright, whose descendants continue to live in the castle today. In 1934 the accommodation comprised two reception rooms, a billiards room, library, study, two kitchens, two pantries, a scullery, larder and dairy. On the first floor were six bedrooms, two dressing rooms, two bathrooms, a nursery, a sewing room and three maids’ rooms. The second floor comprised two attic rooms. During World War II most of Northern Ireland was a training ground for British and American troops and there was a large concentration of army personnel based in Gilford, which with its woods, lakes and rivers and proximity to major transport routes was ideally suited to military training purposes. The army made use of Nissen Huts erected for the purpose in Gilford Castle demesne, and in 1943 the demesne housed a squadron of US troops together with their medical detachment who built a temporary hospital to the rear of the castle. (Higgins) Valuation records show that 35 acres of land were requisitioned by the War Department in October 1940 and a further 1 rood and 15 perches in July 1941. The castle is currently a family home, and the owner is a well-known local artist. (www.disovernorthernireland.com). References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map 1834 2. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map 1858 3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2 4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21 5. PRONI VAL/1/B/350 Townland Valuation (1828-40) 6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48A Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1930) 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/17A – Annual Revisions (1923-29) 9. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/9 – Valuer’s Notebook (1916-22) 10. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 – First General Revaluation (1936-57) 11. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/M/1 – Valuers RV Binders (1933-57) Secondary Sources 1. Graham, F “The History of Gilford Presbyterian Church and other articles of local interest” 2006 2. Higgins, Beryl "Gilford During The Second World War" 3. Logan, R A “A Window on the Past, A History of Gilford County Down” Banbridge Chronicle, (n.d.) 4. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007 5. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online 6. www.discovernorthernireland.com

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

V. Authorship X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Gilford Castle is a large two- and three-storey over basement country house, built c.1870 in the Scottish Baronial style to designs by William Spence. Ornamentation is appropriate to the style, and embellishments include turrets and a fine open porch, all in Armagh limestone. The house is arranged on an irregular plan and is well preserved, with almost all historic fabric intact. The picturesque setting in a mature wooded demesne survives unaltered and there is added interest as the site of an earlier eighteenth century house, with good quality estate related structures including a fine stableyard (HB17/01/002B), gate screen (HB17/01/002C), walled garden (HB17/01/002E) and farm entrance with lodge (HB17/01/002D). There are also connections with Elmfield (HB17/01/034A). The Gilford Castle group is of significance as a fine and largely intact example of Scottish Baronial architecture; it is also of considerable interest in an historical context, built on the proceeds of successful enterprise in the local linen industry at the height of its success.

General Comments

This record has been renumbered as part of the Gilford Castle estate group. It was formerly HB17/01/002

Date of Survey

22 September 2011