Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/01/002 E

Address :
Walled Garden Gilford Castle Estate 5 Banbridge Road Gilford Co Down BT63 6DJ

Townland:
Drumaran

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
29/10/2013 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Walled Garden Structure

Former Use
Walled Garden Structure

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:
J0726 4780

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A large walled garden dating from c.1870 and located on the east of the Gilford Castle demesne, some distance from the house. The garden is rectangular, comprising an enclosure of high red brick walls laid in English Garden wall bond, to north-west, north-east and south-east. Overhanging brick coping, shallowly ramped in parts, with stone ball finials to north-west and south-west corners. The south-west elevation contains the main garden entrance, and high spear-headed cast-iron railings are fixed to a lower brick plinth wall. The entrance gate is timber, stop-end chamfered lattice to lower portion, with a series of timber uprights to upper portion, and bronze knob. It is set within a tooled ashlar masonry surround with pole moulding. To north-east side, there is a wide rectangular opening with brick lintel, infilled with a modern gate. Beyond the gate, outside the main enclosure, is the remains of a lean-to glasshouse, south facing with ancillary range to rear containing potting sheds and a boiler house (boiler in situ). It has a lean-to slate roof, brick walling, tall brick chimney and timber sheeted doors. Remains of timber window frames. Internally, the garden has a south-facing sloping aspect, and is bisected on each axis by a path. Southern portion is given over to orchards, with supporting structure for fruit trees secured on slender cast iron piers with knobs. To north east is the remains of ornamental planting. Setting The walled garden is set in the demesne, located some distance from the house and accessed from it via two unpaved avenues through mature woodland. Walling: Red brick with stone detailing, wrought iron railings.

Architects

Spence, William (unconfirmed)

Historical Information

The walled garden at Gilford Castle was built c.1870 and is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1901-2. A glasshouse shown just outside the garden at the north east corner has survived to the present day. Valuers notes of 1917 gives a plan and dimensions of the glasshouse and field inspection has uncovered the remains of a hot water heating system in the associated potting sheds. The garden is not mentioned in valuation records but can be assumed to have been part of the rebuilding of the estate completed by Benjamin Dickson, a man who had become wealthy as a partner in the local linen thread company of Dunbar McMaster. Gilford Castle 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. 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 in progress in the late 1860s. (Annual Revisions) The designer is said to have been William Spence, a Scottish architect resident in Glasgow who also designed a house, Elmfield, 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 c1870 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 I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

V. Authorship X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A late nineteenth-century walled garden located at the east side of Gilford Castle demesne (HB17/01/055A-F), some distance from the main house. The garden, now in limited use, displays features typical of walled garden structures at the time, including a south-facing sloping aspect and high walls, built of brick for maximum heat retention. It also features the remains of a conservatory with hot water heating system (outside the main enclosure) and retains some evidence of ornamental planting alongside functional elements. Of interest is the decorative treatment of its north (entrance) elevation, particularly ornate railings and a decorative entrance gate which follows stylistic themes seen across the estate. The garden contributes to the group value of the Gilford Castle structures that demonstrate the running of a country house in the nineteenth century. It is one of increasingly few structures of this type surviving in original condition. The Gilford Castle estate is of interest as a fine and largely intact example of Scottish Baronial architecture; it is also of much historic interest, built on the proceeds of successful enterprise in the local linen industry at the height of its success.

General Comments

Date of Survey

22 September 2011