Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB18/13/044

Address :
White gate lodge Tollymore Park 38 Hilltown Road Tollymore Park Newcastle Co Down BT33 0PZ

Townland:
Tollymore Park

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
11/07/1977 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:
255/5

IG Ref:
J3265 3237

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Picturesque one and a half storey, Tudor Revival gate lodge of 1876 by John Birch, with tiled mansard roof, ‘half timbering’ and lych-gate like porch. The building is set at the NW entrance to Tollymore Park, on the S side of the Hilltown Road, 3 miles W of Newcastle (roughly 1 mile W of Bryansford). The front façade faces roughly S and is symmetrical. To the centre is a lych-gate like porch with steeply pitched tiled gabled roof and decorative barges. The sides of the porch incorporate short benches. The doorway within the porch has a timber sheeted door with bevelled sandstone dressings. To the left of the doorway is a small window with similar surround and unusual frame with margins to upper light. To the right of the doorway is a similar window. The shorter W façade has a central single storey (shallow) canted bay with bracketed overhanging pitched roof and panes to windows as front. Directly above this is a shallow, square, oriel window with three light frame with panes as before, decorative brackets with turned ‘drops’ and an overhanging pitched roof which continues into the main mansard roof. The E façade has a centrally located pair of small windows, as front. To the upper level is a central four pane window, with smaller two pane window to the right. Below the central window is a diamond shaped date panel- ‘1876’. To the centre and left at the rear is a single storey lean-to, whose roof merges with the pitch of the main roof. Like the lower half of the façade of the main house, the façade of this lean-to is in rubble, but to the N side much of it is in brick, presumably because the window openings have been altered. This face now has three windows of various size, with modern multi-pane timber frames. To the right of the windows is a timber sheeted door. To the short E face of the lean-to is a small two pane window, with a similar window to the W. The lower half of the façade of the house is in dark fieldstone [?basalt] rubble with slightly lighter grey granite quoins. The upper portion of the façade is jettied and finish in (presumably fake) ‘half-timbering’. All sections of the roof are covered in tiles some of which appear to have discoloured. The roof has a slight overhang with exposed rafter ends. Velux window to rear. The ridge tiles are grey-ish coloured with whose to ridge end with finials. Similar ridge tiles to porch, but with pierced decoration to all. Single central granite chimney stack with sandstone panel to front with monogram of the Earl of Roden. Assorted pots to chimney. Cast iron rw goods. Similar timber fence to surrounding garden. Timber gate screen to drive with carved piers, simple gate and matching pedestrian entrance. This gate screen is a later replica of the original.

Architects

Birch, John

Historical Information

This gate lodge was built in 1876 by the 4th Earl of Roden. It was designed by John Birch. The property continued to be occupied after the Roden estate was sold to the state, but lay derelict between c.1993 and c.1998. It is now occasionally rented out as a holiday home. TOLLYMORE PARK In late Medieval times Tollymore and the townlands surrounding it were under the lordship of the Magennis family of Upper Iveagh. In 1611 Brian MacHugh Magennis, received royal confirmation of his ownership of the area when he was given a grant of seven and a half townlands (including the land which now contains the park), from King James I. Tollymore remained in the Magennis male line until c.1685, when Bernard Magennis died childless and the estate passed to Bernard’s sister, Ellen. Ellen was married to William Hamilton and on her death her inheritance passed to their son James. His son, also called James (who inherited the estate in 1701), was created Viscount Limerick in 1719 and Earl of Clanbrassil (of the second creation) in 1728. James, who is popularly remembered under his initial title of Lord Limerick, initiated the development of Tollymore as a naturalistic landscape demesne in c.1720 by enclosing much of the land to form a deer park, commencing large scale tree planting and building a hunting lodge and the ‘Old Bridge’. He also rebuilt the parish church at Bryansford, the small estate village to the north of the park (named after his ancestor, Brian Magennis). In c.1750 he began the construction of a larger house, probably taking advice on its design from his friend, English architect Thomas Wright, who visited Ireland in 1746-47, staying at ‘Tullymoor Park’ in September of the former year. Dr. Pococke, in his ‘Tour of Ireland’ of 1752, comments that his lordship had completed two rooms of his new ‘pretty lodge’ by that date and had also built ‘a thatch’d open place to dine in’ on the south side of the Shimna River. Just to the north of the house the ‘Clanbrassil’ Barn was added in 1757, with the Horn Bridge built (to the south) around the same time. Lord Limerick died in 1758 and was succeeded by his son (also named James), who extended the new house and continued the tree planting begun by his father. In the 1780s he erected the Barbican gate at the eastern entrance of the park, the gothick gate at the Bryansford entrance, the hermitage, the gothick follies and steward’s lodge on the Hilltown Road, and a number of bridges within the park including Ivy Bridge, Parnell’s Bridge and Foley’s Bridge, the last named after his wife, Grace Foley. These additions (which also appear to have been Thomas Wright influenced), as well as the planting, made Tullymore one of the most attractive estates in Ireland. Bernard Scalé’s 1777 map of Tollymore gives some indication of the picturesque appearance of the park during this period with a rolling landscape, much planting, meadows, rivers, streams, and walks through the woods. An advertisement offering lodgings in Bryansford village from The Belfast News-Letter of 26 April 1785, made much of the lodgings ‘most pleasing prospect of the Right Hon. Earl of Clanbrassil’s much admired demesne, which is beautiful to the sight and extensive to the bounds’ and whose wholesome air and ‘herbage on which the goats feed makes it much frequented by ladies and gentlemen for the recovery of lost health’. James, 2nd Viscount Limerick and 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil died without issue in 1798 and the park passed to his sister Anne, the wife of Robert Jocelyn, 1st Earl of Roden. Their son, Robert 2nd Earl of Roden, who inherited the estate in 1802, built the Bryansford and Barbican gate lodges (the latter now demolished). He also erected the obelisk monument to the east of the house, in memory of his second son, James, who met an untimely death in 1812. The earl and his successor, Robert- the 3rd Earl, further developed Bryansford itself, making it ‘a pleasing place of residence for those persons that like a quiet retreat’. A Roman Catholic Church was built at the eastern edge of the village in 1820, school houses in 1823 and 1826, with some labourers’ dwellings and the large dower house (‘The Nest’) around the same time. The 3rd Earl also constructed a water powered saw mill within the demesne, and, in 1865, added another small lodge to the east. He enlarged Tollymore House itself, by adding an additional storey to the wings and a tall (and somewhat incongruous) French chateau style roof to the original central block. Tollymore Park remained solely in Roden hands until 1930 when the 8th Earl sold two thirds of the land to the Ministry of Agriculture for afforestation purposes. In 1940 the remaining third was bought by the Ministry and during World War II Tollymore House and part of the grounds were used by the Army. After the War the house fell into a state of disrepair and was demolished by Lord Roden in 1952. In 1955 Tollymore, the first state forest to be designated a Forest Park, was opened to the public. It has continued to be developed for timber production, recreation, conservation and education purposes since then, and though the ‘big house’ itself may have disappeared, most of the park’s 18th and early 19th century, gates, bridges and lodges have survived. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI MIC.147 Roden Papers 2 PRONI D.465 Roden Papers 3 PRONI D.2647 Roden Papers 4 PRONI T.2647 Roden Papers 5 PRONI T.3438 Roden Papers Secondary sources 1 EHS Records of the first survey of buildings of historical and architectural interest in Tollymore ward (1972-) 2 P.J. Rankin, 'Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Mourne area of South Down', (Belfast UAHS 1975), pp.11-19. 3 ‘Tollymore Forest Park’ (HMSO c.1980) 4 Mark Bence-Jones, ‘A guide to Irish country houses’ (rev. ed. London 1988), p.274. 5 J.A.K. Dean, ‘The gate lodges of Ulster- a gazetteer’ (Belfast UAHS 1994), p.97-98

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Picturesque one and a half storey, Tudor Revival gate lodge of 1876 by John Birch, with tiled mansard roof, ‘half timbering’ and lych-gate like porch. To the rear is a small lean-to portion which seems to be original but whose window openings appear to have been enlarged. The accompanying, mildly rustic, timber gate screen is a replica of the original.

General Comments

Date of Survey

04 February 2000