Gate Screen & Gate opposite

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This was the original main entrance to the demesne, leading off the Castlefarm Road. The gatescreen comprises a central double gateway with fine wrought iron gates supported on ashlar sandstone pillars and flanked by single pedestrian gates and curving dwarf walls terminating in columns and surmounted by matching railings. There is a modest farm gate directly opposite that is a more utilitarian structure in the style of the principal entrances to the demesne.

The pillars are square and set on chamfered plinths; the shaft is of chamfered blocks divided from the short upper section by a moulded string course. The cap has a moulded cornice and curves up to a point. The gates are framed in two stages with a lower, short section where the uprights alternate with crossed braces with a central boss and run into a transom section where quatrefoils alternate with the uprights. The uprights continue through the upper section where they have ring decorations and run into a other transom, as before, the uprights than finish in ornate foliate/fleur de lys tips alternating with spikes. The pedestrian gates are narrower versions of the main gates The railings match the gates, from the lower transom section upwards.

The farm gate opposite comprises two plain square ashlar sandstone pillars in chamfered plinth with the stones picked in the centre; the caps are as the main gates. The gates of simple wrought iron in plain round horizontal bars strengthened with a curved brace to each leaf. The lock is a simple drop latch within an oval 'escutcheon.'

Setting

This entrance to the demesne is off Castlefarm Road to the west of Stuart Hall and leads via a drive to the long circular drive that sweeps around the West of the walled garden. From its scale it appears to have been the grand entrance but is now kept locked. The demesne is well-wooded and some of the original landscape features survive.

Historical information

Stewart Hall (or Stuart Hall), the country house these former outbuildings once served was built c.1760 by Andrew Thomas Stewart (Viscount Castle Stewart from 1793, Earl Castle Stewart after 1800). Beginning as a typically uncomplicated rectangular Georgian block, the building was extended in 1860 by means of the addition of a somewhat ill-conceived Baronial tower to the south-east, with a castellated parapet applied to the original section in an effort to lend the whole unity. The property badly damaged by a bomb in 1974, and demolished in the 1980s and replaced by the present bungalow.

The outbuildings themselves appear to be largely contemporary with the house, the distinctive quarter circle plan form shown on the OS map of 1833-34, and the first valuation of 1835 grading most of the complex as ‘old’ at that date. Their dimensions are recorded in the same valuation as, 87ft x 17½ x 11, 44 x 21 x 16, 80 x 17 x 11, 40½ x 23 x 17½, 61 x 18 x 10, 69 x 17½ x 10, 56½ x 21½ x 16, (deduct archway 9 x 22½ x 10), 58 x 21½ x 16½, 54 x 11 x 6 (a ‘newer’ structure), 27 x 9½ x 8 (also more recent), 41 x 14½ x 7, 88 x 20 x 9, 56½ x 13 x 7, 31½ x 13½ x 7, 56 x 21 x 13, 35 x 20 x 9, 44 x 13½ x 7 (‘houses outside garden [?offices]’), 33 x 13½ x 10, 44 x 13½ x 7, with the house itself measuring 90 x 55 x 30, with 8ft high cellars.

The date of the, highly unusual, private Presbyterian meeting house or ‘chapel’ contained within the complex is uncertain. It is not marked on the OS maps of 1833-34 or 1853-57, but noted for the first time on the OS map of 1906, and only mentioned by the valuers in 1923 (‘chapel and farm offices’); however the valuers were never interested in religious buildings as a rule, as these were exempt from rating. Thus, going on this evidence, it appears to have brought into being at some point in the later 1800s, and is therefore the work of the 4th or 5th Earls of Castle Stewart.

The walled garden is shown on the OS map of 1833-34, and includes a date stone of 1832. The decorative folly towers are shown on the OS map of 1853 and are much in keeping with the later baronial additions and embellishments to the house, made by the 4th Earl of Castle Stewart in 1860.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D/1618 Castle Stewart Papers, 1587-c.1960
1 PRONI VAL/1A/6/47 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 47 with valuation
references, 1833-34(-35)
2 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…vol.20’ eds. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams, (QUB, 1990), p.15 (1834)
3 PRONI VAL/1B/621A-B First valuation, Ballyclog parish, 1835
4 PRONI VAL/2A/6/47B OS map, Co Tyrone, sheet 47- with valuation references, 1853-57
5 PRONI VAL/2B/6/25C Second valuation, Ballyclog parish, 1857
4 PRONI VAL/12B/37/1A Annual valuation revision book, Ballyclog ED, 1860-63
6 PRONI VAL/12B/37/1B Annual valuation revision book, Ballyclog ED, 1864-80
7 PRONI VAL/12B/37/1C Annual valuation revision book, Ballyclog ED, 1881
8 PRONI VAL/12B/37/1D Annual valuation revision book, Ballyclog ED, 1882-96
9 PRONI VAL/12B/37/1E Annual valuation revision book, Ballyclog ED, 1897-1911
10 PRONI OS/6/3/47/3 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 47, 1906
11 PRONI VAL/12B/37/1F Annual valuation revision book, Ballyclog ED, 1912-29
12 VAL/3C/7/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballyclog ED, 1936-57

Secondary sources
1 Rowan, A.J., ‘North west Ulster’, (London, 1979), p.489
2 EHS Garden file relating to Castle Stewart

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A refined and very imposing gatescreen comprising fine wrought iron gates supported on ashlar sandstone pillars, flanked by pedestrian gates and curving railing and pillar screens. The modest farm gate directly opposite, while much more simple in form, is nevertheless of interest as a more utilitarian structure in the style of the principal entrances to the demesne. The contrast between the two structures is of note.

Along with the courtyard and entrances, they form an important surviving portion of a significant house and estate; the group is somewhat eclectic in character and is a noteworthy collection of estate structures.

General comments

HB09/11/013 has been split into its constituent parts, not all of which are listed.