'Lodge' at Strabane Grammar School, 4 Liskey Road, Milltown, Strabane, Co Tyrone BT82 8NW

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small, one and a half-storey picturesque gate lodge (to former Milltown House- now Strabane Grammar School), built c.1836 to designs by William Vitruvius Morrison. The building is now used for teaching purposes. The building is set at the entrance to the grounds of Strabane Grammar School, on the east side of Liskey Road, less than half a mile south of Strabane itself.

The building roughly L-shaped, with the original section to the N and the later return to S. To front there is a projecting gabled porch. The walls of the original section are constructed in rubble with ashlar stone as quoins and (bevelled) base course, and brick dressings to the openings. The quoins to the upper half of this section are in a more finely dressed stone of differing colour, almost suggesting that this portion was raised in height; changes in the stonework on the E gable of this section appear to suggest this also, although this idea is not, (apparently), borne out by the historical record. The return is constructed in brick, with its (S-facing) gable and base course in rubble, whilst the porch is in brick with an ashlar stone base course. The gabled overhanging roof is coved in asbestos tiles, with an artificial ‘slate’ to the porch.

The front elevation faces roughly N and is symmetrical. To the centre is the relatively large gabled porch. To the front gable of the porch there is an open doorway with Tudor-arched head. To both the E and W faces of the porch there is a semicircular-headed window opening with a timber frame with twin semicircular-headed lights with a small roundel over. Both windows have painted stone cills. The overhanging roof of the porch has decorative pierced ‘orné’ bargeboards and curved soffits.

To either side of the porch (on the front façade of the main section of the building), there is a relatively small square window, each with a recent timber frame and painted stone cill.

To the E gable of the main section there is a window to the ground floor, similar to those to front but taller. There is a window of similar size to the to the upper floor, with a different (but still recent) timber frame.

To the ground floor of the W gable there is a single-storey hip-roofed canted bay with windows with timber frames to all sides. The central window has four lights, those to the outer faces, two. The upper lights of all of these windows have semicircular heads. To the first floor there is a is a small window with recent timber frame.

To the left on the ground floor of the E face of the return there is a very small window with recent timber frame. To the first floor there is a larger window, with timber frame of similar age. To the W face there two windows of differing size, with another to the upper floor set within a gabled half-dormer with plain bargeboards and a finial. All the frames to these windows are, once again, recent timber examples. To the gable of the return there is a doorway to the ground floor, with a recent flat-panel timber door.

To the still exposed rear façade of the main section of the building there is a window to the upper floor set within a half-dormer similar to that on the W face of the return.

The roof of the main section of the building has bargeboards to the W gable similar to those on the porch, as well as a finial. The bargeboards to the E gable and those to the gable of the return are plain. Both the main section and the return have curved soffits. There is a relatively recent rendered chimneystack to the centre of the roof of the main section, with another to the gable of the return (both added post c.1970 as replacements for the original larger Tudoresque examples). PVC-u rainwater goods.

Historical information

On the OS map of 1833-34 the original ‘Milltown Lodge’, is shown, with this particular site, at the head of the drive, undeveloped. At this point Milltown had just recently passed into the hands of Major John Humphreys, following his appointment as the Duke of Abercorn’s Agent.

At some stage between 1834 and c.1836, Humphreys demolished the original dwelling and built the present ‘Milltown Lodge’, (now part of Strabane Grammar School). This new house is shown on the revised OS map of 1857 along with a gate lodge matching the shape of the present building. Documents within the Abercorn Papers, state that both the house and the gate lodge were built c.1836-39 to designs by William Vitruvius Morrison, with the latter costing £120. Unfortunately the second valuation of 1857 says nothing of the building. In fact the first time it is mentioned by the valuers is in 1890, with the occupant –one Thomas Chisholm- recorded for the first time six years later. The surviving internal detailing is late Victorian, suggesting that the property underwent an overhaul sometime in the closing years of the 1800s

The building continued to act as the gate lodge for Milltown House until 1955, when the successors to the Humphreys, the Harpur family, sold the whole property to Tyrone County Council for use as a new non-denominational grammar school for boys and girls- Strabane Grammar School. In latter years the lodge has been used by pupils of the school as a language lab and a place to practice music.

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/638A First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38)
3 PRONI VAL/1B/638B First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38)
4 PRONI VAL/1B/638C First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38)
5 PRONI OS/6/5/5/1 OS map, County Tyrone sheet 5 (1833-34)
6 PRONI D.623/A/267/1-24 Abercorn Papers Letters from James Pettigrue to the Duke of Abercorn (1836-39)
7 Lewis, Samuel, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837)
8 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846)
9 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856)
10 PRONI VAL/2B/6/41 Second valuation, Camus parish (1857)
11 PRONI VAL/2D/6/18A Valuation town plan of Strabane (1857 [-59])
12 PRONI VAL/2D/6/18B Valuation town plan of Strabane (1857 [-59]) [PRONI also holds a microfiche copy of this plan, catalogued under the ref. T/2933/4/252.]
13 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31A Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED(1860-64)
14 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31B Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1864-73)
15 ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester, 1870)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31C Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1874-81)
17 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31D Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1882-91)
18 PRONI OS/8/25/1/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
19 PRONI OS/9/22/2/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
20 PRONI VAL/12E/187/1/1-12 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1884 [-1908])
21 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31E Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
22 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31F Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
23 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31G Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
24 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31H Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
25 PRONI OS/8/25/2/1-3 OS town plan of Strabane (1905)
26 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
27 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31J Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
28 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31K Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
29 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31L Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
30 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31M Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
31 PRONI VAL/3B/7/14 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Strabane UD (1935
32 PRONI VAL/3C/7/23 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, annual revisions, Strabane UD (1936-57)
33 PRONI VAL/3G/159/1/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1936-55)
34 PRONI VAL/3G/159/2/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1951-55) [Sheets 1 and 3 are currently missing.]
35 EHS OS map (1:10,000 scale), sheet 72 (1983)

Secondary sources
1 ‘The Architecture of Richard Morrison and William Vitruvius Morrison (Irish Architectural Archive, 1989), p.123
2 Dean, J.A.K., ‘The Gate Lodges of Ulster- A Gazetteer’ (Belfast, 1994), pp.145-46
3 Bradley, Jim, et al, ‘The Fair River Valley: Strabane Through the Ages’ (Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2000)

Other
references
1 EHS HB10/14/016 First Survey report (19 Feb 1970)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

One and a half-storey picturesque gate lodge, (to former Milltown House- now Strabane Grammar School), built c.1836 to designs by William Vitruvius Morrison. The building, now used by Strabane Grammar as a language lab and a place to practice music, has lost most of its original window frames, its once impressive Tudoresque chimneys and much internal detailing, and is not of special architectuala or historic interest.