Lodge at Benburb Bridge, 180 Maydown Road, Benburb, Dungannon, Co Tyrone

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay, one-storey, rectangular-plan gate lodge, built c.1830s, with later corrugated iron roof abutment to north elevation. The lodge is located by the River Blackwater on the west side of Maydown Road and on the north side of Maydown Bridge (HB13/11/003) at the entrance to a footpath leading to Benburb Castle.

Hipped natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles, cast-iron gutters on masonry eaves and cast-iron downpipes; central rendered chimneystack with masonry coping. Walling is a mixture of undressed limestone and sandstone with occasional cementitious mortar.

Generally square-headed windows, unless otherwise stated, with a mixture of masonry and slate sills. Windows unseen at time of survey - boarded up openings to all elevations.

Principal elevation faces east. Single square-headed door opening central to east elevation between two windows with projecting masonry sills.

South elevation has central, round-headed window opening with partial red brick flush surround and slate sill.

West elevation has window opening to the south with partial red brick flush surround, plain reveals and masonry sill. To the north is a square-headed door opening containing painted timber surround and timber-sheeted door.

Set back from the road, the gate lodge is bounded by a limestone wall with masonry coping with piers to the north and south having masonry coping. A steel gate is situated between the south elevation and the southernmost pier, perpendicular to a cast-iron gate opening onto a footpath that leads east.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Limestone and sandstone - coursed rubble
Windows: Unseen - behind boards
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

This lodge is shown on the OS map of 1833, at the head of a drive that lead westwards along the River Blackwater and which appears to have culminated at the mill on the western side of the bend in the river [HB13/11/002-003]. The 1835 valuation tells us that the lodge and the mill were part of a large single plot that also included Benburb Castle, the early 17th century bawn overlooking the river directly east of the mill. In the late 18th or (more likely) the early 19th century a dwelling – ‘Castle Cottage’ – was built within the bawn, probably to act as the agent’s residence for the Powerscourt estate. On the face of it, it would seem likely that the lodge was built to serve the back entrance this house - as one would expect of a gentry residence, but as already mentioned the drive that lead from it does not appear to have served the castle, but the mill – or at least had come to do so by 1833. If it was in fact built for the latter then it is likely to have been the work of the firm of Jackson, Eyre and Co., who had been leasing the mill from 1776; it seems more plausible that its relationship was originally with Castle Cottage, however, evidence for a connection (in terms of a drive) linking the two is lacking.

Captain George Darley Cranfield (who was indeed employed as the Powerscourt agent until 1844) is noted as the occupant of the Cottage in the valuation of 1835, but the lodge itself is not recorded either in relation to this residence or the mill. From 1838 Castle Cottage was leased by Thomas Eyre, a member of the milling family. Thomas landscaped the grounds around the castle, and a number of new paths are evident on the revised OS map of 1857-59, but there is no apparent linkage with the drive from the lodge, which was still, it would seem, acting as a route to the mill.

Following Thomas Eyre’s death in 1847 the lease encompassing both the Cottage and the lodge was inherited by his brother, John Eyre of nearby Maydown House. In the valuation book of 1859 the lodge is specifically noted for the first time as a ‘gate lodge’, and was still in the hands of John, but by c.1863 it was part of a separate plot which was being leased directly from the estate by Hildebrand C. Oaks. In 1865 this holding came into the possession of Richard Brush (another Powerscourt agent who lived in ‘Benburb House’ off the village’s main street), and by 1870 the plot had been subdivided, with the eastern portion including the lodge passing to Robert McKean (or McKane). Seven years later the entire Benburb estate was sold to Belfast businessman, James Bruce, who in the following decade built the present red brick manor house to the north-east of the old castle site. Hereafter, the lodge and its accompanying gateway assumed the role of a back entrance for the new mansion, and it is marked for the first time as a ‘lodge’ on the 1905 OS map.

From 1895 the valuations supply the names of the occupants of the building, beginning with James Murphy. According to the valuation books, he would appear to have been succeeded by Hugh Taylor in 1898, George McQuaid in 1928, Matthew McCarroll (?1937), Const. [Constable? Constance?] Alexander (1941), James Loughran (1943) and Joseph Gorman in 1948. Mr. Gorman is recorded as still living there in 1972, by which time ownership of the dwelling, in line with the ownership of the Manor House, had passed to the Servites, the Roman Catholic order who bought the property in 1949. The lodge appears to have been vacated c.1980.

Locally, there is a general view that this property was in fact a lock house built as part of the Ulster Canal, but this is very unlikely, as lock louses built for this purpose have a very distinct planform, with a prominent canted bay to the front.

References - Primary Sources
1 OS maps (six-inch county series) 1833, 1857-59, 1905 (online)
2 PRONI VAL1B/610A First valuation, Clonfeacle parish, 1835
3 PRONI VAL2B/6/9C Second valuation, Clonfeacle parish, 1859
4 Second valuation, Clonfeacle Parish, printed edition, c.1863
5 PRONI VAL/12/B/38/4A-F Annual valuation revisions, Benburb ED (1960-1929)
6 PRONI OS/27/198/2 Irish Grid 1:10,000 Edition, 1977

Secondary Sources
1 Dean, J.A.K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster – a gazetteer’, (UAHS, 1994), p.137 [Dean mentions a pre-1833 lodge to the manor, that served Castle Cottage, but states that this had been demolished.]
2 O’Dalaigh, A. and O’Brien, M., ‘Fifty years in Ireland: The Servites from Benburb’, (Benburb, 1999)
3 McAnallen, B., “Maydown, Benburb: A Millennium of History in an Armagh Townland” in ‘Dhúiche Néill Journal of the O'Neill Country Historical Society’, Vol 25 (2018), pp. 11-59
4 Hamond, F., ‘An Industrial Heritage Survey of the Ulster Canal in Co Monaghan’, pp.18-19 (Monaghan County Council, 2007) [available online at https://ulstercanalgreenway.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/chs1_1_7.pdf - accessed 14 November 2019]
5 https://cotyroneireland.com/places/tyronemills.html [accessed 14 November 2019]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

The gate lodge at Maydown Bridge is a rare example of an early, simple and rectangularly planned gatelodge, built c.1830’s. It is located on the north side of Maydown Bridge. Though plain in its detailing, externally, it is neatly proportioned and retains the majority of its original historic fabric. The setting of the lodge is intact, its complexity highlighting previous links to both the Benburb Castle Estate, Castle Cottage, and the nearby Mill [HB13/11/002-003] on the River Blackwater. Though the lodge is not contemporaneous with the Benburb Castle estate, its survival is evidence of a period of change in the local history of Benburb and Maydown, and the lives of the Eyre family in Ulster.

General comments

Listing Query ref: HB13/LQ065