Manor House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 2-storey multi-gabled early Victorian house of asymmetrical plan in a restrained Tudor Revival style with a Gothic Revival porch. Main entrance faces north-west.

North-west elevation comprises a large main block with 4 gables to the front and a central gabled porch, and a smaller service wing set back to the left. Roofs of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; tall octagonal painted stone chimney stacks on rectangular bases, except one stop-chamfered chimney, with a mixture of plain and octagonal stoneware pots. Surmounting the roof beyond the entrance bay is the metal superstructure of a weather vane.
Walls are of smooth cement render and lined, and blocked to the right-hand end bay, with a slightly projecting plinth, projecting moulded eaves course or cornice, and moulded projecting verges to gables. Moulded cast iron gutters with cast iron downpipes. Windows to main block are of timber, in a variety of forms, some 4-light with moulded timber transoms and mullions; some coupled rectangular timber sliding sash 2 over 2, or 1 over 1 with horns, set in chamfered reveals. To the right of the porch, in ground floor, is a narrow Gothic arched lancet, 4-pane fixed light; to the right of that, in first floor, is a 3-light window with a triangular head to the centre light, surmounted by a rectangular label moulding which also rises to a triangular head in the centre. Other windows have rectangular moulded drips.
Projecting entrance porch is single-storey, gabled, with an open-arched porch at the front in dressed stonework. Archway is of Gothic form, with stop chamfered reveals, surmounted by an arched drip moulding with large carved head label stops; moulded stone coping with stone trefoil finial at apex. Open porch approached by a stone doorstep; stone flagged floor; smooth rendered walls; simple timber collar beam roof with tongued and grooved sheeted ceiling; main entrance door original, with three vertical panels, and an original metal door knob.
Wing to left is of similar materials to main block with similar variety of windows but without any label mouldings.

North-east elevation is of similar character and finishes as previous, but includes a modern rectangular metal framed window with top-hung vent to the first floor at extreme right-hand end; to left of that is a rectangular doorway in ground floor, containing a glazed and panelled door set in plain reveals; to left of that is a modern metal flue attached to upper storey, emerging from a later flat-roofed single-storey projecting block.

Rear elevation: 2-storey, comprising a tall 4-bay main block, with a longer but lower wing set back to the right. Roofs, walling, and rainwater goods all as previous to main entrance front.
Main block is 4-bay, each bay identical. Each bay contains a ground floor window, rectangular 4-light with transom and mullions containing a pair of 2-pane fixed toplights and a pair of 3-pane lower sliding sashes without horns, surmounted by a rectangular drip moulding; a first floor window, rectangular timber coupled sliding sashes, 2 over 2 with horns; surmounted by a gablet which has a circular finial at the apex rising from a shaped corbel below the barges. Bays divided by original flared circular section hoppers with circular downpipes.
Wing to right comprises 4 bays marked by gablets with a slightly projecting end bay. Windows in set back range are varied and include three triangular headed first floor windows comprising coupled vertically hung timber sashes, 2 over 1 with a lozenge-shaped tracery light; a first floor 3-light window, comprising a triplet of sliding sashes, 1 over 1 with horns, with a raised triangular head to the centre light; and a canted bay to the ground floor; bays separated by flared hoppers with downpipes as previous. The projecting end bay to the right-hand extremity contains a 3-light window to each floor, the first floor one having semi-circular arched top lights.

South-west elevation: 2-storey, comprising two gables: walling, rainwater goods as previous; varied window types, in timber, including a canted bay to the right-hand gable, with slated roof and a pair of 3-pane French windows in the front face, opening onto a short flight of 3 steps.

SETTING: The building stands on an elevated site within a large demesne. Surrounded on three sides by gravelled areas and paths, extending at the front to a gravelled car parking area. Beyond the paths are lawns with wooded areas beyond that. House approached by a long driveway from the main street which climbs steeply near the house. Front driveway marked by a main entrance gatescreen (HB15/02/003) and two gate lodges (HB15/02/002). There is also a side gateway with plain gates and rear gateway with ornamented iron gates; much of the boundary of the estate, to the public roads, marked by rubble stone walls. Adjacent to the house is a former stable yard (HB15/02/016B).
Elsewhere in the demesne are a walled garden, an ornamented footbridge (HB15/02/017), an ice house (HB15/02/016C), a lime kiln, and a hermitage (HB15/02/027). Paths within the demesne lead uninterruptedly into the adjoining demesne of the former Drumilly House (now demolished) which contains another walled garden known as 'Drumilly Bawn' (HB15/03/040) and 'The Cottage' (HB15/03/041).

Historical information

Precise date of building not recorded but it appears on the OS map of 1860. Stylistically its restrained handling of the Tudor Revival style may be dated to around 1840 although the gabled entrance porch, in Gothic Revival style looks like a work of the 1850s to 1870s and so may be a later addition. While the tree-lined avenue leading from the main street of the village was indicated on the OS map of 1834, the gateway and lodges, and the main house were not; nor was the house referred to by Lewis in 1837. The main gates were manufactured in 1842, according to their inscription, which accords with the stylistic date of the main house, although there is no stylistic similarity between the gateway and lodges and the main house. The 'yew walk', to the north of the Manor House, also appears to be indicated on the OS map of 1835.
Built for the Cope family who had arrived in Ireland from England in the early 1600s and acquired the adjoining estates of Loughgall and Drumilly. One branch of the family subsequently lived in Drumilly House, situated to the east of the lough, which was demolished in 1965, while the other lived in the Manor House.
The Manor estate was purchased from General Sir Gerald Templer, a descendant of the original owners, by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1947. The Ministry began general farming operations in 1949 and in 1951 established a horticultural centre on the estate. In 1952 the Northern Ireland Plant Breeding Station, which had been founded at Stormont in 1922, was transferred to Loughgall. In 1987 the Horticultural Centre and Plant Breeding Station were amalgamated to form the Northern Ireland Horticultural and Plant Breeding Station, and in 1995 the station became part of DANI's Applied Plant Science Division.
Within the demesne there is a scheduled ancient monument, no. Armagh 8: 25.

References – Primary Sources
1. G. Tayor and A. Skinner, Maps of the Roads of Ireland (London, 1778) – shows the residence of 'Cope, Esqr.' adjacent to the lake.
2. OS Map 1834, Co Armagh 8.
3. OS Map 1860, Co Armagh 8.

Secondary Sources
1. W.T. Pike, ed, Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the 20th Century (Brighton, 1909), p 271.
2. M. Bence-Jones, Burke's Guide to Country Houses, Vol I: Ireland (London, 1978), p .
3. DOENI, Loughgall: A Conservation Village (Belfast, 1993), pp 2, 3, 28.
4. J.A.K. Dean, The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer (Belfast, 1994), pp 39-40.
5. P. Reilly, Loughgall: a Plantation parish (Armagh, 1995), pp 20-25 et seq.
6. C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Armagh (Belfast, 1999), p 206.

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

This is an early Victorian country house in a restrained Tudor Revival style which retains most of its original exterior features and forms the centrepiece to an important demesne.