Milford Temperance and Benefit L.O.L. Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Unusual, single-storey over basement Orange Hall of 1911, with crow-stepped or ‘ziggurat’ topped two-stage tower to one of its front corners, with a variety of semicircular and pointed arch window openings. The building is located at the south-western end of Monaghan Street, to the western side of the village of Milford, on sloping ground to the north-west side of the street, with railings enclosing it from the pavement.

[The hall is orientated NE / SW. For description purposes the SE façade i.e. the long stroke of the ‘L’ facing the pavement, will be referred to as S with all other facades similarly corrected.]

In plan the hall resembles an L-shape with the long stroke of the L facing south and a short full-height return to the north-west making up the short stroke, with a narrow (almost) full-height projection sitting in the intersection of these. To the south-eastern (front) corner is the tower, which is flush with the eastern façade, but projects slightly to the south, and rises to a crow-stepped or ziggurat-like parapet. To the south-west is a shallow (almost tower-like) corner projection whose walls rise above eaves level to form a plain parapet. When viewed from the south the main section of the building is two-storey, however the ground slopes to the north and from here it is two-storey. The front façade faces east, and here a splayed retaining wall with cast-iron railings encloses a two-stage entrance platform with stone steps.

To the left side of the front east façade is the entrance that consists of a panelled timber double leaf door with semicircular-headed fanlight. To the left of this is a tall pointed arch (gothic) window. Above this, set within the tower, is a similar but shorter window, the lower portion of which has been altered to accommodate a timber-sheeted door.

To either end of the long south façade are shallow bays, that to the right belonging to the tower and that to the left belonging to the shallow corner projection. Each of these bays has a single tall pointed-arch window as before, whilst between these bays are four semi-circular-headed windows of similar height. Between the two central windows is a date-stone inscribed ‘MILFORD ORANGE HALL A.D. 1911’. To the upper stage of the tower is a window similar to that to the east side of the same stage.

To the west facade there are two widely-spaced pointed-arch windows, with two much smaller segmental-headed windows, equally widely-spaced, to the basement level.

The north façade is fully two-storey and has a complex appearance. The left hand edge has a shallow bevel, to the centre is the narrow projection and to the right the north face of the return. To the basement level at this side there are four flat-headed windows, one to the bevel, the second one to the immediate left of the narrow projection and the last two to the return. To the upper level of the return is a pointed-arch window, whilst to the eastern face of the return there is a steel-sheeted door at basement level. Two corners to the centre of the façade have unusual 'single-storey' chamfers.

The walls are finished in roughcast with moulded quoins to most corners. The window and door openings have smooth render reveals and moulded keystones, and the sills are also moulded. The window frames are timber and the the Gothic-arched ones appear to be replacements with a simple ladder arrangement of panes. Window frames to the tower appear original and have ‘Y’-tracery. The basement windows are all boarded over. Semi-circular-headed window frames to the main hall have margin frames with coloured panes to the margins.

The roof is pitched but is irregular and somewhat awkwardly shaped to the rear, where it includes hips and a single-pitch ‘gable’. The roof to the tower is concealed; set in the centre is a flagpole. There are two brick chimneystacks, one rising from the eaves (with decorative clay pots) and one through a ridge (potless). There is a shallow eaves course and the rainwater goods appear to be a mixture of extruded aluminium, cast-iron and uPVC.

The railings to the pavement side and the opening to the steps terminate with octagonal pillars with octagonal pyramid stone caps and splayed bases. The cast-iron spear railings are set in stone copings which rest on rendered walls.

Behind the crow-stepped gables of the tower is believed to be a bituminous flat flat roof.

Historical information

As the date stone tells us, this Orange Hall was built in 1911. Immediately prior to this date Milford Orangemen had met in various buildings in Aghavilly and Ballyrea, and, occasionally in the house of Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, a foreman mechanic in Milford mill. Mr. Hutchinson was the main force behind the formation of a local lodge and construction of the hall. He died before the building was completed, and in his honour it was named ‘Hutchinson's Memorial Orange Hall’.

The hall itself was built on land acquired from Mr Robert Kennedy, and paid for by subscription and voluntary labour. The architect is not known, and one suspects (given its quirkiness) that the design was perhaps the work of a local builder or amateur architect. It was officially opened in late August 1911, with a stirring anti-Home Rule speech delivered by W.J. Allen. The ‘Armagh Guardian’, reporting on the opening, described the hall as ‘built of concrete with a tower at one end. Above there is a fine room, which can be used for socials, concerts etc., having seating accommodation for several hundred.’ In October 1920 a basement room was renovated and opened as the McKinley Room, in honour of Mr. Thomas McKinley. At the same time the exterior of the building was ‘cemented and rough coated’, with the ‘Armagh Guardian’ proclaiming that ‘when completed with a few other details, Milford will have one of the most complete Orange Halls in the County Armagh’.

In December 1956, in order to facilitate (C of I) parishioners residing in Milford, the hall was licensed for divine worship and administration of the sacraments.

Prior to the building of the hall, the local Orangemen had originally approached village’s major landholder, the mill owner R.G. McCrum, for a site, but as a liberal Unionist he does not appear to have been in favour of the establishment of a lodge in the area. Local legend has it, that as a riposte to the building of the Orange Hall, he opened up his own recreational hall, the ‘R.G. McCrum Institute’ [HB15.14.023] in the centre of the village, free for the use of all without restriction.

References- Primary sources
1 OSNI OS8-130-1A (1908)
2 ‘Armagh Guardian’, August 1911, October 1920
3 OSNI OS10-2-12-14-1 (1947)

Secondary sources
1 McManus, Joe, ‘Milford, The home of the penalty kick, red bricks and golden memories- A village history’, (Inglewood Press, 2002), pp.144-51

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This rendered Orange Hall was constructed in 1911 and was originally named after the person mainly responsible for its construction, Mr. Thomas Hutchinson. It has a quirky design with a mixture of round headed and pointed window openings most of which have had replacement window types inserted. The crow-stepped gables to the corner tower are aso unusual in an orange hall. It is a local landmark and has social history for the local community but overall it is not of sufficient architectural interest to warrant listing.