East Entrance Gatescreen

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A set of vehicular and pedestrian gates flanked, either side with low rubble stone walls, topped with half round dressed stone copings. Main frontage facing East with a symmetrically arranged central vehicular gateway comprising a pair of elaborately scrolled wrought iron carriage gates flanked by pairs of square, tall, smooth, sandstone cut-stone piers with flat topped projecting, moulded cornice and copings. Horizontal movement between section of stone blocks has distorted the alignment of the pillar.

Mounted, either side between each pair of piers is a pedestrian gate of similar design to the carriage gates. 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 another 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 and replicate the design. Sections of gate railings missing or twisted, particularly on left hand side.

SETTING: The gate screen stands facing East onto the main Poyntzpass - Newry road but set back from it toward the central gateway with a gravel area in front, bordered with random, painted rubble stones and leading to a tarmac driveway beyond the gates.

Historical information

The gate screen at the E entrance to the former Drumbanagher House/Castle, although damaged, is the most intact on the demesne, comprising two gate piers fitted with a pair of carriage gates and a pedestrian entrance also fitted with an iron gate. It is likely that the gate screen postdates 1846/7 and it may have been constructed at around the same time as the demesne wall, as part of famine relief works. The gate screen should be seen in the context of the history of the house and demesne which is set out below.

Mansion House and Porte-Cochere
Drumbanagher Castle, an early 19th century mansion designed by William Playfair of Edinburgh was demolished in 1951, leaving the porte-cochere, a land steward’s house and outbuildings, and one gate lodge, on a demesne that has been settled since the plantation. The Picturesque-style park layout of the demesne has survived well and incorporates earlier features, in particular an early 18th century ornamental canal.

The first family to live at Drumbanagher, the Moores, arrived in Ireland in 1550 and settled at Drumbanagher not long afterwards. The ‘Manor of Knockduff’ as it was then called, of around 1,000 acres was granted in 1610 to Sir Garret Moore of Melifont, Co Louth (1564-1627), 1st Viscount Moore of Drogheda. By 1619, Moore had built a bawn with two flankers, recorded in 1622 as having a tower house of three storeys within the bawn. The house and bawn are thought to have been located SW of the site of the former Drumbanagher Castle, near to the boundary with Skegatillida townland. The building appears to have been destroyed in the 1641 rebellion and the site had been abandoned by the 1640s. A new house was constructed for the Moores in the late 1660s or 1670s, which is depicted on Nevill’s 1703 ‘map of the glan bogg’.

Buildings on the site are shown on Rocque’s map of 1760 together with extensive woodlands within and also stretching beyond the present-day landscape park. These woodlands were ‘very likely rare survivals of pre-Plantation forests’ (HED Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes) The ‘Great Wood of Drumbanagher’ consisting of ‘full grown oak, ash, birch, alder and hazel’ was advertised for sale in 1755, although the woods clearly remained, at least partially after this date, as, ‘All the woods at Drumbanagher’ were again advertised for sale in 1777.

A depiction of the Moore’s manor house, perhaps a rebuild of the earlier dwelling is given on a 1784 estate map surveyed by Robert Bell by order of John Moore MP (1726-1806) who inherited the estate in 1762. The house shown (the copy held by PRONI is somewhat unclear) is a two storey, gable ended house with c5 bays and a single storey extension to the E elevation. Also shown are outbuildings forming a row extending N-S at the W side of the dwelling house. The map is not of OS standard but the location of the dwelling is not inconsistent with the present day location of the land steward’s house.

The Close family, who were to become the subsequent owners of Drumbanagher, were of Yorkshire descent and in the wake of the 1641 rebellion acquired property in County Monaghan, but eventually settled at Lisburn. The Closes became connected through marriage to the Warings of Waringstown, the Halls of Narrow Water and to the Maxwells of Elm Park, Armagh. Colonel Maxwell Close (1783-1867) was appointed High Sherriff of County Armagh in 1818 and married Anna Brownlow, sister of Charles, 1st Baron Lurgan in 1820.

The Drumbanagher estate, comprising nearly 4,000 acres, excluding the demesne of 460 acres was first put up for sale in 1817. The mansion and ‘office houses’ were said to be ‘in the most perfect repair, and the House is considered one of the best in the County’. Ultimately the house and most of the estates were sold at public auction, to Major Close in April 1818, after Moore got into financial difficulties, although the former mansion was destroyed by a fire shortly afterwards in 1820.

Drumbanagher was one of two houses Playfair designed in Armagh, the other being Brownlow House in Lurgan. Charles Brownlow was Playfair’s brother-in-law and his sister Anna Brownlow married Maxwell Close in 1820. Drumbanagher, known locally as ‘Close’s Castle’ was designed in 1829 and explored on a grand scale the Italianate style Playfair was also practicing at Dunphail House in Morayshire (1828-9) and Belmont House in Edinburgh (1828-30). It is thought that no other architect in the British Isles was working in this style at the time (Greiff). Mrs Close took a keen interest in the design, such that Playfair dubbed her his ‘Lady Patroness in architecture’. The construction of Drumbanagher appears to have run relatively smoothly with Playfair making some refinements to his design during construction according to letters held in the Edinburgh University Library and the National Library of Scotland.

The construction of Drumbanagher was a project that taxed the resources of Playfair’s Edinburgh office severely, Playfair insisting on using experienced ‘Edinburgh tradesmen’ for the job. Playfair’s close attention to detail is said to have set ‘an unusually high standard in Ireland’ (Gow). In a letter of 1830, Playfair apologized to a client saying that 80 masons had been sent to Ireland and needed drawings immediately. William Henry Playfair was responsible for some of Edinburgh’s most prominent public buildings including the Royal Institution, the Surgeon’s Hall and the National Gallery.

The newly-built mansion house of Drumbanagher is shown, captioned, on the first edition OS map of 1835. Curiously, the porte-cochere to the main entrance is shown as an outline on this map and on the 2nd edition of 1861, usually an indication that a building is roofless but perhaps in this instance indicating the absence of side walls. The mansion was said to be ‘in the Italian style’ and to have cost £80,000 to build, using the freestone ‘that is so plentifully found in Ireland’. (Doyle, Burke). On the 17th September 1835, the Closes held a ‘fete’ with dancing and a banquet to celebrate the wedding of a relative. The house is described as ‘newly-erected’, although evidence suggests that work continued for at least three years after this date. The journalist praises the ‘grand saloon, which in extent and beauty of proportions exceeds anything of the kind in this part of the United Kingdom’.

Valued at an extraordinary £200 in the Townland Valuation of 1836 (although no details or dimensions are given, suggesting the house was not complete), the house was on a scale rarely seen in the north of Ireland. The OS Memoirs for Killevy Parish, signed off in March 1838, indicate that the house was not complete at this date and the description of the house as having a ‘humble appearance…[like] a strip cottage, but on a much larger scale’, suggests that at this date much of the ornamental detail remained to be applied. In contradiction to Burke’s contention that the house was built of local freestone, the OS Memoirs assert that the stones ‘have all been got in Scotland and brought over in a rough state’, and were lying about the house and pleasure grounds at the time. The extant porte-cochere is certainly of Scottish sandstone.

The house attracted much admiration from contemporaries, for its ‘architectural beauty and elegance’ (Leigh) and was pronounced ‘by far the most beautiful and magnificent specimen in the kingdom of the Italian style of architecture’ (Paliamentary Gazetteer). Jonathan Binns (Assistant Agricultural Commissioner of the Irish Poor Law Inquiry) called Drumbanagher, ‘a magnificent villa of the pure Italian style in the design of which the architect, Mr Playfair of Edinburgh, has displayed consummate skill. It is surrounded by gently sloping ground of great extent, adorned with plantations and stately trees. The terraces and lawns are ornamented with water, and parterres enriched with the gayest flowers. From this splendid mansion a striking effect is produced’. (An image held by the National Library of Ireland shows a view of house and gardens taken from the ornamental canal.)

At the time of Griffith’s Valuation the house was occupied by Colonel Maxwell Close (1783-1867) and valued at £370. Griffith’s Valuation gives a plan of the building with dimensions for all the elements. The quality mark of 1A+ is given for the majority of the building, indicating that it was of the highest quality, although more than 30 years old at this point.

The house, listed in annual revisions as ‘Drumbanagher Castle’ was valued with the outbuildings and gate lodges at £300 in 1865 (a slight reduction over the GV valuation, perhaps the result of a challenge by the Close family) and the valuation was further reduced to £150 in 1923, perhaps as the family began to close up some of the larger rooms. On the death of Colonel Maxwell Close the estate passed to his son Maxwell Charles Close (1827-1903) and then his grandson Major Maxwell Archibald Close (1853-1935).

Maxwell Archibald Close was resident at the time of the 1911 census, which records the grandeur of the Drumbanagher estate. The house had 57 windows to the front elevation and 71 rooms. Close, a retired Major in the 13th Hussars lived with his wife and two children and a substantial staff, comprising an English governess, a nurse, a cook, eight maids, a laundress, a butler and a footman. It is thought that around this time Lady Muriel Close commissioned the celebrated garden designer Gertrude Jekyll to design flower borders in her characteristic cottage garden style (this area is now planted with trees).

At the time of the First General Revaluation of the 1930s the occupier was Maxwell Stuart Close (1892-1946). In 1933 the accommodation comprised on the ground floor: two very large halls, a library, dining room, billiard room, drawing rooms, three sitting rooms, kitchens, stores, sculleries and pantries, bathrooms and WCs and on the first floor: 18 bedrooms, three bathrooms, five WCs, stores and six servants rooms and on the second floor, ten bedrooms. The valuer describes the house as ‘very well designed and in good repair’ and in the midst of ‘good hunting and shooting country’. The rooms were ‘very richly decorated’ in a classical style with main rooms and halls ‘exceptionally good’ with high ceilings. The library, drawing and dining rooms overlooked a ‘very well maintained terraced pleasure garden and artificial lake’. The Close family employed five female servants in the house and there was running water in bathrooms, sewerage using a cesspool and electric light produced by a gas-powered engine.

The house was valued at £170 in 1933 but the valuation progressively dropped through the 1940s to £33 in 1948. In 1941 and 42 the valuer noted that the house was partly ‘in military occupation’, for which Close was paid £300 per annum by the War Department. A map in the valuer’s binder shows that 53 acres of the demesne was also occupied by the War Dept. In 1947 Close requested a reduction in the valuation and it was noted that damage had been caused to the ground floor reception rooms by the army, which had not been repaired and the Close family continued to only occupy part of the house. Valuers notes and plans show that the army occupied about 4/5ths of the dwelling, mostly in the southern part of the building including the porte-cochere while the family lived in the northern half, however valuers’ notes of 1935 show that the family had not occupied the south end of the dwelling for some years, only using the main reception rooms on special occasions.

In 1951 the castle was demolished and a new dwelling house was built to the W of the ruins of the old house in 1952. Today the only upstanding survival from the original dwelling house is the porte-cochere, which has lost the original surmounting balustrade and decorative urns that are shown in historic images. Some overgrown ruins of the former mansion remain. The stone, marble, brass, lead, timber and stained glass were all sold and may have found their way into nearby buildings. It is believed that some of the marble work was set aside for sculptors to carve into tombstones.

Land Steward’s House, stable courtyard and outbuildings
The land steward’s house and stable courtyard was constructed in its present form at the same time as Playfair’s new mansion house to the S, and using similar architectural details. However, Mulligan suggests that the land steward’s house may be a remodelling of an older house and there is some support for the contention that the land steward’s house is a remodel of the earlier Moore mansion. Some of the adjacent outbuildings may therefore date to this earlier building.

A depiction of the Moore’s manor house, a probable rebuild of an earlier dwelling, is given on a 1784 estate map surveyed by Robert Bell by order of John Moore MP (1726-1806) who inherited the estate in 1762. The house shown (the copy held by PRONI is somewhat unclear) is a two-storey, gabled-ended house with c5 bays and a single storey extension to the E elevation. Also shown are outbuildings forming a row extending N-S at the W side of the dwelling house. The map is stylised in its depictions but the location of the dwelling is not inconsistent with the present day location of the land steward’s house. Although the outbuildings are not shown in the same relationship to the house as the present-day outbuildings, some fabric survival in the current outbuildings cannot be ruled out. The Moore family mansion house was described in Coote’s survey of County Armagh (1802/3) as ‘very excellent’ and surrounded by ‘plantations in great vigour’ within a ‘capital demesne’.

The land steward’s house and stable courtyard with both attached and detached outbuildings to the NW, are shown on the first edition OS map of 1835. Outbuildings u, v, p and r present on the site today, (although u and v are in a ruinous condition) may contain fabric from these pre-1835 buildings. The second edition of 1861 confirms that the majority of the outbuildings present today were added to the site between 1835 and 1861 (most likely g, h, j, k, m, l, q, s, y and z are from this period) and additional structures, including glasshouses, were constructed in the adjacent walled garden. Further minor additions were made in the period up to 1906 (most likely o, t, w, and x) but the layout of the outbuildings remained largely unaltered from 1906 to the present day.

The Townland Valuation of the 1830s does not give specific information about the land steward’s house or outbuildings but Griffith’s Valuation gives dimensions for all the ‘offices’, which most likely also includes the land steward’s house. Dimensions are given for eight two-storey buildings and 15 single-storey buildings (two of the latter are identified as a shed and a byre). The quality marks confirm the map evidence which suggests that most (16) of the outbuildings are newly built at this time, while five of the two-storey buildings (which most likely includes the land steward’s house) are older.

At the time of the 1901 census the land steward was David Harper, a 62 year old man who lived with his Kildare wife and unmarried adult daughter who worked as a seamstress. Also living in the steward’s house were two farm labourers, who were no doubt employed on the estate. The steward’s house is recorded as having eight rooms and five outbuildings (most likely the attached buildings of the stableyard).

At the time of the 1911 census, the occupant (identifying himself as ‘herd’, rather than land steward) was William Lundy and the steward’s house is recorded as having 10 rooms. The 1911 census records the outbuildings as comprising: three stables, a coach house, two harness rooms, a cow house, a calf house, a dairy, a piggery, two fowl houses, a boiling house, a barn, a potato house, two workshops, two sheds, four stores, a forge and a laundry.

A plan and dimensions are given for the outbuildings in the First General Revaluation of 1933 and in 1935 the valuer comments on the ‘nice walled gardens with glass houses and potting sheds in good order’ but also comments that the agricultural offices were not fully used and some were in poor repair. The estate was about 450 acres of which 250 acres were farmed. Of the farmland, 30 acres was cropped and the remainder was in grass. The farm kept 30 head of cattle, four horses, pigs and poultry and also five riding horses and hounds for hunting. Twelve male servants and a land steward maintained the grounds and farm.

The land steward’s house was occupied by the land steward Edward Rutherford in 1933 and the accommodation is described in the valuer’s binder as a reception, kitchen, scullery, pantry, six bedrooms and an office. The valuer comments that it is a ‘good house, well finished and in good repair. Very attractive appearance’. John Arnold was resident in 1950.

Gate lodges and screens
There are three entrances to the Drumbanagher demesne and at least seven lodges have been associated with these entrances over the years, the gate lodges having been rebuilt in at least two phases. The first edition OS map shows three entrances to the demesne, to W, E and S, each associated with an uncaptioned lodge, W1, E1 and S1. JAK Dean states that these original gate lodges were not appropriate to the grandeur of the new mansion, due to the Closes running out of money at the time the mansion was built (and these early lodges may indeed have belonged to the previous mansion). This situation is said to have been rectified in 1846/7 when the estate wall was built as a famine relief project and it appears that the former E2 and W2 lodges were constructed at around this time, together with the extant main gatescreen at the E entrance. Newspaper reports record that Colonel Close was employing 900 men on his demesne in November 1846, giving credence to the contention that the demesne wall was built at this time. Lodges at the S and W entrances (S2 and W3) were rebuilt or remodelled in the later decades of the 19th century. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s contains no specific information about the gate lodges, however, Griffith’s Valuation of the 1860s lists three single-storey gate lodges and gives dimensions for these. The quality mark given for the gate lodges supports the contention that E2 and W2 were newly built at this time (Quality mark 1A), while S1 was older (Quality mark 1B). All the three main entrances had a gate lodge still extant (the W entrance had two lodges) until at least 1955 (large-scale map) but only two gate lodges have survived to the present day (W1 and S2).

South Lodge and gatescreen
JAK Dean confuses the south and west lodges in his ‘Gate Lodges of Ulster’. However, clearly referring to the south gate lodge, Dean states, ‘this beautiful little lodge has all the architectural details of the big house’. There is no drawing for a lodge among Playfair’s designs for Drumbanagher (held by University of Edinburgh), but Dean attributes the building to Playfair.
Dean’s date and attribution for the S gate lodge (S2) are problematic, however, as the earlier gate lodge at this entrance (S1) is clearly shown to the W of the entrance driveway on the first and second edition OS maps of 1835 and 1861. S2, located to the E of the entrance driveway, is a rebuild that must have been undertaken after 1861, after the death of W H Playfair in 1857. It is possible that it was built to Playfair’s design after his demise, but appears equally likely that it was built to the designs of another architect, using the main house as inspiration. One entire gate pier (of a matching style to those at the E entrance) and part of another survives but the gates have been lost. The gate screen is likely to post-date 1846/7, given the date of the demesne wall.

At the time of the First General Revaluation in 1935, S2 was the home of James R Webster, an employee of Captain Close. The accommodation comprised a kitchen, two bedrooms and a scullery, the valuer describing the house as ‘attractive’ and in ‘good repair’. A plan and dimensions are given. Webster was followed as resident by Samuel McClean in 1938 and Herbert Cully in 1949. In recent years the gate lodge has been the residence of members of the Close family and a large rear extension has been added. The front porch of the lodge bears the crests of the Close family. On one side the crest incorporates the Close motto FORTIS ET FIDELIS and the other the Maxwell motto, SINE CRUCE, SINE LUCE.

West Lodge and gatescreen
The earliest known lodge to the W entrance (W1), pre-dating the first edition map of 1835, was located opposite the entrance driveway and remains extant, although heavily remodelled. W1 does not appear in the Townland Valuation, and Griffith’s Valuation does not list it as a gate lodge. W1 was, in fact, superseded by a second lodge (W2) constructed to the W of the entrance driveway between 1835 and 1861 which was most likely built as part of the works undertaken in 1847. This lodge was rebuilt/remodelled between 1861 and 1906 (W3), increasing in size, but is currently ruinous and overgrown. One gate pier appears to partially survive but the gate screen at this entrance has largely gone. W3 is not listed in valuation records and appears to have been overlooked by the valuers.

East Lodge and gatescreen
The earliest known lodge to the E entrance, the entrance which lies on the main Newry Road, was a small rectangular building (E1) shown on the first edition of 1835 that had been replaced by the second edition of 1861, when the associated gate piers are depicted for the first time. It is likely that this lodge (E2) was built around the time of the construction of the demesne wall in 1846/7.

At the time of the First General Revaluation of 1933, E2 was the home of Robert Kimmons, an employee of Captain Close, and comprised a kitchen, two bedrooms and a scullery. Kimmons was followed as resident by Hugh Ferris in 1949. However, this lodge was the first to fall derelict, between 1955 and 1972, when it is shown on the large-scale map as roofless. There are no obvious remains of E2 today, but the gate screen at this entrance is the most intact on the demesne, comprising two gate piers fitted with a pair of carriage gates and a pedestrian entrance also fitted with an iron gate. The piers are currently damaged and the gates have suffered some loss of fabric. It is likely that the gate screen postdates 1846/7 and may have been built at around the same time as the demesne wall, as part of famine relief works. This is borne out by the second edition map of 1861 which appears to show piers at this location for the first time.

References:
Primary Sources:

1. PRONI D695/M/1 Map of the Glan Bogg (1703)
2. Belfast Newsletter, 2nd May 1755
3. Saunders’s Newsletter, 30th April, 1777
4. PRONI D1594/291 Rocque’s map of County Armagh (1760)
5. PRONI T1175/3 Estate Map of Drumbanagher (1784)
6. Coote, Sir Charles (1804) Statistical Survey of the County of Armagh … drawn up in the years 1802 and 1803. Dublin: The Dublin Society
7. Binns, J (1837) The Miseries and Beauties of Ireland. London: Longman, Orme, Brown and Co
8. Saunders’s Newsletter, 23rd September 1835
9. PRONI OS/6/2/18/1 First edition Six Inch OS map (1835)
10. PRONI OS/6/2/22/1 First edition Six Inch OS map (1835)
11. Day, A and McWilliams, P (eds) (1990) Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Vol 1 Parishes of County Armagh 1835-8 Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University
12. Leigh, Samuel (1835) Leigh’s new pocket road-book of Ireland. London: Printed for Leigh and Son
13. PRONI VAL/1/B/217 Townland Valuation, Parish of Killevy (c1836)
14. Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland (1846) Dublin: A Fullarton & Co
15. Coleraine Chronicle, 14th November 1846
16. Doyle, J.B. (1854) Tours in Ulster. Dublin: Hodges and Smith
17. Burke, Sir Bernard (1855) A visitation of the seats and arms of the noblemen and gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Hurst and Blackett
18. PRONI OS/6/2/18/2 Second edition Six Inch OS map (1861)
19. PRONI OS/6/2/22/2 Second edition Six Inch OS map (1861)
20. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/32E Griffith’s Valuation, Barony of Orior Lower (1863)
21. PRONI VAL/12/B/15/23A-E Annual Revisions Electoral Division of Poyntzpass (1864-1929)
22. PRONI VAL/12/B/15/10A Annual Revisions Electoral Division of Drumbanagher (1924-1929)
23. Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911 online
24. Album of Photographs, National Library of Ireland, ALB75 (c1900-1912)
25. PRONI OS/6/2/18/3 Third edition Six Inch OS map (1906)
26. PRONI OS/6/2/22/3 Third edition Six Inch OS map (1906)
27. PRONI OS/6/2/18/4 Fourth edition Six Inch OS map (1955)
28. PRONI OS/6/2/22/4 Fourth edition Six Inch OS map (1955)
29. PRONI VAL/3/C/2/13 First General Revaluation ED Drumbanagher (1936-1957)
30. PRONI VAL/3/D/2/6/N/3 Valuer’s notebook TL Killybodagh (1933-57)
31. Large scale OS maps 1906, 1955, 1972 (https://shop.centremapslive.co.uk/)

Secondary Sources:
1. Archiseek: Buildings of Ireland www.archiseek.com
2. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
3. Dictionary of Irish Architects – www.dia.ie
4. Dictionary of Scottish Architects - https://scottisharchitects.org.uk/
5. Gow, Ian (1991) ‘William Henry Playfair’s Design for a “Roman Villa” at Lurgan in Northern Ireland’ in Scottish Architects Abroad, Architectural Heritage II: The Journal of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
6. Greiff, Constance M. (1979) John Notman, architect, 1810-1865. Philadelphia: Athenaeum of Philadelphia.
7. HED Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest in NI
8. Reid, Miles ‘Drumbanagher House and Garden’ Before I forget, Journal of the Poyntzpass and District Local History Society, Number X, 2009, pp61-64

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

East gatescreen
The earliest known lodge to the E entrance, the entrance which lies on the main Newry- Poyntzpass Road, was a small rectangular building (E1) shown on the first edition of 1835 that had been replaced by the second edition of 1861, when the associated gate piers are depicted for the first time. It is likely that this lodge (E2) was built around the time of the construction of the demesne wall in 1846/7. This gate lodge was the first to fall derelict, between 1955 and 1972, when it is shown as roofless on maps. It is likely that the gate screen postdates 1846/7 and may have been built at around the same time as the demesne wall, as part of famine relief works. This is borne out by the second edition map of 1861 which appears to show piers at this location for the first time. There are no obvious remains of E2 today, but the gate screen at this entrance, despite being the most intact on the demesne, comprising two gate piers fitted with a pair of carriage gates and a pedestrian entrance also fitted with an iron gate which are now currently damaged and the gates have suffered some loss of fabric.