Gate Screen

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An early twentieth-century gate screen located at the main (north) entrance to Gilford Castle estate (HB17/01/002A-E), on the Banbridge Road east of Gilford.

The screen comprises large finely dressed sandstone gate piers over plinth, with stone cut back slightly to corners; caps are corniced and gableted to each side, each north facing gablet inset with the letter 'C' on a stone plaque. Piers are topped by a polygonal pedestal supporting the bases of lamp standards (former gas lamps). To the rear of each pier a ladder gives access to the lamps.

The piers support fixed cast- and wrought-iron iron rails with curlicues and spear head finials, and matching gates are hung on cast iron framework piers (cross-shaped on plan) topped with curlicues and additional lamp bases.

The screen is flanked by convex walls, roughcast rendered, with stone plinth and ramped coping; beyond the entrance, estate walls are coursed rubble blackstone with stone soldier coping.

Setting

Roadside location, with parkland
setting stretching to south.

Piers: Sandstone
Gates: Cast and wrought iron

Historical information

Gilford castle gate screen was constructed c.1905 to designs by Young & Mackenzie as part of the improvements made by the castle’s new owner Katherine Carleton.

A gateway at Gilford Castle is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834 as the entrance to the old castle at Gilford, which dated from the early 1700s. This early building was sited near the edge of the demesne beside the main road, and not far from the entrance. On the second edition of 1858, a ‘Gate Lodge’ is captioned beside the entrance, which appears to have widened, but on the third edition of 1901-2, this lodge has been removed and a new ‘Lodge’ built at the end of a driveway further east that would have greeted travellers coming from the direction of Belfast. The present gatescreen is not shown until the fourth edition of 1920-21.

The gate piers bear the shield and monogram ‘C’ of Katherine Carleton, who bought Gilford Castle in 1904. Miss Carleton had been impressed by a gatescreen at Fowey Hall in England designed for a Mr Hanson by the architect C E Sayer, who gave permission to replicate the gateway at Gilford Castle. The ironwork was manufactured by Musgrave & Co, Belfast and the piers were by Richard Lutton of Portadown to the designs of Young and Mackenzie. The Hansons’ gate lodge was also to have been reproduced at Gilford but was never built. (Dean)

Gilford Castle was completed in the early 1870s as a residence for Benjamin Dickson, a partner in the local linen thread company of Dunbar McMaster. The house replaced a much earlier castle built by a descendant of Gilford’s earliest proprietor. However, the current house was seldom lived in until the ancestors of the present owners acquired the property in the early twentieth century.

In 1904 the house and demesne was purchased by Katherine Carleton for £15,000, the valuer noting that the cost of the building to Benjamin Dickson had been about £42,000 and that the price paid by Carleton was ‘the value of the land alone, the castle being given for nothing’.

References:
Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/350 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48A Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/17A – Annual Revisions (1923-29)
9. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/9 – Valuer’s Notebook (1916-22)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 – First General Revaluation (1936-57)
11. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/M/1 – Valuers RV Binders (1933-57)

Secondary Sources
1. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
2. Graham, F “The History of Gilford Presbyterian Church and other articles of local interest” 2006
3. Higgins, Beryl "Gilford During The Second World War"
4. Logan, R A “A Window on the Past, A History of Gilford County Down” Banbridge Chronicle, (n.d.)
5. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007
6. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online
7. www.discovernorthernireland.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The gate screen at Gilford Castle (HB17/01/002A) is located to the north of the main house at the main entrance to the estate from the Banbridge Road. The gatescreen, constructed in the early twentieth century, is less ornate than might be expected for the style of the house but still forms an imposing entrance to the Castle grounds. Comprising well crafted and robust sandstone piers and retaining original wrought iron gates, the screen forms an important feature in the estate. Evidence of gas lighting also survives, although the lamps are gone. The gatescreen contributes to the group value of the estate related structures that include the stable yard (HB17/01/002B), walled garden (HB17/01/002E) and farm entrance with lodge (HB17/01/002D). The Gilford Castle estate is of interest as a fine and largely intact example of Scottish Baronial architecture; it is also of much historic interest, built on the proceeds of successful enterprise in the local linen industry at the height of its success.