Gate Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey two-bay gabled basalt gate lodge at the entrance to Banbridge cemetery, dated 1883 and built to designs by Young and McKenzie. Located to the west side of Banbridge Road north of Banbridge town centre. T-shaped plan with adjoining portacabin to rear (of no interest).

Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and two tall red-brick chimneystacks having yellow brickwork detailing and moulded caps with terracotta pots; bracketed timber struts and bargeboards to gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves with exposed rafter ends. Walling is random coursed basalt rubble with yellow brick dressings and chamfered yellow brick plinth. Windows are 2/2 timber sliding sash with horns on projecting stone sills with yellow brick surround; two-centred depressed gothic arched to first floor. The majority of the windows have modern decorative steel security bars.

The principal elevation faces north; gabled bay to right has a window to centre at first floor; two-centred depressed gothic arch encompasing a 2/2 square-headed window to ground floor left and replacement six-panelled timber door surmounted by a slated lean-to canopy on timber brackets to right. Left bay is set back and has a square-headed window to ground floor surmounted by a sandstone plaque with decorated shield and scrolled band reading “1883 PER DEUM ET INDUSTRIAM”.

The east elevation has a window to centre at ground and first floor.

The south (rear) elevation is almost entirely abutted at ground floor by a modern portacabin of no interest; gabled bay at left has two windows to first floor; exposed right bay is blank and surmounted by a wall-headed chimneystack.

The west elevation is symmetrical and has a wall-headed chimneystack with flanking blind windows to first floor.

Setting

Set inside the stone boundary wall of the cemetery on the south side of the main entrance. Surrounded on three sides by a stone wall with metal gate to front. Small tarmacadam yard to front and steps to rear leading to cemetery. Entrance gates have square stone piers on a smooth plinth with gabled sandstone caps having carved Gothic panels; supporting original cast-iron gates.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Basalt
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The gate lodge bears a date plaque ‘1883’ and the Banbridge coat-of-arms and is first shown on the third edition OS map captioned ‘Lodge’ at the entrance to ‘Banbridge Cemetery’. The cemetery, at the time it was laid out, was situated outside the town, but has since been incorporated into the suburban development of Banbridge. When built, the cemetery was roughly half the size it is today, a plot to the west being added before the OS map edition dating from 1960s/70s. The architects are thought to have been Young & Mackenzie. (Dean)

The cemetery superseded a graveyard located on the south side of Church Street. With the continuing importance of Banbridge as a centre of the linen trade, and associated population growth, pressure mounted on the available burial space within the town. In 1879 a petition from the ratepayers of Banbridge was presented to the Local Government Board, asking for an inquiry into the necessity of a public cemetery for the town. (Irish Times) In 1865 Banbridge had adopted the terms of the Towns Improvement Act (1854) and the later decades of the nineteenth century were a period in which the wealth of the town was harnessed for the public benefit, with the construction of ‘spacious market-places in which the farmers of West Down can transact their business satisfactorily’, extension of the sewerage system and the provision of assistance to the Joint Burial Board to provide the much-needed public cemetery. (Irish Times)

Banbridge Cemetery enters valuation records in 1883 and the gate lodge in 1884. The cemetery is the property of the Banbridge Burial Board and the 3 acres, 1 rood and 5 perches of land are valued at £4/5s and the gate lodge at £5/15s. No occupants are listed for the gate lodge and there is no alteration in valuation during the period covered by Annual Revisions. The interior of the lodge has been much modified in recent times but the building continues to serve the public who visit the cemetery as an information centre and waiting room.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 Third Edition OS Map (c1900)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
6. Irish Times 23rd August 1879
7. Irish Times 1st August 1906

Secondary Sources

1. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey two-bay gabled basalt gate lodge located at the entrance to Banbridge cemetery, dated 1883, built to designs by Young and McKenzie and in the Gothic style with tall red-brick chimneystacks. Architectural detailing is largely intact and much of the original character has been preserved externally. The interior has been refurbished in recent years with alteration of the floor plan to ground floor. Although this is a building of by prominent local architects, its character has been compromised by the loss of its plan and interior detailing and it does not meet the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.