Stables

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached multi-bay two-storey stone former stable block, built c.1735. Rectangular on plan, facing south and located to the north of the river Lagan off Lower Quilly Road. Now partially derelict and in agricultural use.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and dressed stone eaves supporting replacement steel rainwater goods. Redbrick eaves course to rear elevation. The front pitch is broken by two redbrick wallhead dormers with dressed stone. Random rubblestone walling with redbrick dressings. Square-headed window openings to the first floor, largely filled-in with concrete block.

Front south elevation has two pairs of segmental-headed carriage arch openings with stone ashlar surrounds. Two square-headed door openings with extended stone lintels forming the sills to round-headed overlights formed in redbrick with a single timber thermal window to the easternmost opening.

West gable partially collapsed with remnants of redbrick lined openings to each floor.

Two-storey rubblestone rear elevation with no openings.

East gable built in red brick laid in English garden wall bond to eaves level and abutted by external steps constructed in concrete block. Segmental-headed door opening to the first floor and round-headed door opening to ground floor constructed in redbrick

Setting

Positioned on an elevated site to the north of the Lagan accessed by an early stone bridge off the Lower Quilly Road. Mid to late twentieth-century agricultural buildings to the south and west forming a concrete farmyard.

Roof : Natural slate
Walling stone/brick
Windows timber
RWG steel

Historical information

The large two-storey outbuilding in the townland of Coolsallagh is the last remnant of Gill Hall, an 18th century mansion which was the residence, and formed part of the demesne, of the Earl of Clanwilliam but was destroyed in a fire in 1969. Both the house and the stable block appear on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1834; the house was originally located to the south of the stable block next to four-arch bridge that spans the river lagan at the site. In 1834 the stable block possessed additional wings to its south-west and north-east gables; these had been removed by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1858) when the building had taken its current layout.

The Townland Valuations valued Gill Hall and its out offices at £60 19s., the valuer noted that the sites out offices included two primary blocks which were individually valued, these were ‘offices, court ho[use] and stable’ at £14 0s. 5d. and ‘office [and] stables’ at £5 13s. 4d. In the 1830s Gill Hall was the residence of the Earl Clanwilliam (who was Richard Meade, also Viscount Clanwilliam, Baron Gilford and Baron Clanwilliam) but was not viewed suitable as a lords dwelling; the Ordnance Survey Memoirs described the mansion as ‘an old house of no architectural beauty [an] extensive and memorial-like building’ (p. 72, 76). The Earl seldom resided at Gill Hall but lived at his permanent residence in upper Brook Street in London. In his absence George Brush, an agent to the Bishop of Dromore, resided at Gill Hall (Ulster Town Directory – 1843; 1861).

By 1858 there had been no discernible alteration to Gill Hall House; however the stable block had been altered with the removal of its former south-west and north-east wings. Griffith’s Valuation did not value the stable block separately from the mansion but valued the entire site, including the house, out offices and a gate lodge, at £80. There was no further change to Gill Hall or the stable block on either the latter editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (1903; 1903-16) or to its valuation by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. In 1935 the first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland recorded that Gill Hall House and its associated property had passed to a Mr. Samuel G. Ardery who owned the site outright, however the site had evidently fallen into a state of disrepair or lay vacant as the entire demesne, including the house and outbuilding, was only valued at £10; the site was not included in the second revaluation of 1956-72. The Leader records that during the Second World War Gill Hall was occupied by the R.A.F., however it remained vacant after the war until the late 1960s. On 1st June 1969 Gill Hall was destroyed by a fire which left only an empty shell, however the stable block to the north of the site was unaffected by the blaze (The Leader).

Gill Hall House was constructed in the 18th century and was originally three-storied ‘built of harled rubble with sandstone dressings’ and roofed with slate; in 1966 the house was ‘empty and dilapidated.’ The two-storey stable outbuilding was situated 200 ft to the north of the house and is ‘built of rubble, with brick quoins and some wrought-stone dressings and with slate-covered roof ... the ground entered by large segmental arched openings and divided into groined brick vaulted bays with stone Doric columns’ (An Archaeological Survey of Co. Down, pp 364-67).

The First Survey Record and the Dictionary of Irish Architects both record that the stable block outbuilding was designed by Richard Castle (d. 1751) in c. 1736. Castle, a Dublin-based architect who was originally named David Riccardo, had come to Ireland from the continent in 1728 and was employed as an engineer for the Newry Canal between 1733 and 1736. Castle established a private practise and designed a number of public buildings throughout Ireland including Dublin’s Leinster House in 1745. As well as designing the stable block at Gill Hall, Castle also made additions to the dwelling at the same time (Dictionary of Irish Architects).

The two-storey stable block is the only surviving building of the 18th century Gill Hall estate, however between the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1903-16 and the current edition map in 1972, two modern corrugated-iron outbuildings have been constructed to the southwest and southeast side of the original stables. The remaining outbuilding was listed in 1977.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1916
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/20 – Townland Valuation map c. 1830
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/342 – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21A – Annual Revisions 1864 - 1876
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21B – Annual Revisions 1876 - 1885
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21C – Annual Revisions 1885 - 1900
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21D – Annual Revisions 1900 - 1908
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/21FE– Annual Revisions 1909 – 1930
13. PRONI VAL/3/B/4/2 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
14. PRONI VAL/4/B/3/4 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
15. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down III, Vol. 12 (1834; 1837)
16. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
17. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
18. The Leader (6 Jun 1969)
19. First Survey Record – HB17/13/021 (1969)
20. Ordnance Survey Map – 202-2 (1972)

Secondary Sources

1. ‘An Archaeological Survey of Co Down’ Belfast: H.M.S.O., 1966.

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

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

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached multi-bay two-storey rubblestone former stable block, built c.1736, to the designs of Richard Castle. Although in a poor state of repair this building exhibits good workmanship and is a fine estate structure by a notable eighteenth-century architect. It represents the remains of an important estate and is a good example of a type that is increasingly rare.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered it was previously recored as HB17/13/021