Gate lodge at Tobar Mhuire

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single storey, hipped roof, gate lodge (to Tobar Mhuire House) of 1875, with rubble façade, brick dressings, vermiculated clay quoins and a gabled porch topped with eagle ‘finial’. The building is set at the W entrance to the Tobar Mhuire house estate, on the southern edge of Crossgar.

The front façade roughly S and is symmetrical. To the centre is a projecting gabled porch. To the front gable of the porch is the main entrance, which consists of a panelled and glazed door set within a yellow brick dressed recess with moulded reveal (all the openings have similar dressings unless stated otherwise). Directly above the doorway is a recessed slate roundel panel with date ‘1875’ thereon. To the E and W faces of the porch is a narrow sash window. The porch has yellow clay vermiculated quoins, a granite base and steps to the doorway. The main portion of the house (excluding rear façade and return) has similar quoins and base. The roof is covered in a natural slate with]stone parapet to gable with clay urn ‘finials’ to either end and an eagle ‘finial’ to the apex.

To either side of the porch (to main front façade) there is a sash window with vertical astragals.

The W elevation consists of the W façade of the main portion of the lodge (to the right) and the W façade of a return. The return façade is blank, however, the (mono-pitched) return roof has been heightened slight and a slate clad portion of it now rises above the main rubble façade. The E façade repeats this arrangement, but the rubble façade to the right of the W façade of the main portion of the lodge, is not the façade of a return but merely a high wall enclosing the rear yard.

The rear (N) elevation consists of the N wall of the yard, which has a central timber sheeted door with red brick dressings. Red brick quoins. The return roof rises slightly above the wall level to right.

The E façade of the return (which faces into the yard is plain rendered with a glazed door and large modern window. The rear façade of the main portion of the house (which also faces into the yard is also plain rendered and has two large modern windows.

The main portion of the lodge was a hipped roof covered in natural slate with two central yellow brick chimney stacks. The roof has a slight overhang supported on clay corbels. Metal rw goods.

Gate screen of c.1950s to immediate SW of lodge with simple gates and railings and ecclesiastically inspired gate pillars.

Historical information

This gate lodge was built in 1875 by John Cleland, the then owner of Tobar Mhuire house. It may have been built without the rear return, with simply the enclosed yard to the rear. The return is indicated on the OS map of 1921. In recent times [?c.1980s-90s] the building was completely renovated internally and the return appears to have been slightly extended.

The lodge replaced an earlier pre 1834 lodge, which was sited at the entrance to the original drive to the to the N (see below). This earlier lodge stood until at least 1932.

TOBAR MHUIRE
Tobar Mhuire was built in 1864 by James Cleland, the then owner of Crossgar townland. Its stands on the site Crossgar House, a low, sprawling, one and half to two storey residence, probably built c.1780s by then landlord, Edward Ruthven. Ruthven sold Crossgar to William Thompson, a merchant from Downpatrick, during the 1820s, who developed the village itself and built the market house. The new landlord does not appear to have lived at Crossgar House, however, for in 1835 it was occupied by a Mrs Hamilton and in 1845 by a Rev. Maguire.

On Thompson’s death in 1862, Crossgar passed to his nephew, James Cleland. Almost immediately, Cleland demolished the old house and erected the present residence with its extensive outbuildings. This new house he named after a well to the south west of the building itself, which was referred to locally as ‘Mary’s Well’, or ‘Tobar Mhuire’. Either Cleland or his son, John, who inherited the estate on his father’s death in 1875, redirected the main drive to the new house, moving it further to the south and adding a new gate lodge. The walled garden to the north-east was laid out around this time also.

The Clelands remained at Tobar Mhuire until c.1930, when the house was acquired by William McCalla, a Belfast shipping agent. Between 1942-45 it was occupied by Allied troops and after the War sold to a Mr. McDowell of Downpatrick. Shortly afterwards McDowell sold it to Lt. Col. Llewwllen Palmer, who in 1950 sold it to The Passionist Order, for use a s monastery / retreat house.

The following sources mainly relate to Tobar Mhuire house and its predecessor, Crossgar House.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/30/1 OS map, 1834, Down 30
2 PRONI VAL/1B/330 1st valuation, Kilmore, 1835
3 PRONI VAL/1A/3/30 1st valuation map, c.1835, Down 30
4 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
5 PRONI OS/6/3/30/2 OS map, 1859, Down 30
6 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s) valuation, Kilmore, 1863
7 PRONI OS/6/3/30/3 OS map, 1901, Down 30
8 PRONI OS/6/3/30/4 OS map, 1920, Down 30

Secondary sources
1 J.A.K. Dean, ‘The gate lodges of Ulster- a gazetteer’ (Belfast UAHS 1994), p.97 [The author of this book mistakenly believes that the present lodge stands on the site of the original pre 1834 one, when in fact the original lodge remained standing long after the drive was redirected to the south in c.1875.]
2 ‘The Passionists, Tobar Mhuire 1950-2000’ (Downpatrick, 2000)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Single storey, hipped roof, gate lodge (to Tobar Mhuire House) of 1875, with rubble façade, brick dressings, vermiculated clay quoins and a gabled porch topped with urns and eagle ‘finials’. To the rear there is a return, (with modern windows and a mono-pitched roof), which is contained within an enclosed yard.