Sharman Crawford monument

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large sandstone obelisk monument of c.1864, built as a memorial to William Sharman Crawford M.P. ‘by a grateful and attached tenantry’. The monument is set on a rise within Sharman Crawford’s former estate at Rademon House, S of Ballynahinch Road, roughly 1 mile W of Crossgar, 4½ miles E of Ballynahinch.

The monument is in ashlar sandstone and consists of a tall obelisk and plinth set on top of a broad, stepped sunken base surrounded by a ha-ha-like ditch. The obelisk, as one would expect, is tapered and has a pyramidal top and a short base with rope moulding. The plinth has a corbelled cornice course with pediments, a stepped and chamfered base course, and is topped with urns to the corners.

There are (roughly) square panels to each face of the plinth. That on the N contains a bronze relief plaque with two classical style female figures flanking a draped oval containing profile portrait of Sharman Crawford. The plaque is signed ‘S[amuel] F[erres] Lynn’ and dated 1864. The panel to the E side of the plinth contains an inscription referring to the subscription for the monument raised by the tenantry. To the S is Crawford’s coat of arms and to the W is a further inscription containing some detailings of Crawford’s life and career.

The large base to the monument is topped with a shallow chamfer with which merges into steps and squat, pyramidal headed corner piers. Beyond this the base is grass covered and gently slopes down to granite coped edging, around which is the ditch or ha-ha.

The structure has some traces of creeping plant growth, especially to the top of the plinth.

Historical information

This monument was erected in c.1864-65, ‘by a grateful and attached tenantry’, as a memorial to William Sharman Crawford. Crawford (1781-1861), the local landlord and owner of the Rademon House estate on which the monument stands, an estate which, through marriage, passed to his family in 1814. Sharman (who added his wife’s name Crawford to his own in 1805 and also held lands in north Down and Co Cork) was a radical M.P. for Dundalk 1835-37 and for Rochdale between 1841 and 1852, and a supporter of the Chartist movement and, (in Ireland), Tenant Rights. He retired from public life in 1852 after defeat in the Co Down election.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.856 Sharman Crawford Papers [Sections A1-A6 contain maps, leases, accounts and letters concerning the Rademon estate]
2 PRONI OS/6/3/23/30/3 OS map, Down sh 30, c.1901

Secondary sources
1 C.E.B. Brett ‘Historic buildings…East Down’ (Belfast 1973), p.49

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large sandstone obelisk monument of c.1864, built as a memorial to William Sharman Crawford M.P. ‘by a grateful and attached tenantry’. The obelisk sits on a plinth set on top of a broad, sunken base surrounded by a ha-ha-like ditch. The plinth has panels to each face one of which contains a bronze relief portrait of Crawford by Samuel Ferres Lynn. The structure is of special interest for its style, proportion,ornamentation, plan form, designed setting, relationship with other buildings on the Rademan Demsne and its local historical interest.