West gate lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small, picturesque single storey gate lodge of c.1860s with oversailing hipped roof and hood mouldings to front. The building is set at the western entrance to Seaforde Demesne, to the E side of Demesne Road, roughly a mile NW of Seaforde, c.6 miles W of Downpatrick. The design may be based on the work of English architect Peter Frederick Robinson (1776-1858), who had been employed by the Forde family in the 1820s and 30s.

The front façade faces N and is symmetrical. To the centre is a timber sheeted door, with hood moulding above. To the left of this is a relatively large three light casement window, with three panes to each light. Above the window is a simple label moulding. There is a similar window to the right of the door.

To the E façade there is a window as front, with another to the W façade. To the rear there is a yard enclosed by a high wall (with timber sheeted door to S). Because of this wall the writers could not see the rear façade.

The front, E and W facades are all finished in unpainted lined render.

The hipped roof is slated and has a large overhang with exposed rafter ends. Central rendered chimney stack. PVC rw goods.

Historical information

This gate lodge is believed to have been built in the 1860s. It replaced a lodge built some time between c.1834 and c.1858 which stood on the opposite side of Demesne Road. The authorship of the building is uncertain, but elements such as the windows and mouldings are similar to details present on the Almshouses in Seaforde village, which are probably the work of Peter Frederick Robinson (1776-1858). It has been suggested that this lodge represents a posthumous execution of a Robinson design.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.366 Forde papers
2 PRONI OS/6/3/36/3 OS map, Down sh 36, c.1901

Secondary sources
1 J.A.K. Dean ‘The gate lodges of Ulster- a gazetteer’ (Belfast UAHS 1994), p.95

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Small, picturesque single storey gate lodge of c.1860's with well proportioned gate screen, set at the western entrance to Seaforde Demesne, with oversailing hipped roof and hood mouldings to front. As well as being of architectural interest it has group value with the rest of the Seaforde estate buildings. The building may be a posthumous execution of a design by English architect Peter Frederick Robinson (1776-1858), who had been employed by the Forde family in the 1820s and 30s.