The Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay single-storey stone gate lodge erected c.1810 and located on the north side of Main Street within the entrance to Castle Upton (HB20/12/018A). The lodge is rectangular on plan with modern L-shaped extension to east side.

The roof is hipped natural slate with off-centre roughcast chimneystack and half-round cast-iron rainwater goods on a timber eaves board. The walling is rubble stone, with slightly projecting rubble stone plinth to north elevation. The windows are square-headed with painted smooth rendered surrounds incorporating cill.

The principal elevation faces the avenue at west and consists of a timber sheeted door with keyblocked surround to left and a window to right. The window is multi-pane with segmental-headed central section and round-headed flanking sections, all within a square timber frame.

The north elevation is three windows wide, all pivoting with geometric glazing. There are remains of gate fixings to extreme right side.

The east elevation is abutted by the modern extension. The exposed right side has an enlarged modern window opening.

The south elevation abuts the Castle Upton estate boundary wall.

Setting

The lodge is set within a modern garden bounded by timber fence and the boundary wall of the demesne..

Historical information

The lodge stands at the former main entrance to Castle Upton. Castle Upton dates from the sixteenth century and was formerly called Castle Norton, after Sir Robert Norton, its founder. The settlement has early origins, having developed around a church founded in the fourteenth century by the Knights of St John, which stood near the centre of the village. The village was among extensive lands granted to Sir Arthur Chichester in the reign of James I, who in turn granted the lands to Sir Roger Norton. The Upton family bought the castle in the mid seventeenth century, when the mane was changed to Castle Upton. The village was almost totally burned by the Kings’s troops in June 1798, during the Battle of Antrim, and the lodge was constructed shortly thereafter in c.1810.

The Townland Valuation and map records the gate house in the possession of Lord Templeton, valued at £2.10s.91/2d. Immediately to northeast of the gate lodge there appears a ‘Tee House’, of which no trace now remains. Griffiths Valuation records no change.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/51/1 -First Edition OS Map (1830)
2. PRONI VAL/1/A/1/51A -Townland Valuation Map (1836)
3. PRONI VAL/1/B/1/129A -Townland Valuation Book (1836)
4. PRONI VAL/2/A/1/51A -Griffiths Valuation Map (1860)
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/71B -Griffiths Valuation Book (1860)

Secondary Sources

1. OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Antrim XIII, Vol. 35 1838
2. Lewis Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Dublin, 1837
3. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.

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

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Castle Upton East Lodge is a diminutively scaled single-storey two-bay gate house of some charm set behind the boundary wall of the estate and constructed of similar locally sourced basalt. The most prominent feature of the lodge is the unusual decorative glazing, and there are formal touches such as the window surrounds which distinguish the building above its modest proportions. The modern extension is sympathetic and, together with other estate structures, the lodge is a component of the estate group.

General comments

This record has been renumbered and was HB20/12/017.