Gate Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical single-storey three-bay Tudor-Revival former gate lodge, built c.1850 to designs by James Sands and located on the north side of Donaghadee Road, Groomsport at the entrance to Groomsport House (HB23/01/016A). Rectangular on plan with substantial extension to rear.

Steeply pitched natural slate roof dominated by a central chimneystack consisting of twin lozenge-stacks on an ashlar sandstone plinth. Moulded stone gutters with cast-iron downpipes. All gables have fractables with sandstone kneelers. Walling is ruled-and-lined rendered with stepped sandstone quoins and plinth, unless otherwise stated. Windows are uPVC casements with splayed sandstone sills.

Principal elevation is symmetrically with a window opening to either side of a projecting gabled ashlar sandstone entrance bay, containing a four-centred-arched entrance opening with hood-moulding surmounted by a blind shield. The door is timber sheeted with cast-iron door furniture, including boot-scraper.

Left and right gables are identical, each having a single window to ground floor, with a blind-lancet niche to attic level.

Rear elevation is completely abutted by the modern extension.

Setting
The lodge is set on a small site with lawn to front and pavoired parking area to rear. It is bounded to the road by a basalt rubble wall with soldier coping, and to the access lane by mild-steel railings and gate. The site is accessed via the remains of a gate screen (HB23/01/016C). The site has been developed with modern multi-occupancy residential units.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render/stone
Windows: uPVC
RWG: Stone gutters, cast-iron downpipes

Historical information

Groomsport House was built in 1849, and was designed by James Sands for Robert Perceval Maxwell. The lodge was added shortly afterwards and is also attributed to Sands.

The lodge is shown, uncaptioned, on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 and is added into Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) after the main house has been entered. The main house was initially valued at £58 but following improvements, including the addition of the gate lodge, the value was raised to £75.

Robert Perceval-Maxwell moved into the house c.1848 and in 1870, he became the owner in fee of the property, following his uncle’s death without issue. Robert Perceval-Maxwell’s main residence then became Finnebrogue in Downpatrick (with Groomsport House a summer residence). Robert left the house to his daughters Isabel and Anna Perceval-Maxwell who continued to live there until their deaths in 1923 and 1928 respectively.

Groomsport House was occupied during WW2 by 515 Field Survey Company of the Royal Engineers from 1940 to 1943. They produced maps to assist forces fighting on the European mainland using photographs taken by reconnaissance aircraft (Information supplied by Peter Gibson). In 1944 the US Army’s 166th Signal Photographic Company was billeted in Groomsport House for several weeks. These photographers and cinematographers subsequently recorded the advance of the US Third Army as it helped to liberate Europe after the D Day landings (County Down Spectator).

In 1951 the Maxwell family took over Groomsport House once again and Gavin Perceval-Maxwell gradually restored the house before selling it in 1968. (Crosbie, p.43, Groomsport Parish Church, p.12). The house was opened as a hotel in 1994 but closed shortly afterwards and in 1999 was converted to apartments (Patton, p.66, 68). The former gate lodge remains in use as a domestic dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 – Second Edition OS map 1958
2. PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
3. PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
4. PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/2 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/8A-C – Annual Revisions (1894-1923)
9. PRONI D3244/E/5 – Letters and papers of John Waring Maxwell junior about architecture and buildings (1818-69)
10. Northern Whig, 4th May 1843
11. Banner of Ulster, 16th May 1848
12. Belfast Newsletter, 14th May 1923
13. Belfast Newsletter, 30th July 1928
14. County Down Spectator, 22nd October 2020

Secondary Sources

15. Crosbie, Jane E.M. “A Tour of North Down 1895-1925, Historic Photographs from the W.A. Green Collection at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1989
16. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
17. “Groomsport Parish Church, 1842-1992” Church Leaflet
18. Information supplied by Peter Gibson
19. Malcomson, A. P. W. (2023) The Maxwells of Finnebrogue and the Gentry of County Down c1610-c1960. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation
20. Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A small but well detailed single-storey two-bay Tudor-Revival styled gate lodge, of some interest along with Groomsport House (HB23/01/016A), principal residence in the area of the Perceval Maxwell family of Finnebrogue, whose fortunes were closely linked with Groomsport. Detailing and ornamentation are appropriate to the style and well crafted in sandstone. Composed on a simple symmetrical plan, the lodge has been seriously compromised by the modern extension and to some extent by the loss of the gate screen (HB23/01/016C). The setting has been seriously compromised by a housing development on the site. However, the character of the lodge survives in its detailing and its connection to the main house sustains its special interest.

General comments

This record has been reassigned as part of the Groomsport House grouping. The original HB reference was HB23/01/017