Gate Screen

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The remains of a sandstone gate screen, built c. 1850 and located at the entrance to Groomsport House (HB23/01/016A) and set adjacent to a gate lodge (HB23/01/016B).

The gate screen comprises hexagonal sandstone piers, each on a bevelled plinth with cornice, plain frieze and coronet finials; the main entrance gates are flanked by single piers supporting decorative wrought iron gates, with decorative steel pedstrian gates hung on cast-iron piers. Within the entrance at left are two further identical sandstone piers, consecutively arranged; those to right have been removed. The drive is now tarmacadam and provides access to a modern housing development.

Material: Sandstone

Historical information

Groomsport House was built in 1849, and was designed by James Sands for Robert Perceval Maxwell. The lodge and gate screen were added shortly afterwards, the lodge also being attributed to Sands. In all likelihood the gate screen was also his work.

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

In 1870, Robert P Maxwell became the owner in fee of Groomsport House, following his uncle’s death in 1869 without issue. The valuation of the house rises to £79 following the addition of a gardener’s house the same year and in 1908 the value is raised to £85 following the addition of a hay shed. Robert P Maxwell’s main residence was Finnebrogue in Downpatrick during this period, but two of his grown-up unmarried daughters continued to live in the house until they died c1930. The house remained unoccupied during the war and was used for ‘secret military work’. In 1951 the Maxwell family took it over once again and Gavin Perceval-Maxwell gradually restored it before selling it in 1968. (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)

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)

Secondary Sources

1.Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
2.Crosbie, Jane E.M. “A Tour of North Down 1895-1925, Historic Photographs fro the W.A. Green Collection at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1989
3.“Groomsport Parish Church, 1842-1992” Church Leaflet
4.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A formal entrance screen located at the entrance to Groomsport House(HB23/01/016A), comprising a group of hexagonal sandstone piers with cornice and coronet finials. The screen has been partially demolished, possibly reconfigured and now provides access to a large modern housing development, which includes the main house. The setting has been degraded but the screen retains some interest along with the Tudor Revival gate lodge (HB23/01/016B), whose chimneys are stylistically coherent with the screen. However, it has been seriously compromised both by the degradation of the house and lodge and by the loss of its setting.

General comments

This record has been reassigned as part of the Groomsport House grouping. The previous HB reference was HB23/01/018