The Gate Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical single-storey two-bay gate lodge, built c.1855 located at the south side of Conlig village, formerly at the entrance to Little Clandeboye (HB23/06/006A), a neo-Tudor mansion, now demolished. The lodge is rectangular on plan with gabled central bay and rear extension.

Roof is pitched natural slate with angled clay ridge tiles and central chimneystack finished in mock-rustic render. Profiled plastic gutters on overhanging boxed eaves; ogee timber bargeboards to gables. Walling is generally squared-and-snecked whinstone rubble (random rubble built to rough courses at west) with painted rusticated dressed sandstone stone quoins and chamfered plinth. Windows are Gothic double-hung timber casements with fixed top-lights having painted chamfered sandstone surrounds and cills, and hood mouldings with decorative stops. The door is timber sheeted, ledged and braced, with brass ironmongery, set in similar surround.

Principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged with a window to either side of projecting gabled entrance bay.

West gable is blank; right side is built up with large sandstone blocks to approximately window head level.

Rear elevation is completely abutted by a single-storey extension, one bay deep, of no interest.

East gable has a single window.

Setting

The lodge is set with east gable to the road and contained in a small neat garden. Gravel parking space to front, accessed by alcoved entrance screen of squared-and-snecked whinstone rubble with sandstone coping, double timber gates on square piers with replacement ball finials and sandstone caps.

Roof: natural slate
Walling: Whinstone
Windows: timber
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

This house is the gate lodge to ‘Little Clandeboye’, also formerly known as Conlig House and was built c.1855.

The Gate Lodge may have been added to the estate after Lord Dufferin bought Little Clandeboye. The architect is unknown but Lord Dufferin was commissioning Benjamin Ferrey in the mid-1850s for various projects on his estate. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 captions the ‘Gate Lodge’ and it is listed in Griffith’s Valuation as part of the estate of Little Clandeboye which is owned by Lord Dufferin. The valuation is £35, later raised to £40.

Conlig House can be dated to c.1830 and was very similar in style to Glencraig (HB23/16/012, now altered) which dates from the same period (A document dated by watermark to 1827 states that Glencraig is ‘about-to-be-erected’). The architect may be William Burn who was later consulted by the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava with regard to the remodelling of Clandeboye House in the 1840s.

Dean states that the Conlig house was at one time a Dower house for the Blackwoods, although no evidence for this could be found. Certainly, in 1853 William Perry was not only resident in the house, but was able to sell it to Lord Dufferin.

The main house is listed in the Townland Valuation as the premises of William Perry [sic], valued at £24.10s. Dimensions are given for the house with north and south wings, a projection and seven cellars. It is given an A+ rating indicating it is less than 20 years old in 1835. Thom’s Directory of Ireland for 1850 lists it as the residence of William Pirrie Esq, Conlig House.

Captain William Pirrie was a Belfast ship-owner and harbour commissioner. His son, James Alexander Pirrie, left Ireland in 1844 for Canada where he entered the timber shipping trade. James Pirrie died in 1849 and his widow took her son William back to Ireland to live at Conlig with his grandfather. Young William Pirrie was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution from 1858 to 1862, and then became an apprentice at Harland and Wolff. He showed a talent for draughtsmanship and design as well as financial management and became a partner in 1874 and after Harland’s death in 1895, chairman. In 1906 he was elevated to the peerage and in 1912 the firm produced the giant liner Titanic which sank on her maiden voyage. Having presided over the growth of one of the most successful shipping firms in the world, Pirrie died in 1924, aged 77. (www.oxforddnb.com)

William Pirrie senior was married to Eliza Morrison who came from Conlig and was part of the wider family of the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. He was a Scot who briefly emigrated to the USA where he eventually became a naturalised citizen. He used the neutral American flag to trade between Spain and the Spanish colonies during the Franco-Spanish war and was imprisoned for twelve months by the Spanish for being in possession of contraband. Eventually he escaped and ultimately set up business as a merchant and ship-owner in Belfast. He was elected a Harbour Commissioner and played a leading role in developing Belfast into a major port. He is also known to have been granted a mining lease to the Conlig lead mines in 1850. Pirrie sold Conlig to Lord Dufferin in November 1853. However, he continued to engage in business and in 1857 he is listed as a Director of the Belfast and County Down Railway. He died in 1858. (McKee, p.18; Bradshaw’s Directory, p.13)

‘Little Clandeboye’ is unoccupied and leased from Lord Dufferin and Clandeboye, a house, office and gate lodge valued at £40. Although it is not recorded in Annual Revisions, estate correspondence reveals that the house was let to Hugh Creighton, who was about to be married, from 1863 until at least 1871. Creighton took the house for a rent of £100 a year. The valuer noted in 1880 that the house was still vacant but by 1882 Richard T Hamilton was in residence. James Fagan occupied the house from 1894 and JT Barrett from 1901. The same year the valuation is increased to £59.15s and the valuer notes that this is due to ‘Mr Barrett’s improvements’. A number of occupiers followed: SJ McLean (1904), Thomas O Dickson (1909), Walter Barbour (1915), Marquess of Dufferin (1926), George McCracken (1927) and Walter John Dyer (1929).

James Bernard Fagan (1873-1933) was an actor, theatre manager and playwright, who had recently made his acting debut when he lived at Little Clandeboye. A letter survives written by him at Little Clandeboye to Lord Dufferin in which he thanks him for an introduction and promises to send him two one-act plays he has written. After several years working as an actor, Fagan embarked on a career as a dramatist, a number of his plays being filmed in the early days of the cinema. In 1917 he began a third career as a producer, ultimately taking over management of the Royal Court theatre in London. In 1923 he opened the Oxford playhouse and continued to stage notable productions in London and New York, spending increasing amounts of time in Hollywood where several of his plays were filmed and where he died in 1933. (www.oxforddnb.com)

Little Clandeboye became a mental hospital in the 1930’s before eventually falling into disuse and was a ’romantic ruin’ for many years before being demolished. (Patton, p.135, 158)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/2/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
4. PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
5. PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/31 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/2 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/8A-C – Annual Revisions (1894-1923)
11. PRONI D/1071/A/H/2/75/28 – Agreement of William Pirrie with Lord Dufferin, November 1853
12. PRONI D/366/721 – Mining lease granted to William Pirrie and others, 30 November, 1850
13. PRONI Will of William Pirrie, died 08/06/1858
14. PRONI D/1071/A/K/1/B/12 – Letters concerning proposing letting of Little Clandeboye, 1863
15. PRONI D/1071/H/B/C/701 – Letters from Hugh Creighton to Lord Dufferin, 1870-71
16. PRONI D/1071/H/B/F/4 Letter from James B Fagan to Lord Dufferin, August 1897
17. PRONI D3897/23 – Humorous account of a family meeting, 1827
18. Bradshaw’s Railway Manual and Directory for 1857

Secondary Sources

1. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
2. McCutcheon, W.A. “The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland,” London: HMSO, 1980.
3. McKee, WJH “Kirk and People, A History of Presbyterianism in Conlig”, 1998
4. 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
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A symmetrical single-storey two-bay gate lodge with extension to rear, built c.1855, and located at the former entrance to Little Clandeboye, a neo-Tudor mansion, now demolished. The lodge is robustly detailed echoing the style of the main house. The lodge was renovated in the late twentieth century, however, the scale, proportion and detailing structure have survived. Although the original gates have been replaced, the alcoved gate screen remains. The lodge is now of significance as the only remaining structure of the Little Clandeboye demesne, connected to the Sinclair and Pirrie families, who were central to the development of Conlig village.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered it was previously recorded as HB23/06/006