Milecross Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Milecross Lodge is a large two storey, hipped roof gentleman’s residence originally built in the mid to later eighteenth century. It is situated on a rise in the midst of beautiful tree lined grounds to the N of the Belfast Road, less than 1 mile NW of Newtownards. It is approached via a tree lined drive.

The symmetrical front facade faces SW. In the centre of the ground floor is a doorway with ‘in and out’ surround with keystone, which encases a plain fanlight and sturdy panelled door. To the left of the doorway are two sash windows, with horizontal glazing bar to each sash, and simple moulded surround. Two similar windows to right of doorway. To the first floor are five similar, but smaller windows without surrounds.

The SE facade is as large as the front facade and resembles the front. In the centre is a doorway as front which is now filled with a large sash window (similar to before). To the immediate left and right of this centre ‘window’ is window as ground floor front facade. To the far left and far right is a larger tripartite sash window with surround as before. To the first floor are five windows as front.

The NE elevation is complex. To the left hand side is a large section which is blank. To the right of this and set back, is a narrower gabled bay, with two Georgian paned sash windows to the first floor with two similar to the ground floor, with no glazing bars in that to the right. To the far right of the first floor of the NW face of this bay is a sheeted door.

To the right of this bay is another projecting gabled part two, part single storey section, with a recessed (i.e. set back) section of facade between both. This recessed section has a Georgian paned sash window to the left on the first floor, with two more to the ground floor. The projection to the right of this begins as two storey, but has a single storey section to its gable. This whole projection is unrendered and sports a rubble facade with sandstone quoins. To the SE face of the two storey section is a sheeted door with brick dressings. To the SE face of the single storey section is a small sash window, as previous with sandstone dressings. The NE gable is blank. To the NW face of the single storey section is a window as previous, but with brick dressings. The SE face of the two storey section has two similar windows to the first floor with two to the ground floor, but with a modern frame to that to the right.

To the right of this projection (on the ‘main’ NE facade), is a sash window, with horizontal and vertical glazing bars and brick dressings, to both the ground and first floor. This section of facade is also unrendered.

The short SE facade is also unrendered and has a sheeted door to the right on the ground floor, with bricks dressings. Similarly dressed sash window to left on first floor.

The front, SE and the left of the rear (NE) facades are finished in lined render with chamfered quoins. The front and SE facades are covered in a Virginia creeper. The main sections of the roof are hipped (the rear projections are gabled), and all roofs have Bangor blue slates. The roof has a slight overhang. Their are four large rendered chimney stacks with decorative pots. The stack to the NW is very tall. Shaped cast iron guttering, cast iron down spouts.

Large collection of outbuildings to N, of same rubble and render facade as house. One section, just to the N of the house, has a hipped slated roof, gabled half dormers Georgian paned sash windows etc. and contains a former estate worker’s dwelling house, tack room, stables etc. The section is in poor condition, but still mainly intact. A larger section a distance to the N of this is in a badly dilapidated state and has lost most of its roof, window frames etc.

Historical information

The townland of Milecross was acquired by James Bradshaw from Robert Colvill in 1726. The Bradshaws were Quaker family from Lurgan involved in the manufacture of linen. Robert, James’s son, was responsible for introducing continental bleaching and weaving methods to Ireland and became part owner of a linen ‘factory’ at Kiltonga (in the southern half of Milecross Td.) during the mid 1700s. It was probably Robert who built the present Milecross Lodge, and although the date of construction is uncertain, various sources indicate that it may have been around 1760.
Robert Bradshaw granted some land just to the south of the house to local Catholics for use as a graveyard, and Robert’s son, Thomas, (who succeeded to the property in 1794) built a meeting house for Newtownards Quakers near the Kiltonga ‘factory’. Thomas was an eccentric lawyer, who according to local folk tradition, became involved in a complicated (and colourful) dispute with Lord Londonderry concerning the ownership of water rights in the area.
During the disturbances of 1798, Milecross Lodge was commandeered by soldiers (?the local militia) for use as a garrison. The tree lined walk to the rear of the house is said locally to have been planted by one of the soldiers at this time and it is still known as the ‘soldier’s walk’.
Milecross Lodge appears to have remained in the Bradshaw family up until c.1880, when it was acquired by the present owner’s grandfather. Basset's directory of 1886 notes that the former Bradshaw lands at Milecross were in the hands of a John Tate of Downpatrick, but says nothing of the house.
The house is shown, much as today, on the OS Maps of 1834 and 1858-60, though the outbuildings to the immediate north of the house appear to have been built some time between the dates of the maps. The facade of the house looks as though it was renovated in the mid to later 1800s, as does the interior. Given the present layout of this building, the SE facing facade may well have been the original entrance, though the 1834 OS Map appears to indicate that any re-ordering of the house had been carried out by this time.

References- Primary sources
1 'The Ancient and Present State of the County of Down by Walter Harris' (Dublin 1744), p. 57. [Harris mentions the ‘Quaker’ ‘factory’ at Kiltonga.]
2 PRONI D.654/LE31/1 Londonderry Papers- Lease of 300 acres in Milecross, Robert Colvill to James Bradshaw, Sept. 1726.
3 PRONI MIC 99 Volume containing the out-correspondence, accounts and memoranda of Robert Bradshaw of Dublin and Milecross near Newtownards, Co. Down.
4 PRONI D.654/LE31/1 Londonderry Papers- Renewal of lease of Milecross Td., Oct. 1830.
5 PRONI VAL 1B/322 p.10 1st valuation, parish of Newtownards, townland of Milecross, 1833.
6 PRONI D.654/LE31/1 Londonderry Papers- Renewal of lease of Milecross Td., Dec. 1852.
7 George Henry Bradshaw County Down guide and directory (Dublin 1886, reprinted 1988), p.343.

Secondary sources.
1 F.J. Bigger 'Four shots from Down' (?Belfast ?1910). [This book contains anecdotal tales of the Bradshaw family.]
2 W. Edgar ‘Notes on the history of three Newtownards churches’ in 'Ards Historical Society publication No.2' (Newtownards 1980), pp.52-59. [This article contains notes concerning the Bradshaw family.]
3 Trevor McCavery 'Newtown, a history of Newtownards' (Dundonald 1994), pp.81-82.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large two storey hipped roof gentleman’s residence of c.1760, probably significantly renovated in the later nineteenth century, but largely untouched since then.