Gate Lodge at Florida Manor

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small, single storey gate lodge of c.1820 to the N of Florida Manor, with canted ends, hipped roof and gothick openings. This lodge is prominently set at a sharp bend in the Florida Road and it is now vacant and in poor condition.

Front N facade has a central double timber sheeted door set in a pointed arch opening the overpanel of which is blank (apparently in order to disguise the floor of an attic storey). On either side of the door is a window set in a similar opening, with modern (c.1950s) timber frame.

The canted facade to the W appears to be blank, though it is difficult to tell as this portion of the facade is largely covered in greenery. A curving rubble wall projects from the centre of this facade.

From the canted E facade projects a high rendered wall which contains a timber sheeted door (which leads to a small lean to-like [?] ‘extension’. This wall continues to meet the gate screen which consists of two plain, rubble built, square pillars with pyramidal caps, enclosing simple wrought iron gates.

The writers could not get close to the rear of the lodge, however, the rear facade appeared to be dominated by a large timber constructed lean to extension which was partly covered in greenery.

The facade of the lodge is of rubble construction with brick dressings and is whitewashed.

The hipped roof has a large overhang, Bangor blue slates and a central brick chimney stack with incongruous modern pot. Dilapidated metal rw goods.

This gate lodge is one of a number of vaguely ‘gothick’ buildings in Kilmood townland built by the then owner of Florida Manor, David Gordon, probably in c.1820. Apart from another lodge to the E of Florida Manor, all of these buildings have survived (HB24/17/036, /037, /039 & /094).

Historical information

The Manor of Florida was created in 1638 on lands previously acquired by Sir James Montgomery (2nd son of Viscount Montgomery) from Con O’Neill, the name ‘Florida’ apparently having been derived from Sir James’ love of flowers. During the Commonwealth (1649-60) the lands were placed in the custody of a Colonel Barrow, but returned to Montgomery hands after much wrangling, in 1664.

In 1691-2 the manor came into possession of the Crawford family and passed to Robert Gordon through marriage to Ann, the niece and sole heiress to the estate of David Crawford, in c.1770. It was undoubtedly one of the Gordons who built the present house, probably c.1780-c.1800 (some sources give a date of 1796 based on an inscribed timber used in the stables), possibly constructed around an earlier Montgomery dwelling which (if a later datestone in the adjacent farmyard is to be believed) may have dated from in or around 1676.

The house is shown on the OS map of 1834 (along with the large farmyard to the rear, the steward’s house and the gate lodges to the east and north), where it is marked ‘Florida Manor’. By the time of the revised OS map (1859-60), the ‘return’ to the west had been built, linking the house with the stable block. The rear conservatory/porch and the early Victorian chimney pots may have been added around this time also.

In the later 1800s, with the passing of successive Land Acts, much of the Gordon lands began to be sold off, and by the 1880s the manor house itself appears to have been leased by a Thomas Brand. By 1917 (at least) the demesne and its buildings had been acquired by a William Devenney, a local farmer who appears to have lived in the steward’s house. Thus Florida, unoccupied, fell into disrepair, but after the Second World War it was bought by Milo Pickaar, who renovated much (though perhaps to all) of the building.
The current owner acquired the property in 1980.

This gate lodge and another to the east of the Manor house, are both shown on the OS map of 1834 though, somewhat surprisingly, this particular building is not marked as a ‘lodge’. Both buildings are in the same vaguely gothick style favoured by David Gordon in the near by hamlet of Kilmood and it may be surmised that they are of a similar date, that is c.1820. The east lodge is apparently now in a ruinous state, but this lodge appears to have been lived in until fairly recently, though it now vacant.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.4204 Gordon Family Papers- ‘Copy of a translation of a Patent Grant to Sir James Montgomery, 13th year of the reign of King Charles [I] (1638)’. [This extensive collection of documents relating to the Gordon family, Florida Manor and the surrounding townlands were recently deposited at PRONI by a descendent, Mr. Archie Hugh-Gordon of Saintfield. At the time of writing (August 1998) the collection had not yet been catalogued, however, the writers were given special access to some of the documents by PRONI.]
2 The Montgomery Manuscripts ed. Rev. George Hill (Belfast 1869), pp.2, 210-211.
3 PRONI D.4204 Gordon Family Papers- Indenture signed William Montgomery, James Montgomery to James Hamilton (deed of Florida Manor) 1691.
4 PRONI D.4204 Gordon Family Papers- Deed of partition of Florida Manor, Hamilton to Crawford, 1691.
5 PRONI D.4204 Gordon family Papers- Exemplification of a Recovery of Robert Gordon and Alice, his wife, of lands in Co. Down, 1762.
6 PRONI D.1584 Family papers of the Smith, Gordon and Pottinger families, c.1800-1930.
7 PRONI D.929/HA12/F1/1(e) Lease relating to Florida Manor.
8 PRONI D.650/112, 115, 128 Trust deed[?s] relating to Florida Manor, 1819.
9 PRONI D.654//R/3/1-99 Londonderry Papers- Documents relating to Florida Manor [?]1684-1892.
10 PRONI OS Maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 16.
11 PRONI VAL 1B/320 p.17 1st Valuation, Kilmood parish, Kilmood td., c.1835. [The ‘house and offices’ had a rateable value of £65-8-0 in c.1835.]
12 PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1859-60, Co. Down 16.
13 PRONI 2nd Valuation, Kilmood parish, Kilmood td., c.1861. [By this stage the rateable value of the property had risen to £110]
15 George Henry Bassett 'County Down guide and directory' (Dublin 1886).
16 'Belfast Telegraph' 7th October 1953 “Life that is different- Returns to a Down house”. [Article concerning the restoration of Florida Manor by Mr. Pickaar].

Secondary sources
1 'Archaeological survey of Co. Down' (HMSO 1966), pp.313, 319.
2 PRONI 'Burke's Irish family records', p.485.
3 Mark Bence-Jones 'A guide to Irish country houses' (London 1988), p.297.
4 J.A.K. Dean 'The gate lodges of Ulster' (UAHS 1994), p.76. [Dean believes the gate lodges to have been built c.1840, however lodges are shown on the 1834 OS map.]

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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Single storey gate lodge of c.1820 with canted ends, hipped roof and lancet openings. This lodge is one of a charming group of vaguely ‘gothick’ buildings within the Kilmood/Florida Manor vicinity.