The Manor House, Greenmount College, 22 Greenmount Road, Muckamore, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 4PX

The Manor House, Greenmount College

The Manor House is a late Georgian neo-classical country house built in 1820 for Robert Thompson, with its entrance front remodelled around 1823–25 for Mrs Anna Maria Thompson by the distinguished London architect C.R. Cockerell. The house was originally known as Green Mount. It was taken over from William Thompson in 1835 by the Honourable and Reverend Archdeacon Agar, and became the nucleus of an agricultural college in the 20th century. A north wing was added around 1925 as a laboratory and dormitory block for Greenmount Agricultural College, designed under the direction of R. Ingleby Smith, chief architect to the Government of Northern Ireland, and built by contractors T. McKee and Sons of Belfast. The building was refurbished in the 1990s.

The complex consists of three distinct parts: the original two-storey, five-bay sandstone house in classical style; a later two-storey, five-bay wing of basalt in neo-Georgian style; and a modern two-storey rendered end block of plain character. Both the original house and the 1920s wing retain special interest as examples of buildings by well-known architects, though both have lost much of their original interior character through the removal of original features and later spatial alterations. Together, the buildings form a pleasant nucleus for an agricultural college.

ENTRANCE (WEST) ELEVATION — MAIN HOUSE

The main entrance faces west. The original house is built of sandstone ashlar with panelled pilasters at the extremities of the main façade. The end bays rise to shallow pediments and contain canted bay windows at ground floor level with Ionic pilasters. A wrought iron balustrade runs from bay window to bay window at first floor level. The roof is hipped, covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses with terracotta ridge tiles. There is one chimney to the right-hand side, built of red brick with a moulded stone cornice and modern pots. A low projecting plinth, a platband, a modillion cornice, and a blocking course run across the façade. Cast iron downpipes drain from concealed gutters.

The entrance portico has four unfluted Ionic columns with Ionic responds at each end. The doorcase is of reconstituted stone in a pilastered form, containing a pair of rectangular timber double doors that are both glazed and panelled, with similarly glazed and panelled sidelights. The glazing is two-paned with margins; the panels are octagonal with fluted fans to the corners. The ironmongery is modern. A sandstone flagged doorstep extends the full width of the portico. The balcony balustrading is of wrought iron in a neo-classical style that appears to be work of the 1920s rather than the original build.

The windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, with horns: one-over-one in the ground floor bay windows; twelve-over-two coupled windows in the first floor end bays above; and nine-over-two in the first floor central bays. A modern glass globe lamp on a metal bracket is fixed at each end of the first floor.

At the northern extremity of the main house, the entrance façade returns for a short distance before the basalt wing begins. This return walling is smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked, with the sandstone plinth, platband, blocking course, cornice, and pilaster all returning from the front elevation.

ENTRANCE (WEST) ELEVATION — 1920S BASALT WING

The 1920s wing is built of roughly coursed basalt rubble with later reticulated cement pointing. It has a raised sandstone platband and frieze. The centre of the façade rises to a shaped pediment containing a semi-circular window, flanked by two sandstone urns of abstract design. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with dark-toned ridge tiles, and has a concealed gutter behind the parapet. There are four cast iron downpipes with small plain hoppers.

Ground floor windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, six-over-six with horns, in exposed sash boxes, set in plain reveals with segmental headed flat arches containing a sandstone keystone. First floor windows are timber nine-pane horizontally pivoted, with segmental heads and unusual segmental cills.

The central bay has a rectangular timber sliding sash, six-over-six with horns, surmounted by a radial fixed fanlight. This is set in a semi-circular arched sandstone surround, itself recessed within a semi-circular arched basalt opening with sandstone keystone and imposts. Above is a projecting sandstone balcony with wrought iron balustrading in a stripped classical design incorporating miniature cast iron urn finials.

The ground floor entrance below the balcony is a rectangular timber four-panelled door, raised and fielded, with narrow two-pane sidelights and a six-pane rectangular fanlight. This is recessed in a rusticated sandstone surround with a flat arch to the head and unusual oval sandstone mouldings to the base. This opening was originally a window, with the bottom subsequently lowered to form a doorway, incorporating the oval mouldings in the process.

ENTRANCE (WEST) ELEVATION — MODERN END BLOCK

The end block has smooth rendered and lined walls with a slightly raised platband and frieze. Windows are rectangular metal units with fixed lower lights and top-hung upper lights, set in plain unmoulded reveals with projecting concrete cills. One cast iron downpipe as per the 1920s wing. The roof is continuous from the 1920s wing, hipped at its extremity. The north end of the end block is of similar character to the west elevation.

REAR (EAST) ELEVATION — END BLOCK

Of similar character to the west elevation, with the addition of a canopy over the doorway consisting of a poor-quality plywood fascia soffit carried on a pair of rolled steel joists.

REAR (EAST) ELEVATION — 1920S BASALT WING

Of similar character and materials to the entrance front but without the pedimented feature. Cast iron downpipes as on the entrance front. The central doorway has a similar doorcase to that on the entrance front, set in a plain opening with a segmental headed flat arch and sandstone keystone; modern metal ironmongery; two concrete steps. To the right of the doorway at ground floor are two sashed windows as per the entrance front. At first floor above the doorway is a large semi-circular arched window in a similar recessed surround to the entrance front; to the right at first floor are two windows as per the entrance front. The first floor to the left of the central window is blank; the ground floor to the left of the central doorway is covered by a projecting single-storey curved bay.

The single-storey curved bay has a conical slated roof with glazed rooflights. Its walls are smooth rendered, lined and blocked, and divided into broad rectangular recesses. It contains a pair of recessed rectangular timber double doors, small-paned, with a modern metal handle. There is a moulded gutter with cast iron downpipes.

NORTH ELEVATION — ORIGINAL HOUSE

The hipped roof is slated as per the entrance front. The wall is smooth cement rendered and lined. There is a cast iron gutter with a cast iron downpipe. One window at first floor level: a rectangular timber sliding sash, two-over-two with horns.

REAR (EAST) ELEVATION — ORIGINAL HOUSE

The rear of the original house is two-storey in part and three-storey in part, with a roof comprising three hips, slated as per the entrance front. There are three chimneys of red brick with projecting plain stone cornices and stone caps with short stub pots. The walling is mainly roughcast rendered with a projecting eaves course, and a projecting panelled sandstone pilaster with modillion cornice at the left-hand extremity, returning from the south elevation. The right-hand portion of the wall is smooth rendered. Windows are mainly rectangular timber sliding sashes, four-over-four with horns, set in plain reveals with projecting concrete cills, but there are also timber casements and top-hung vents. Cast iron gutter and downpipes are present; the appearance of this elevation is spoiled by an attached steel trough carrying cables across first floor level.

Projecting forward from the right-hand end of the rear elevation is a lower two-storey rear return or wing, which then turns southward to form a courtyard. It has a slated roof and roughcast rendered walls, with a flat-roofed two-storey addition. Windows include original timber sashes, later versions, and modern metal fixed lights and casements.

Extending to the left-hand side of the rear elevation is a single-storey height screen wall of whitened rubble stone construction, mainly roughcast rendered, linking with a single-storey wing of roughcast outbuildings to enclose the rear yard. The outbuilding has ledged timber doors, a slated roof, and metal rainwater goods.

SOUTH ELEVATION — MAIN HOUSE

Two-storey, with a slated roof as per the entrance front. One chimney of red brick as per the rear elevation. The walls are smooth rendered and lined with a projecting rendered plinth; a painted sandstone platband; panelled sandstone pilasters to the extremities; and a sandstone modillion cornice and blocking course. One cast iron downpipe. Windows are rectangular timber sashes, twelve-over-two with horns, set in plain reveals with projecting concrete cills painted white.

A single-storey porch has walls of smooth rendered and lined finish, white-painted timber-framed glazing on painted cills, a rectangular panelled door, a moulded timber cornice, a moulded cast iron gutter, and a later synthetic slated lean-to roof with cheeks.

The west face of a screen wall projecting forward at the right-hand extremity is rendered with a wet dash finish containing small black stone chippings, with a concrete coping. The gable of an adjoining single-storey outbuilding contains a rectangular timber sashed window, two-over-two with horns. The southern elevation of this outbuilding is blank, with a roughcast finish, a slated roof, and a tall roughcast chimney.

SETTING

The house stands in a rural area at the centre of extensive grounds and agricultural land, with lawns, flower beds, mature trees, and shrubs in its immediate vicinity. It is approached by a tarmac driveway ending in a tarmac turning area in front of the entrance.

To the rear are rendered outbuildings of no architectural interest, grouped around two yards. To the north-east is a detached basalt house of 1920s date. To the south is the Boyd Building, a detached flat-roofed hostel and dining room built in 1961 as the college centre, of no special merit or interest. To the south-east is the original walled garden, which in mid-2000 was in the process of receiving a new conservatory in Victorian style. To the east is the original stable yard, with two basalt houses of 1920s date flanking either side of the rear driveway further to the east. To the north is an extensive wooded area containing ornamental ponds, with original late 18th or early 19th century garden and estate structures, described below.

ICE HOUSE

To the north-east, close to the house and immediately north of the second rear yard, is an early 19th century ice house. It has a Tudor-arched entrance in brick with a brick-lined and brick-paved approach passage. The inner chamber is brick domed and covered externally by a grassed earthen mound surrounded by trees. A sandstone shield over the entrance to the passage is inscribed with the initials of Robert Thompson, for whom the ice house was built, presumably around the same time as the main house, circa 1820. A small building appears to be shown in this position on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832, though it is not named. The inner opening leading into the chamber is closed by a metal grille.

RUSTIC ARCH

Immediately to the north of the ice house, at the east end of the adjacent pond, is a free-standing segmental arch of rough-hewn and split stone in the rustic manner of the picturesque movement in British garden design. It is much surrounded by overgrown vegetation. This is probably the rustic arch referred to in a topographical description of 1809 as joining a small island in a lake to the mainland.

GARDEN HOUSE

Well to the west of the ponds, reached by a woodland walk and standing on a slight eminence surrounded by trees, is a now roofless and ruinous garden structure. It comprises an arrangement of basalt and brickwork walls forming an octagonal main chamber with a smaller circular chamber at one end, connected through a Gothic-arched opening. The exterior of the circular chamber retains harling; the interior is lined with smooth render. The precise date of construction is not known, but a structure appears to be shown in this position on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857. It may or may not be the hermitage referred to in the 1809 topographical description.

HISTORICAL NOTE

The previous house on the site was described in 1809 in the Belfast Monthly Magazine as "the elegant seat of Thompson Esq … this beautiful villa stands on a rising ground, and is completely finished in the modern taste." By 1838, the Ordnance Survey Memoirs described the rebuilt house as follows: "the house, which is spacious, is a handsome and modern-looking mansion, presenting an Ionic front consisting of a portico and a balcony supported by 6 columns … The offices, which are suitable, are near the house. The garden contains 6 acres 3 roods. It is walled and very well stocked. The hothouse includes a tolerable grapery and pinery which, however, from not keeping up the fires, are going to destruction. The demesne and grounds contain 160 acres, 39 of which are laid out in ornamental grounds and planting. The grounds are laid out with great taste and to the greatest advantage. There are 3 handsome ponds, a very pretty flower garden, many nice walks, a little temple with handsomely stained glass windows, all of which are quite out of order and in a state of neglect and ruin." The reference in 1838 to six columns supporting the balcony of the entrance front is difficult to reconcile with the present four-column porch flanked by canted bays.

The precise date of the stable yard to the east of the house is not known, but it appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. The 1920s wing was designed with the ground floor as laboratory space and the upper floor as a dormitory. The Ministry of Agriculture stipulated that the dormitory windows should be positioned at such a height from the floor that the spacing of beds would not be dependent upon the window spacing. The same architectural commission of around 1925 also produced a detached house for the principal, two gate lodges, a main entrance gateway, new byres, tool-sheds, potting sheds, and a reinforced concrete silo.