Milecross Lodge, Belfast Road, Milecross, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23

Milecross Lodge is a large two-storey gentleman's residence of around 1760, set on a rise within beautiful tree-lined grounds to the north of the Belfast Road, less than one mile northwest of Newtownards. It is approached via a tree-lined drive. The building was probably significantly renovated in the mid to later 19th century but has been largely untouched since then.

The symmetrical southwest-facing front facade is finished in lined render with chamfered quoins and is largely covered in Virginia creeper. At the centre of the ground floor is a doorway with an 'in and out' surround with keystone, encasing a plain fanlight and a sturdy panelled door. To either side of this doorway are two sash windows, each with a horizontal glazing bar to each sash and a simple moulded surround. At first floor level are five similar but smaller windows, without surrounds.

The southeast facade is as large as the front and closely resembles it. Its central position is occupied by what was originally a doorway matching that on the front elevation, but which has been filled with a large sash window of similar character to the others. Immediately to the left and right of this central window are windows matching those on the ground floor of the front facade. At each far end of the southeast facade is a larger tripartite sash window with a surround as before. At first floor level there are five windows matching those on the front. Like the front, this facade is finished in lined render with chamfered quoins and is covered in Virginia creeper.

The northeast (rear) elevation is considerably more complex. On the left-hand side is a large blank section of wall. Set back to the right of this is a narrower gabled bay containing two Georgian-paned sash windows on the first floor and two similar windows on the ground floor, though the right-hand ground floor window has no glazing bars. At the far right of the first floor on the northwest face of this bay is a sheeted door. To the right of this gabled bay is another projecting section, partly two-storey and partly single-storey, with a recessed section of facade between the two projections. This recessed section has a Georgian-paned sash window on the left at first floor level and two more at ground floor level. The projection to the right begins as two storeys but reduces to a single storey at its gable end. This entire projection is unrendered, with a rubble facade and sandstone quoins. On the southeast face of its two-storey section is a sheeted door with brick dressings. On the southeast face of the single-storey section is a small sash window with sandstone dressings. The northeast gable is blank. On the northwest face of the single-storey section is a window matching the previous ones but with brick dressings. The southeast face of this two-storey section has two similar windows at first floor level and two at ground floor level, though the right-hand ground floor window has a modern frame. To the right of this projection on the main northeast facade is a sash window with both horizontal and vertical glazing bars and brick dressings, repeated at both ground and first floor levels. This section of facade is also unrendered. The short southeast rear facade is likewise unrendered and has a sheeted door with brick dressings on the ground floor to the right, and a similarly dressed sash window on the first floor to the left.

The main roof sections are hipped, while the rear projections are gabled. All roof surfaces are covered in Bangor blue slates and the roofs have a slight overhang. There are four large rendered chimney stacks with decorative pots; the northwest stack is very tall. The guttering is shaped cast iron, with cast iron downspouts.

To the north of the house is a large collection of outbuildings built in the same mixture of rubble stonework and render as the house itself. The section immediately to the north of the house has a hipped slated roof, gabled half-dormers, Georgian-paned sash windows and the like, and contains a former estate worker's dwelling, a tack room, stables, and related accommodation. This section is in poor condition but remains largely intact. A larger section further to the north is in a badly dilapidated state and has lost most of its roof and window frames. The outbuildings appear to have been constructed sometime between the Ordnance Survey maps of 1834 and 1858–60, on which the house itself is shown much as it appears today.

The townland of Milecross was acquired by James Bradshaw from Robert Colvill in 1726. The Bradshaws were a Quaker family from Lurgan involved in the manufacture of linen. James's son Robert 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 the Milecross townland, during the mid-18th century. It was probably Robert who built the present Milecross Lodge at around 1760, though the precise date of construction is uncertain. Robert Bradshaw granted land just to the south of the house to local Catholics for use as a graveyard. His 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 over water rights in the area. During the disturbances of 1798 Milecross Lodge was commandeered by soldiers — believed to be 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 these soldiers and is still known as the 'soldier's walk'. The house appears to have remained in the Bradshaw family until around 1880, when it was acquired by the present owner's grandfather. Bassett's directory of 1886 records that the former Bradshaw lands at Milecross had passed to a John Tate of Downpatrick, though it makes no specific mention of the house. Given the current layout of the building, the southeast-facing facade may well have been the original entrance front, though the 1834 Ordnance Survey map suggests that any re-ordering of the house had already been carried out by that date.