Milford Temperance and Benefit L.O.L. Hall, Monaghan Street, Milford, BT60 3NY

Milford Temperance and Benefit L.O.L. Hall, Monaghan Street, Milford

This is an unusual, single-storey over basement Orange Hall of 1911, rendered in roughcast, with a two-stage tower to one of its front corners topped by crow-stepped or ziggurat-like parapets, and a variety of semicircular and pointed arch window openings throughout. The building sits at the south-western end of Monaghan Street, on the western side of the village of Milford, on sloping ground to the north-west side of the street, with cast-iron railings enclosing it from the pavement.

In plan the hall resembles an L-shape, with the long stroke of the L facing south and a short full-height return to the north-west making up the short stroke, and a narrow, almost full-height projection sitting at the intersection of these two elements. To the south-eastern front corner is the tower, which sits flush with the eastern façade but projects slightly to the south, rising to its distinctive crow-stepped or ziggurat-like parapet. To the south-west is a shallow, almost tower-like corner projection whose walls rise above eaves level to form a plain parapet. When viewed from the south the main section of the building reads as two storeys; the ground slopes to the north, and from that side it is similarly two-storey.

The front façade faces east. Here a splayed retaining wall with cast-iron railings encloses a two-stage entrance platform reached by stone steps. To the left side of this front east façade is the main entrance, which consists of a panelled timber double-leaf door with a semicircular-headed fanlight. To the left of the entrance is a tall pointed-arch (gothic) window. Above, set within the tower, is a similar but shorter window, the lower portion of which has been altered to accommodate a timber-sheeted door.

Along the long south façade, shallow bays at either end — one belonging to the tower on the right, one belonging to the shallow corner projection on the left — each contain a single tall pointed-arch window. Between these bays are four semicircular-headed windows of similar height. Set between the two central windows is a datestone inscribed 'MILFORD ORANGE HALL A.D. 1911'. To the upper stage of the tower is a window similar in character to that on the east side of the same stage.

The west façade has two widely spaced pointed-arch windows, with two much smaller segmental-headed windows, equally widely spaced, at basement level. The north façade is fully two-storey and has a complex appearance. Its left-hand edge has a shallow bevel; to the centre is the narrow projection; to the right is the north face of the return. At basement level on this side there are four flat-headed windows — one to the bevel, a second immediately to the left of the narrow projection, and two to the return. At upper level in the return is a pointed-arch window, while on the eastern face of the return there is a steel-sheeted door at basement level. Two corners towards the centre of this north façade have unusual single-storey chamfers.

The walls are finished in roughcast with moulded quoins to most corners. Window and door openings have smooth render reveals and moulded keystones, and the sills are also moulded. The window frames are timber. The gothic-arched frames appear to be replacements with a simple ladder arrangement of panes, while the frames to the tower appear to be original and retain 'Y'-tracery. The basement windows are all boarded over. The semicircular-headed window frames to the main hall have margin frames with coloured panes to the margins.

The roof is pitched but irregular and somewhat awkwardly shaped to the rear, where it incorporates hips and a single-pitch gable. The roof to the tower is concealed behind the crow-stepped parapets; a flagpole is set at its centre. There are two brick chimneystacks — one rising from the eaves, fitted with decorative clay pots, and one through a ridge, without pots. There is a shallow eaves course. The rainwater goods appear to be a mixture of extruded aluminium, cast-iron and uPVC. The railings to the pavement side, and the opening to the steps, terminate with octagonal pillars with octagonal pyramid stone caps and splayed bases. The cast-iron spear railings are set in stone copings which rest on rendered walls. Behind the crow-stepped gables of the tower is believed to be a bituminous flat roof.

The hall takes its name from Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, a foreman mechanic at Milford mill, who was the principal driving force behind the formation of a local Orange lodge and the construction of the hall. Immediately before 1911 the local Orangemen had met in various buildings in Aghavilly and Ballyrea and occasionally in Hutchinson's own house. Hutchinson died before the building was completed, and in his honour it was named 'Hutchinson's Memorial Orange Hall'. The hall was built on land acquired from Mr. Robert Kennedy and paid for by subscription and voluntary labour. The architect is not known; the quirky and somewhat idiosyncratic design suggests the work of a local builder or amateur architect rather than a professional practice. The hall was officially opened in late August 1911, with a stirring anti-Home Rule speech delivered by W.J. Allen. Reporting on the opening, the Armagh Guardian described the hall as 'built of concrete with a tower at one end. Above there is a fine room, which can be used for socials, concerts etc., having seating accommodation for several hundred.'

In October 1920 a basement room was renovated and opened as the McKinley Room, in honour of Mr. Thomas McKinley. At the same time the exterior of the building was, in the words of the Armagh Guardian, 'cemented and rough coated', the paper proclaiming that 'when completed with a few other details, Milford will have one of the most complete Orange Halls in the County Armagh'. In December 1956, in order to accommodate Church of Ireland parishioners residing in Milford, the hall was licensed for divine worship and the administration of the sacraments.

Before the hall was built, the local Orangemen had originally approached the village's major landholder, mill owner R.G. McCrum, for a site. As a liberal Unionist he does not appear to have been in favour of establishing a lodge in the area and declined. Local legend holds that, as a riposte to the building of the Orange Hall, McCrum opened his own recreational hall — the R.G. McCrum Institute — in the centre of the village, free for use by all without restriction.