Manor House, 12 Manor Farm, Loughgall, Armagh, Co Armagh, BT61 8JB

Manor House, Loughgall — Early Victorian Country House in Tudor Revival Style

This is an early Victorian country house in a restrained Tudor Revival style, built for the Cope family, dating to around 1840, with the Gothic Revival entrance porch likely added later, between the 1850s and 1870s. The house forms the centrepiece of an important demesne and currently serves as offices.

EXTERIOR

The house is two storeys, multi-gabled, and asymmetrical in plan. The main entrance faces north-west. The north-west elevation presents a large main block with four gables to the front and a central gabled porch, with a smaller service wing set back to the left. Roofs are laid in Bangor blue slates in regular courses. The chimney stacks are tall, octagonal, and painted stone, set on rectangular bases — with the exception of one stop-chamfered chimney — and are topped with a mixture of plain and octagonal stoneware pots. A metal weather vane superstructure rises above the roof beyond the entrance bay.

Walls are of smooth cement render, lined and blocked to the right-hand end bay, with a slightly projecting plinth, a projecting moulded eaves course or cornice, and moulded projecting verges to the gables. Rainwater goods are moulded cast iron gutters with cast iron downpipes.

Windows to the main block are timber and varied in form: some are four-light with moulded timber transoms and mullions; others are coupled rectangular timber sliding sashes, two over two, or one over one with horns, set in chamfered reveals. To the right of the porch at ground floor level is a narrow Gothic arched lancet with a four-pane fixed light. To the right of that, at first floor level, is a three-light window with a triangular head to the centre light, surmounted by a rectangular label moulding which also rises to a triangular head at its centre. Other windows have rectangular moulded drips.

ENTRANCE PORCH

The projecting entrance porch is single-storey and gabled, with an open arched front in dressed stonework. The archway is Gothic in form, with stop-chamfered reveals, surmounted by an arched drip moulding with large carved head label stops, and a moulded stone coping with a stone trefoil finial at the apex. The open porch is approached by a stone doorstep and has a stone-flagged floor, smooth rendered walls, and a simple timber collar beam roof with a tongued-and-grooved sheeted ceiling. The main entrance door is original, with three vertical panels and an original metal door knob.

SERVICE WING AND OTHER ELEVATIONS

The wing to the left of the main block uses similar materials and a similar variety of windows, but without label mouldings.

The north-east elevation is of similar character and finishes to the entrance front, but includes a modern rectangular metal-framed window with a top-hung vent at first floor level at the extreme right-hand end. To the left of that is a rectangular ground floor doorway containing a glazed and panelled door set in plain reveals, and to the left of that is a modern metal flue attached to the upper storey, emerging from a later flat-roofed single-storey projecting block.

The rear elevation is two storeys, comprising a tall four-bay main block with a longer but lower wing set back to the right. Roofing, walling, and rainwater goods all match the entrance front. Each of the four bays of the main block is identical: at ground floor, a rectangular four-light window with transom and mullions, containing a pair of two-pane fixed toplights and a pair of three-pane lower sliding sashes without horns, surmounted by a rectangular drip moulding; at first floor, rectangular coupled timber sliding sashes, two over two with horns; above each bay is a gablet with a circular finial at the apex rising from a shaped corbel below the barges. The bays are divided by original flared circular-section hoppers with circular downpipes.

The wing to the right of the rear elevation comprises four bays marked by gablets, with a slightly projecting end bay. Windows here are varied and include three triangular-headed first floor windows comprising coupled vertically hung timber sashes, two over one, with a lozenge-shaped tracery light; a first floor three-light window comprising a triplet of sliding sashes, one over one with horns, with a raised triangular head to the centre light; and a canted bay at ground floor level. Bays are separated by flared hoppers with downpipes as elsewhere. The projecting end bay at the far right contains a three-light window to each floor, with semi-circular arched top lights to the first floor.

The south-west elevation is two storeys with two gables, using the same walling and rainwater goods as elsewhere. Window types are varied and timber throughout, and include a canted bay to the right-hand gable with a slated roof and a pair of three-pane French windows in the front face, opening onto a short flight of three steps.

SETTING

The house stands on an elevated site within a large demesne. It is surrounded on three sides by gravelled areas and paths, which extend at the front to a gravelled car parking area. Beyond the paths are lawns, with wooded areas further out. The house is approached by a long driveway from the main street, which climbs steeply near the house. The front driveway is marked by a main entrance gatescreen and two gate lodges. There is also a side gateway with plain gates and a rear gateway with ornamented iron gates. Much of the estate boundary along public roads is defined by rubble stone walls. Adjacent to the house is a former stable yard. Elsewhere in the demesne are a walled garden, an ornamented footbridge, an ice house, a lime kiln, and a hermitage. Paths within the demesne lead uninterruptedly into the adjoining demesne of the former Drumilly House, now demolished, which contains another walled garden known as Drumilly Bawn and a building known as The Cottage. Within the demesne there is also a scheduled ancient monument (Armagh 8:25).

HISTORY

The precise date of construction is not recorded, but the house appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1860. Stylistically, the restrained Tudor Revival character of the main house suggests a date of around 1840, while the Gothic Revival entrance porch appears more consistent with a date of between the 1850s and 1870s, suggesting it may be a later addition. A tree-lined avenue leading from the village main street was indicated on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834, but the gateway, lodges, and main house were not shown at that date, and the house was not mentioned by Lewis in 1837. The main gates carry an inscription dated 1842, which accords with the stylistic dating of the house, though there is no stylistic similarity between the gates and lodges and the main house. A yew walk to the north of the Manor House also appears to be indicated on the Ordnance Survey map of 1835.

The house was built for the Cope family, who had arrived in Ireland from England in the early 17th century and acquired the adjoining estates of Loughgall and Drumilly. One branch of the family subsequently lived at Drumilly House, to the east of the lough, which was demolished in 1965, while the other occupied the Manor House. The Manor estate was purchased from General Sir Gerald Templer, a descendant of the original owners, by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1947. General farming operations began in 1949, and in 1951 a horticultural centre was established on the estate. In 1952 the Northern Ireland Plant Breeding Station — originally founded at Stormont in 1922 — was transferred to Loughgall. In 1987 the Horticultural Centre and Plant Breeding Station were amalgamated to form the Northern Ireland Horticultural and Plant Breeding Station, and in 1995 the station became part of the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland's Applied Plant Science Division.