Survey Data
Reg No
40307030
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Erne Hill
Original Use
Gate lodge
In Use As
House
Date
1830 - 1850
Coordinates
237328, 316745
Date Recorded
27/06/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached single-storey former gate lodge in decorative Italianate style, built c.1840, with central bay window, open symmetrical side porches, lean-to side corridor along western side, and single-storey extension set back to east. Now in use as private house. Hipped replacement slate roof with overhanging eaves, formerly having paired timber brackets, now with uPVC soffit. Clay ridge tiles, central rendered chimneystack and uPVC rainwater goods. Rendered elevations with incised pilasters supporting rendered beam forming head of central rectangular-plan bay window with carved stone sill of torus and scotia moulding on square brackets. Tripartite bay window with round-headed timber sliding sash windows with margin panes, flower motifs to spandrels, solid side faces. Side door openings framed by decorative cast-ironwork screens. Recent timber panelled entrance door to east, west door replaced by window. Opens onto shallow front garden with sandstone paving to front, bounded by wrought-iron gates and railings on stone plinth.
Appraisal
An elegant former gate lodge in the form of an Italianate villa with incised detail in the style of the English neo-Classical architect John Soane, built for George M. Knipe, possibly by architect J.B. Keane. The lodge originally stood opposite the entrance gates to Erne Hill: neither the gates nor the house itself survive. Typical of gate lodges, the building was designed as a decorative object to mark the entrance to a landscape demesne and close the view out of the entrance gates. It retains good architectural detail including decorative central tripartite window. It is one of the finest architectural features of Belturbet and contributes strongly to the built heritage of the town.