Forge Yard, Crom Demesne

Summary

Open yard measuring 26.75m by 21m located against the west side of stable block (131856) and delimited by single-storey ranges on all four sides save only the centre of the west end, where there is a two-storey gabled house.

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Description

An open yard (26.75m by 21m) located against the west side of the stable block (131856). The yard is Grade B1 listed (HB 12/02/02C along with Stable Yard) and is delimited by single-storey ranges on all four sides save only the centre of the west end, where there is a two-storey gabled house. Unfortunately, records relating to the yard’s construction have not survived, but it was built at some stage after the completion of the stable block. It is not marked on the 1834 OS six-inch map, but is present on the 1857 OS map and was probably built sometime in the late 1830s. An entry in the Crom expense accounts for the year 1837–1838 referring to a payment of £113.0.0d to Handley, the estate mason, for ‘offices’, is probably a reference to the building of this yard (see Appendix 30, HLS Volume 1, and PRONI/D 1939/21/16/3).

Many of the buildings in the yard have been altered considerably since they were built, while some have been demolished. Among the latter is the forge which occupied a number of rooms in the east range of the yard and was demolished in the 1930s. Also included in the east range was the dairy, which occupied three rooms, including the old steward’s office in the south-west corner of the stable yard. The south range of the forge yard contained the carpenter’s shop, the lathe house and the paint house, while the north range contained the laundry with its wash room, ironing room and drying rooms (now occupied by the Orange Lodge), and the corner cottage (131862), which also occupied part of the west ranges. In addition to the corner cottage, the west ranges also comprised the butler’s house (131863), a two-storey gabled residence long occupied by Mrs Johnson, the Earl’s housekeeper. The single-storey range on the south side of the butler’s house once contained stables, but was converted into a kitchen and store room in the 1930s.

The yard is entered through a gate lying between the corner cottage (131862) and the butler’s house (131683). This opening (3.15m wide) is flanked by square ashlar pillars (3m high) capped with pyramid-shaped stones. The gates in this opening are of wrought iron and come from Lanesborough Lodge, a ruined country house on the border with the Irish Republic. The gates were brought down to Crom in a cot together with the dismantled and numbered stone pieces of the gate’s pillars. These original gate pillars now lie in the wood on the north side of the yard. In the 19th century the gates to the forge yard were made of wood.

Detailed account of yard’s buildings;
Butler’s House; see 131863
Corner Cottage; see 131862

Laundry; Formerly occupied most of the north range of the yard. It was entered from the north side by a door with sidelights (now the Orange Lodge entrance), which leads into a room (2.7m by 4.9m) once used as a sitting room by laundry maids. On the east side lies the old wash room (4.9m by 4.55m), now empty, which once had wooden sinks along its north side and a few larger basins on the opposite side of the room. On the west side of the sitting room was the drying room (7.7m by 4.9m) and beyond this are two smaller rooms (4.9m by 4.25m and 4.9m by 3.35m), which were used for ironing and linen storage.

An inspection of the north wall of the range will reveal that the building has undergone many alterations over the years. It is not known what the original function of the range actually was, but it would appear that the Crom laundry came here in the late 19th century from the west range of the farm yard, where it was formerly based. After the Second World War, the drying room was used as the lodge for the local Orange Order. Later in December 1949, the lodge also got permission to use the two end rooms and was granted a lease of ten years at five shillings per year. The lodge is still based in the range.

East Range; Lean-to range demolished in the 1930s which contained the forge (4.55m by 7m), with an associated shed on its north side (4.55m by 3.35m) and a number of rooms on its south side belonging to the dairy.

South Range; Built to contain the painter’s house (5.45m by 4.95m) at the west end, the carpenter’s shop (10.5m by 4.95m) and the lathe house (5m by 4.95m), all of which are still largely intact. The carpenter’s shop has a workbench down the length of the north side of the room and a double door on its east end to allow boats to be brought in here for repair. The main lathe still lies on the north side of the lathe house and both rooms are filled with many bits and pieces of buildings and boats, some of which have probably been here for more than 100 years.

Indeed, the range has probably little changed since Bullock’s youth in the 1860s and 1870s, when he remembered:
…the great yard where the painters mixed their colours and Sandy worked in his forge and where, many a thousand times [Mr Craig, the head carpenter] looked up from his bench and gave me a welcoming nod…at he second bench worked James Ray, a tall, half-starved, humorous sole who never swore above his breath when I hacked his planes and chisels. Humphrey Roache, the third carpenter, was less complacent perhaps, but even he would show me how to get the legs of a stool at the right angle and how to hinge the lid on a new salt box for mother (Bullock, 1929, p 24).

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