‘To see Durham is to see the English Sion and by doing so one may save oneself a trip to Jerusalem’

‘To see Durham is to see the English Sion’ (Symeon of Durham) … Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle stand on a peninsula shaped by the River Wear (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

My visit to Durham last weekend was all too brief. We were on a family visit to York, I needed to get back to York for a family dinner, and with just a few hours to walk around I wanted to see as much as possible of the mediaeval city, with its cathedral, castle, cobbled streets, riverside walks and the third oldest university in England.

Durham has a population of about 50,000 people, and the cathedral and the castle on Palace Green, high above the River Wear have been designated a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Durham is also the home of the Durham Miners’ Gala and has a rich trade union history: the Durham coalfields developed during the Industrial Revolution, with dozens of collieries around the city. Although the coal pits are long closed, the Durham Miners’ Gala is still a major event each year.

Durham city centre has changed little over 200 years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The city is built on a meander of the River Wear that surrounds the centre on three sides and creates a narrow neck on the fourth. The city centre has changed little over 200 years. It is made up of the peninsula containing the cathedral, the castle and Palace Green that give the cathedral a striking position.

Durham dates back over 1,000 years to 995, when a small band of monks from Lindisfarne seeking a place that was safe from Viking raids arrived with the relics of Saint Cuthbert. The church they built eventually evolved into Durham Cathedral, regarded by Unesco as ‘the largest and most perfect monument of Norman style architecture in England.’

The 12th-century chronicler Symeon of Durham wrote: ‘To see Durham is to see the English Sion and by doing so one may save oneself a trip to Jerusalem’.

Sir Walter Scott was so inspired by the view of the cathedral from South Street that he wrote the poem ‘Harold the Dauntless’ (1817), about Saxons and Vikings and set in County Durham. Lines from the poem are carved on a stone tablet on Prebends Bridge:

Grey towers of Durham
Yet well I love thy mixed and massive piles
Half church of God, half castle ’gainst the Scot
And long to roam those venerable aisles
With records stored of deeds long since forgot.

Durham Castle above Silver Street and Framwellgate Bridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The name Durham comes from dun, indicating a hill fort, and the Old Norse holme, referring to an island. But, as I recalled on Thursday evening, legends also link the name with the Dun Cow and the milkmaid who guided the monks of Lindisfarne to the strategic high peninsula that became the site of Durham cathedral.

Durham was once a buffer between warring England and Scotland, and until 1836 the city was part of the County Palatine of Durham, a semi-independent jurisdiction ruled by the prince bishops of Durham.

Mediaeval Durham became a place of pilgrimage because of its associations with Saint Cuthbert, Saint Bede the Venerable and Saint Oswald. The shrine of Saint Cuthbert at Durham Cathedral became the most important religious site in England until Saint Thomas Becket was murdered at Canterbury in 1170.

The Bishops of Durham ruled the County Palatine of Durham from Durham Castle until 1836 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Durham played an important rolw in the mediaeval wars between England and Scotland, and Durham Castle is the only Norman castle keep never to have suffered a breach. The castle on Palace Green was originally built in the 11th century, is an excellent example of early motte and bailey castles built by the Normans.

The Bishops of Durham, who lived in Durham Castle, ruled the County Palatine of Durham from 1071 to 1836 and the bishop was sometimes described as a ‘prince bishop’. The bishops had their own parliament, raised their own armies, appointed their own sheriffs and Justices, administered their own laws, levied taxes and customs duties, created fairs and markets, issued charters, collected revenue, administered the forests and minted their own coins.

The bishops’ powers were so far-reaching that the steward of Bishop Antony Bek said in 1299: ‘There are two kings in England, namely the Lord King of England, wearing a crown in sign of his regality and the Lord Bishop of Durham wearing a mitre in place of a crown’.

Bishop Cosin’s Hall on Palace Green … Bishop John Cosin began a major restoration project in the cathedral, the castle and the city in 1660 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The castle has been in continuous use for over 900 years. It was famed for its vast Great Hall, created by Bishop Bek in the early 14th century. It was the largest great hall in England until Bishop Richard Foxe shortened it at the end of the 15th century. It is still 46 ft high and about 100 ft long.

The city remained loyal to Charles I in the English Civil War, from 1642 until the king’s execution in 1649, and he visited Durham three times during his reign. But the castle suffered considerable damage during the Commonwealth. Cromwell sold the castle to the Lord Mayor of London shortly, and the cathedral was closed in 1650 and used to hold 3,000 Scottish prisoners after the Battle of Dunbar.

John Cosin, one of the great Caroline Divines, became Bishop of Durham (1660-1672) after the restoration and began a major restoration project in the cathedral, the castle and the city.

There were plans in the 18th century to transform Durham into a seaport by digging a canal or altering the course of the river. Nothing came of the plans, however, although the statue of Neptune in the Market Place is a reminder of these maritime ambitions and possibilities.

The statue of Neptune in the Market Place is a reminder of the plans to make Durham a seaport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 gave governing power of the town to an elected body. All other aspects of the Bishop’s temporal powers were abolished by the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 . The last bishop to rule the palatinate, Bishop William Van Mildert, founded Durham University in 1832. It was one of the first universities to open in England for more than 600 years, and is England’s third oldest, after Oxford and Cambridge.

The bishop moved to Auckland Castle and Durham Castle became University College, the first college in the new university. Durham University was founded in 1832. Bishop Hatfield’s Hall, later Hatfield College, was added in 1846, specifically for the sons of poorer families. Durham University ranks in the top 200 of the world’s universities.

The Industrial Revolution also placed the city at the heart of the coalfields, the county’s main industry until the 1970s. Practically every village around the city had a coal mine and, although these have since disappeared as part of the regional decline in heavy industry, the traditions, heritage and community spirit are still evident. The first Durham Miners' Gala was attended by 5,000 miners in 1871, and it remains the largest socialist trade union event in the world.

Durham was not bombed during World War II, although one raid on the night of 30 May 1942 did give rise to the local legend of ‘Saint Cuthbert’s Mist’. According to the legend, the Luftwaffe tried to target Durham, but was thwarted when Saint Cuthbert created a mist that covered both the castle and cathedral, sparing them from bombing.

Palace Green, in front of the cathedral and the castle … Durham was not bombed during World War II (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Durham is a hilly city, said to be built on seven hills, like Rome and Constantinople. The steep riverbanks are densely wooded, adding to the picturesque beauty of the city. The cathedral and castle stand on the most central and prominent position high above the Wear and dominate the skyline. The Bailey is almost entirely owned and occupied by the university and the cathedral.

The River Wear forms a peninsula that encloses the centre Durham on three sides. The Market Place at the base of the peninsula remains the venue for regular markets and the Market Place and surrounding streets form the heart of commercial and shopping life in the city.

Three old roads lead off the Market Place: Saddler Street heads south-east, towards Elvet Bridge, the Bailey and Prebends Bridge. Elvet Bridge leads to the Elvet area of the city and the south; Prebends Bridge is smaller and provides access from the Bailey to south Durham. Heading west, Silver Street leads out of the Market Place towards Framwellgate Bridge and North Road, the other main shopping area of the city.

The old commercial heart of the city encompasses the peninsula on three sides, following the River Wear, and much of the original mediaeval street plan remains intact in the area close to the cathedral and the Market Place.

Durham Market Place, with Durham Town Hall, the Guildhall and Saint Nicholas Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Durham Market Place, with its impressive array of buildings and sculptures, is first mentioned in 1040, the heads of Scottish marauders were displayed on poles around the Market Place. Saint Nicholas Church was built in 1133, and part of its former churchyard lies beneath the Market Place.

Durham Town Hall is on the west side of the Market Place. The earliest part of the complex of buildings is the Guildhall which dates from 1665. The town hall, at the rear, was opened in 1851, at the same time as the indoor market.

The statue of Neptune is the oldest statue in the Market Place. It was made of stone covered in lead in 1729, and is a reminder of the plans to make Durham a port. It had a pant or drinking vessel, but was moved in 1923 when the water was no longer needed. Neptune was returned by popular demand in 1991, but the pant did not come with him.

The equestrian statue of Lord Londonderry by Raphael Monti in the Market Place (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The equestrian statue in the Market Place is of Charles William Vane Tempest Stewart (1778-1854), 3rd Marquis of Londonderry. He was born in Mary Street, Dublin, was involved as a young man in suppressing the 1798 Rising in Ireland, and was later a commander under the Duke of Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars.

He married the very wealthy Lady Frances Anne Vane-Tempest and took her name too, and only inherited his family title after Lord Castlereagh, his half-brother and the childless second marquis, died by suicide. He opposed the Mines and Collieries Act and wanted women, girls and boys under 10 to continue working in his pits.

He was one of the 10 richest people in the United Kingdom, yet during the Irish Famine evicted many of his tenants. He advised his tenants ‘to help themselves and heaven will help them’, and suggested only the most ‘supine and inert’ among them could be ‘suffering in any serious degree under the failure of the potato’.

After he died, his widow raised subscriptions for a statue by Raphael Monti (1818-1881), who used a new technique of electroplating copper over a plaster base. The statue was unveiled in 1861, but the larger-than-life work was not popular in Durham and people wanted it moved. Nobody wanted it anywhere else, the cathedral clergy rejected plans to place it on Palace Green, and so it stayed in the Market Place, although it has been moved from its original setting.

In the narrow cobbled streets beneath Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I arrived in Durham on the train from York, crossing over the Victorian railway viaduct on North Road, high above the city, and walked along the banks of the River Wear to Durham Cathedral, Durham Castle and the city centre.

A path runs alongside the south bank or cathedral side for the entire length of the stretch available for rowing. Durham Regatta has been held on the River Wear in Durham since 1834. It is the second oldest regatta in Britain and is often referred to as ‘the Henley of the North’.

More than 2 km of the River Wear can be rowed on, stretching from Durham University Boat Club boathouse at Maiden Castle in the east to the weir next to Durham School Boat Club boathouse in the west. This includes the 700 metres ‘short course’ straight used for most Durham Regatta races, the 1,800 metres ‘long course’ that includes navigation through the arches of Elvet Bridge, reputed to be the narrowest row through bridge in Europe, and 1,000 metres and 2,000 metres measured distances.

There are many boating clubs, including Durham Amateur Rowing Club, founded in 1860 and is one of the country’s oldest clubs, Durham University Boat Club, and 16 college clubs, as well as school clubs.

The Victorian railway viaduct on North Road, high above the city, is one of over 630 listed buildings in Durham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In addition to Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, the city has over 630 listed buildings. The Grade I listed buildings include the Chorister School, Crook Hall, Durham Castle, Durham Cathedral, and four bridges. The Grade II* listed buildings include Bishop Cosin’s Hall, Palace Green, Cosin’s Library, now part of University Library, Palace Green, the Railway viaduct on North Road, and the Town Hall and Guildhall on Market Place.

As well as visiting the cathedral, other listed churches and former churches I managed to see last weekend include Saint Margaret of Antioch, Crossgate; Saint Mary-le-Bow, now Durham Heritage Centre; Saint Godric’s Roman Catholic Church; and Saint Nicholas Church.

But more about Durham Cathedral and those four other churches in the days to come, hopefully.

Climbing the steps leading to Durham Railway Station (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Grosvenor Chapel, the Mayfair church that inspired Charles Gore and a poem by Betjeman

The Grosvenor Chapel on South Audley Street in Mayfair, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

In my recent self-guided ‘church crawling’ tour of half a dozen or so churches and chapels in Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia, Soho and Mayfair, one of the buildings I visited – though I was disappointed not to see inside – was the Grosvenor Chapel on South Audley Street in Mayfair.

The Grosvenor Chapel, dating from the 1730s, is at the west end of the Mount Street Gardens, and so it is a close neighbour of Farm Street Church, at the east end of the gardens and which I was writing about two weeks ago (22 June 2025). Its architectural style has inspired many churches in New England, and it is a fashionable West End church, close to Park Lane, Hyde Park, Grosvenor Square and Berkeley Square.

The reputation of the Grosvenor Chapel as a fashionable church is reflected in its setting for the wedding at the start of the Richard Curtis film Love Actually. But I was more interested in seeing the Grosvenor Chapel because of its association with clergy such as Dick Sheppard and Charles Gore and literary figures such as Rose Macaulay and John Betjeman, and its reputation for its Anglo-Catholic liturgical tradition, enhanced by the work in the early 20th century by Sir Ninian Comper.

Those who have found a spiritual home in the Grosvenor Chapel include the radical politician and campaigner John Wilkes (1727-1797), the ‘Friend of Liberty’; the intrepid traveller and poet Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762), who introduced smallpox inoculation to England in 1718; Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, and his wife Anne, parents of the Duke of Wellington; and Florence Nightingale.

The Grosvenor Chapel is in the heart of the Grosvenor Estate in West London. The foundation stone was laid on 7 April 1730 by Sir Richard Grosvenor (1689-1732), who owned the surrounding properties. He leased the site for 99 years at a peppercorn rent to a syndicate of four ‘undertakers’ led by Benjamin Timbrell, a local builder. The new building was completed and ready to use by April 1731. The organ was built by Abraham Jordan and installed in 1732 at the expense of Sir Richard Grosvenor.

When Grosvenor died in 1732, his title and estates were inherited by his brothers, Sir Thomas Grosvenor (1693-1732) and then Sir Robert Grosvenor (1695-1755), the ancestor of the Dukes of Westminster, who have owned the Grosvenor estate and much of Mayfair.

The Grosvenor Chapel, with its distinctive portico, was built by Benjamin Timbrell in 1731-1732 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The simple classical form of the building, a plain rectangular box with two tiers of arched windows in the side walls, at the east a shallow projection for the Communion table or Altar and at the west a portico over the pavement and a short spire containing a clock and bell, is derived from recently completed churches such as Saint Martin in the Fields by James Gibbs or Saint George’s, Hanover Square, by John James. Timbrell had worked with Gibbs at Saint Martin’s, and produced the design for the chapel without commissioning an architect.

The modest brick exterior contains an elegant white-painted interior flooded with light from clear-glazed windows. It is roofed with a plaster barrel vault, and over the original site of the Altar or Communion Table (now the Lady Chapel) is an elaborate composition showing the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending in glory.

The galleries on three sides have box pews with high sides similar to those that were originally seen on the ground floor. The west gallery displays the royal arms of George II.

After the original 99-year lease ran out in 1829, the Grosvenor Chapel Act 1831 brought the chapel within the parochial system as a chapel of ease to Saint George’s, Hanover Square.

The font, dating from 1841, is a white marble bowl set on a fluted pillar. The furnishings were up-dated in 1871, when a new altar, now used in the Lady Chapel, was installed, the pulpit was moved from the middle to one side and reduced in height and the box pews were modified into the present lower benches.

The organ was altered twice in the 19th century by Bishop, and rebuilt in 1908 by Ingram. JW Walker & Sons built a new, two-manual organ in 1930, incorporating much second-hand pipework both from the old instrument and from other organs. That organ was replaced in 1991 when William Drake of Buckfastleigh, Devon, built a new organ in 1991.

Inside the Grosvenor Chapel … reshaped by Ninian Comper in 1912-1913 (Photograph © Grosvenor Chapel)

The Anglo-Catholic liturgical style of the Grosvenor Chapel was reflected in the introduction of fittings and adornments by Sir Ninian Comper in 1912-1913. He converted what was a plain Georgian auditorium centred on the pulpit into a prayerful church in which attention is directed to the mystery of the altar.

Behind a screen of Ionic columns, the original sanctuary forms a Lady Chapel where the pedimented reredos remains, its panels once painted with the Ten Commandments, with the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer at each side, and now covered by rich fabric. The Blessed Sacrament has been reserved there since 1921 in a hanging pyx held aloft by an angel appearing to have alighted through the clear glass of the east window.

Comper brought the iron Georgian Communion rails forward to enclose a new sanctuary within which the High Altar stands against the screen. It is flanked by two Corinthian columns intended to carry a canopy that was never completed.

The giant Ionic columns at each side set the scale for colonnades that were to run the whole length of the building, replacing the gallery columns. They carry a beam on which stands the rood with the Crucified Christ, with the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist. Two angels kneel below with chalices to gather Christ’s blood. The three stained glass windows in the south wall are also by Comper, and two include his trademark strawberry motif.

Comper intended to rebuild the whole chapel in the style of an early Christian basilica in Rome, with giant columns down the nave, but only the chancel got built. As a reviewer on the site Ship of Fools said, ‘money, it seems, is short sometimes, even in Mayfair’.

The Anglo-Catholic tradition in the Grosvenor Chapel was firmly underpinned by Bishop Charles Gore in the 1920s and 1930s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Anglo-Catholic tradition in the Grosvenor Chapel was established by the Revd Hugh Richard Lawrie Sheppard (1880-1937), who was at the Grosvenor Chapel until 1914, when he became the Vicar of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square (1914-1926), and then Dean of Canterbury (1929-1931). Canon Dick Sheppard was a leading pacifist in the years immediately before World War II. He was the author of the influential War We Say No (1935) and a founding figure in the Peace Pledge Union (1936), and he was involved in the formation of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship shortly before he died.

The Anglo-Catholic tradition continued with Dick Sheppard’s successors, and was firmly underpinned by the liberal Catholicism of Bishop Charles Gore (1853-1932), who assisted and preached there often during his last decade of his life. Gore had been the first Principal of Pusey House and later bishop in succession of Worcester, the new diocese of Birmingham, and of Oxford.

Bishop Gore was one of the most influential Church leaders and thinkers in England in those days. During his time, the appeal of the chapel was broadened beyond the residents of Mayfair, and he was an honorary curate at the Grosvenor Chapel after he retired as Bishop of Birmingham.

The Grosvenor Chapel was the chapel of US forces based in London during World War II (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

During World War II, men and women of the US armed forces in London were welcomed to the chapel for their Sunday services.

In the years after the war, the congregation regularly included literary figures such as the writer Rose Macaulay, author of The Towers of Trebizond, and the poet laureate Sir John Betjeman.

The chapel has a high standard of music with a resident professional group of five singers and an organist. The choir performs a large range of music from Renaissance to the present day, and there are regular lunchtime concerts on Tuesdays at 1:10.

Liddon House, which owes its origins to Charles Gore, is based at the Grosvenor Chapel and holds public lectures throughout the year and monthly evening meetings for graduates and young professionals to discuss questions of faith in the context of contemporary society. It is named after Henry Parry Liddon (1829-1890), an influential Oxford theologian a key figure in the Tractarian and Anglo-Catholic movements.

The senior priest at the Grosvenor Chapel was known as the Curate-in-Charge until 2006, and then as the Priest-in-Charge. Recent priests there include Canon Mark Oakley, later Dean of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, and now Dean of Southwark.

Liddon House at the Grosvenor Chapel owes its origins to Bishop Charles Gore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

‘Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican,’ is one of John Betjeman’s four poems – alongside ‘Churchyards,’ ‘Advent 1955,’ and ‘Christmas’ – in which he makes the mystery of the Christian faith a central issue.

Kevin J Gardner, in Faith and Doubt of John Betjeman: An Anthology of Betjeman’s Religious Verse (Continuum, 2006), says that in these four poems Betjeman finds the sudden and wondrous appearance of God in the most unlikely of places, giving him ‘a sense of spiritual security and renders him susceptible to the embrace of mystery and miracle.’

If Betjeman’s imagination wanders in the joys of the beauty of worship and church architecture in ‘Sunday Morning, King’s Cambridge,’ then his mind wanders in the joys of beauty in a very different way in ‘Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican’ – although he reaches similar conclusions.

‘Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican’ – which in Betjeman’s drafts is titled ‘Lenten Thoughts in Grosvenor Chapel’ – was the first spontaneous poem he wrote after his appointment as Poet Laureate in 1972. It was first published in the Sunday Express on 13 May 1973, and was included in the collection A Nip in the Air (1974).

Alongside the joviality found in many of his poems, this poem has an unusual tonal complexity. Betjeman describes a mysterious and sexually alluring woman who receives Holy Communion each Sunday. In an attempt to refocus the devotional attention of the parishioners, the priest tells them not to stare around or to be distracted during his celebration of the Eucharist.

But Betjeman’s experience contradicts the admonitions from the priest. In a peculiar way, through this mysterious and alluring woman, he suddenly becomes aware of the presence of God. The intrigue and arousal surrounding the women he describes as the ‘mistress’ speaks to the poet of the mystery of God.

Betjeman told Tom Driberg that ‘this [poem] is about a lady I see but have never spoken to, in a London church.’ The church was the Grosvenor Chapel, where Betjeman worshipped from 1972 until his death in 1984.

In an interview with the Sunday Express, Betjeman said: ‘I saw this woman in church one Sunday. I didn’t know who she was. She was the most beautiful creature; and she had a slightly sad expression. And I didn’t even know her name – but it was probably all the better for that. She might have been terrible.’

‘I like there to be a mystery between me and my beloved,’ he continued. ‘And I don’t think there was anything wrong with looking at her in church, do you? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with loving the beauty of the human figure whether it’s in church or in the street … I’m not sure if [the poem] is any good but I hope it will please people. I’ve always wanted my verse to be popular because I wanted to communicate.’

Betjeman’s Dublin-born daughter, the author and journalist Candida Lycett Green, later identified the woman who inspired this poem as Joan Price, who also attended the Grosvenor Chapel. She was the Beauty Editor of Harpers & Queen – now Harper’s Bazaar – and was married to Michael Constantinidis, a sidesmen at the Grosvenor Chapel.

Joan Constantinidis died on 12 January 2020, and her funeral took place at the Grosvenor Chapel.

John Betjeman’s poem ‘Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican’ was tiled in the draft as ‘Lenten Thoughts in Grosvenor Chapel’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican by John Betjeman

Isn’t she lovely, “the Mistress”?
With her wide-apart grey-green eyes,
The droop of her lips and, when she smiles,
Her glance of amused surprise?

How nonchalantly she wears her clothes,
How expensive they are as well!
And the sound of her voice is as soft and deep
As the Christ Church tenor bell.

But why do I call her “the Mistress”
Who know not her way of life?
Because she has more of a cared-for air
Than many a legal wife.

How elegantly she swings along
In the vapoury incense veil;
The angel choir must pause in song
When she kneels at the altar rail.

The parson said that we shouldn’t stare
Around when we come to church,
Or the Unknown God we are seeking
May forever elude our search.

But I hope that the preacher will not think
It unorthodox and odd
If I add that I glimpse in “the Mistress”
A hint of the Unknown God.

• Father Stephen Coleman has been the Priest-in-Charge of the Grosvenor Chapel since November 2023. The Revd Dr Alan Piggot, the Assistant Priest, works full-time at Church House as a Statistical Researcher. The Sung Eucharist is at 11 am on Sundays. The chapel is normally open to visitors Monday to Friday, 8 am to 2:30 pm.

The east end of the Grosvenor Chapel seen through the trees in Mount Street Gardens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Rugby, the home of the game, is celebrating 200 years since Webb Ellis broke the rules

Graham Ibbeson’s statue of William Webb Ellis outside Rugby School (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

It is frequently said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. The saying has long been attributed to the victor at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington, who was born in Dublin and spent three years at Eton after his early schooldays in Trim, Dublin and Chelsea.

However, this oral tradition is probably apocryphal. The earliest version of it said to date from 1856, when Wellington revisited Eton and is said to have declared: ‘It is here that the battle of Waterloo was won!’

There are other versions of the aphorism. Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), in his essay ‘An Eton Boy’ in the Fortnightly Review in 1881, wrote of ‘how the battle of Waterloo was won in the playing-fields of Eton. Alas! disasters have been prepared in those playing-fields as well as victories; disasters due to inadequate mental training – to want of application, knowledge, intelligence, lucidity.’

George Orwell said more pungent in The Lion and the Unicorn (1941): ‘Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.’

The playing fields of Rugby … more important than the ‘playing fields of Eton’? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

But there are other public schools with different memories associated with their playing fields. Thanks to events on the playing fields of Rugby 200 years ago, it could be said with pride that this year Ireland has won the Triple Crown, the Grand Slam and the Championship title.

This year marks the bicentenary of the game of Rugby. It is 200 years since William Webb Ellis took the ball in his arms and ran with it on the Close at Rugby School. Before 1823, football was played much like Australian rules football is played today. It was ‘with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time’ that William Webb Ellis ‘first took the ball in his arms and ran with it.’

Throughout 2023, Rugby School and the rugby world are celebrating this anniversary. We will be welcoming teams from a range of backgrounds and abilities to play on The Close, as well as hosting dinners, evenings and the annual ‘Festival On The Close,’ which this year will be named ‘With a Fine Disregard’ in honour of Webb Ellis.

Regent Place … the site of ancient settlements and a long-lost castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

As I was growing up, any mention of the town of Rugby brought to mind not only the game of Rugby, the school, and William Webb Ellis, but also the cement works, the railway junction, Tom Brown’s schooldays, Matthew Arnold and Archbishop Frederick Temple.

These days, I pass through Rugby frequently on the train. But I decided to visit the town yesterday, thinking any Irish rugby fan still in a celebratory mood from the result two weeks ago should visit the home of rugby this year.

Rugby is a market town in east Warwickshire, with a population of almost 80,000, and the second-largest town in Warwickshire. It is 134 km (83 miles) north of London, 48 km (30 miles) south-east of Birmingham, and close to Coventry, Northampton and Leicester.

There were Early Iron Age settlements in the Rugby area. They were followed by the Dobunni and the Corieltauvi, Celtic tribes. During the Roman period, Tripontium was established on Watling Street, about 5.5 km away, and the small settlement was taken over by the Anglo-Saxons ca 560.

Rugby is named in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Rocheberie. In the 12th century, Rugby had a castle on the site of Regent Place today, although this may have been little more than a fortified manor house. By the 13th century the name was commonly spelt as Rokeby or Rookby. Rugby became a parish in its own right in 1221 and a market town with a charter in 1255.

Rugby School had moved to its present location by 1750 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Rugby School was founded in 1567 with a bequest from Lawrence Sheriff, who made his fortune in London as the grocer to Queen Elizabeth I. Sheriff intended Rugby School to be a free grammar school for local boys, but it gradually became a mostly fee-paying private school, and most of its pupils came from outside Rugby.

Rugby School moved from its original site north of Saint Andrew’s Church, to its present location south of the town centre by 1750. But Rugby remained a small town until the mid-19th century. A major railway junction was established in 1840 and spurred the development of industry and the rapid growth of population.

Rugby was transformed into a railway town, large-scale cement production began in the town in 1862, heavy engineering industries began to set up in Rugby in 1890s and 1900s, attracted by its central location and good transport links.

The invention of Rugby is credited to William Webb Ellis and his legendary rule breaking in 1823, when he picked up the ball and ran with it during a match. Of course, there is little evidence to support this story, but the school is credited with codifying and popularising the sport and in 1845 three Rugby School pupils produced the first written rules of the ‘Rugby style of game.’

Rugby School is also the setting of Thomas Hughes’s semi-autobiographical Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), and the town is the setting for Charles Dickens’s story Mugby Junction.

Rugby School is said to have been one of the inspirations behind the modern revival of the Olympic Games. Pierre de Coubertin, visited Rugby School several times in the late 19th century, and named the school as one of his major inspirations behind his decision to revive the Olympic Games.

Rugby also claims to be the birthplace of the jet engine. Frank Whittle built and tested the world's first prototype jet engine at the British Thomson-Houston (BTH) works in Rugby in 1937. Holography was invented in Rugby in 1947 by the Hungarian-born inventor Dennis Gabor, who later received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971.

The Clock Tower in Market Place stands on the site of an ancient cross and traditionally marks the centre of Rugby (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The town centre in Rugby is mostly Victorian and early 20th century, although some older buildings survive. The main shopping area has traditionally been in the streets around the Clock Tower, including High Street and Sheep Street, which were pedestrianised in the 1980s.

The Clock Tower was built in Market Place in 1887 on the site of an ancient cross and traditionally marks the centre of Rugby.

The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described Rugby as ‘Butterfieldtown’ because of the number of buildings in the town designed by William Butterfield in the 19th century, including much of Rugby School and the rebuilding of Saint Andrew’s Church.

The buildings of Rugby School mostly date from the 18th and 19th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The buildings of Rugby School mostly date from the 18th and 19th centuries, with some early 20th century additions.

The oldest school buildings are the Old Quad Buildings and the School House, the oldest parts of which date from 1748, but were mostly built between 1809 and 1813 by Henry Hakewill. Most of the present landmark buildings date from the Victorian era and were designed by William Butterfield, a disciple of AWN Pugin. They include Butterfield’s New Quad buildings, dating from 1867 to 1885, and the chapel, dating from 1872.

Graham Ibbeson’s statue of William Webb Ellis outside Rugby School, at the junction of Lawrence Sheriff Street, Dunchurch Road and Warwick Street, is one of the most visited sites in the town. The statue was funded by world-wide subscription and unveiled in 1997.

The school buildings behind the statue were designed by Butterfield, and have patterns of Staffordshire blue-black bricks on a background of yellow and red brick. The main School Chapel, also designed by Butterfield, has the grave of Thomas Arnold and memorials to many Old Rugbeians, including Rupert Brooke, Lewis Carroll and Matthew Arnold. The grey stone Memorial Chapel designed by Sir Charles Nicholson is a later addition from 1922 and honours Old Rugbeians who died in two World Wars and in Korea, Cyprus and Egypt.

The Temple Speech Room commemorates Archbishop Frederick Temple (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

But what ever happened to the boy when is said to have invented the game of Rugby?

When he left Rugby in 1826, the Revd William Webb Ellis (1806-1872), went to Brasenose College, Oxford. He played cricket for his college, and for Oxford against Cambridge in 1827. He graduated BA in 1829 and MA in 1831, and after ordination became chaplain of Saint George’s Chapel, Albemarle Street, London, and then the Rector of Saint Clement Danes in the Strand. He became the Rector of Magdalen Laver in Essex in 1855. When he died in the south of France in 1872, he was buried at Menton.

The plaza in front of the school chapels and surrounding the Webb Ellis statue is still bedecked with the flags of the Six Nations following this year’s championship. The Webb Ellis Cup is presented to the winners of the Rugby World Cup every four years. France is hosting the Rugby World Cup later this year. Here’s hoping for a memorable Irish performance.

The game goes on (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Watching football in the pub with princes and dukes

The Duke of Wellington on Wolverton Road, Stony Stratford … once known as the Duke of Edinburgh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

There is a story about the Duke of Edinburgh that is probably apocryphal but is still worth retelling.

It is said that one Saturday afternoon, during a football match, he personally rang one of the senior farm staff members at Balmoral. The phone was answered by the man’s son, who said his father was watching football on the television, and asked could whether he could take a message.

‘No, tell him I want to talk to him,’ Prince Philip insisted.

‘OK,’ the youth came back, ‘but who’s calling him?’

‘The Duke of Edinburgh,’ the duke said clearly.

Without dropping the ’phone, the boy shouted out, ‘Hey, Dad! Some bloke from the pub wants to talk to you. Are you in?’

There are pubs throughout England and Scotland known as the Duke of Edinburgh, and when Prince Philip died earlier last year many were – paradoxically – disappointed that they could not close as marks of respect, because they were already closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But, of course, few if any of the Dukes of Edinburgh up and down the land were not named after Prince Philip. Most of these pubs, it seems, were named after Queen Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred (1844-1900), who was given the titles of Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster, and Earl of Kent by his mother in 1866.

Prince Alfred later became the sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1893-1900), and the title ‘Duke of Edinburgh’ lost its popularity as a name for pubs in England as tensions with Germany rose in the years before World War I.

The coat of arms of the Duke of Wellington on the pub sign (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

In the 1860s, the Duke of Edinburgh was the name of a pub on the corner of Wolverton Road and King Street in Stony Stratford. The popularity of the pub grew with the development of the tram line between Stony Stratford and Wolverton, but the name lost its lustre at the same time.

For a time it was known as the Dog and Gun, but a succession of proprietors eventually settled on the name of the Duke of Wellington for their premises.

Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), 1st Duke of Wellington, was born in Merrion Square, Dublin, and went to school at Drogheda Grammar School. He was one of the many Irish-born British Prime Ministers, but he is popularly remembered and celebrated as the victor at the Battle of Waterloo. He had been a proxy sponsor at the baptism of that earlier Duke of Edinburgh, and died in 1852, long before the Duke of Edinburgh in Stony Stratford changed its name.

In recent weeks, the Duke of Wellington on Wolverton Road has changed management, and the scaffolding has come down from around the building, revealing once again the sign displaying the coat of arms of the Dukes of Wellington. These arms quarters the arms of the Wellesley and Cowley families, with an additional representation of the crosses of Saint George, Saint Andrew and Saint Patrick as ‘the union badge of the United Kingdom.’

The Colley or Cowley family, the direct male line of ancestors of the Dukes, came to Ireland in the late 16th century. When Richard Colley’s distant cousin Garret Wesley died and he inherited the Dangan and Mornington estates in Co Meath, Richard Colley changed his name to Wellesley.

The Duke of Wellington is the only pub in Stony Stratford that I know to have a name with Irish associations. The new-look pub has become a popular local venue in recent weeks for World Cup fixtures. For England supporters, it matters little whether the Duke of Edinburgh was Scots or German or the Duke of Wellington was Irish or English. Hopefully, there are more pressing issues, such as human rights in Qatar, including the rights of women, gay people and migrant workers, the lack of democracy, and the despotic and explotative regime, and the arrogant, grubby attitude of senior officials in FIFA.

The Duke of Wellington at night … a popular venue for watching live sport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Searching for lost architectural and religious heritage in the lanes of Wexford

Saint Mary’s Church dates back to 1365 and was one of the finest mediaeval churches in Wexford

Patrick Comerford

I lived in Wexford half a century ago, and ever since I have been fascinated by the town’s history and heritage, and by its church history.

However, the recent destruction Westgate House has raised about the loss in the near future of further key components of Wexford’s architectural heritage.

Ruins are a reminder
of a mediaeval parish

Walking along South Main Street during a recent visit to Wexford, I turned up steep, narrow Mann’s Lane, opposite Oyster Lane, and found myself halfway along Mary’s Lane. Here the lane curves in a semi-circle around the walls and ruins of mediaeval Saint Mary’s Church, one of the mediaeval churches within the walls of Wexford Town.

Mary’s Lane runs parallel to South Main Street, stretching from Peter Street to Bride Street, with the entrance to the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church at the southern end of the lane, close to the entrance at Bride Street.

The mediaeval Saint Mary’s parish was tine, covering a mere 4.5 ha (11 acres). The parish was bounded by Saint Patrick’s to the north, Saint Peter’s and Saint Bridget’s to the west, Saint Doologe’s to the south, and Wexford Harbour to the east. Its southern boundary was at Stonebridge. South Main Street, from Peter Street to Stonebridge runs through the centre of the former parish.

The first reference to Saint Mary’s Church is in 1365. It was said to have been one of the finest mediaeval churches in Wexford. It resembled neighbouring Saint Patrick’s Church in design, and though smaller was more beautiful in detail. Like Saint Patrick’s and Selskar Church, Saint Mary’s had a double nave. The capitals of the pillars, the mouldings of the arches, and the tracery of the widows were more ornamental than either Selskar or Saint Patrick’s.

The curve on Mary’s Lane encircling Saint Mary’s churchyard and the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church

***

Dr Nicholas French (1604-1678), Roman Catholic Bishop of Ferns (1645-1678), was the last Parish Priest of Saint Mary’s from 1638. Saint Mary’s was plundered and pillaged, profaned and destroyed by Cromwellian troops in 1649. French was not living in his house in Peter Street at the time, but was ill in New Ross. Finally, he was driven into exile in 1651.

In a letter, French described the attack on the priests, people and church of Saint Mary’s: ‘There before God’s Altar fell many sacred victims, holy priests of the Lord, others who were seized outside the precincts of the Church were scourged with whips; others hanged and others put to death by various cruel tortures.’

It is said the bell from Saint Mary’s was given to the Church of Ireland parish church in Castlebridge.

A century later, the artist Gabriel Beranger painted the interior of Saint Mary’s Church in 1779-1780. The ruined walls of Saint Mary’s continued to stand against wind and weather until 4 June 1822 when they were struck by a thunderbolt in a storm that raged over the town.

Today all that stands of Saint Mary’s is a single wall, a lonely sentinel guarding faithfully the tragic memories of the past. The locked gates of and churchyard stand at the top of a flight of stone steps.

The steps and locked gates leading into the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church

A link with 1798 and
the Battle of Waterloo

Spawell Road was an early and elegant development of Georgian and Victorian homes to the west of Wexford’s town centre. But today the main house of the former Loreto Convent is a sorry sight on Spawell Road, surrounded by steel fencing and security notices.

This house, once known as Richmond House has historical associations with both the 1798 Rising and the Battle of Waterloo, and with the famous Lennox sisters.

The former Richmond House, which gives its name to later housing developments in the Spawell Road area, was first built in 1792 by Charles Lennox (1764-1819), who succeeded as the fourth Duke of Richmond in 1806.

He was a nephew of the Lennox sisters, four 18th century aristocrats who inspired Stella Tillyard’s book and the six-part BBC mini-series Aristocrats: Lady Caroline Fox (1723-1774), 1st Baroness Holland, Lady Emily FitzGerald (1731-1814), Duchess of Leinster, Lady Louisa Conolly (1743-1821) of Castletown House, Co Kildare, and Lady Sarah Napier (1745-1826) of Celbridge House, Co Kildare.

This means the future duke who built Richmond House six years before the 1798 Rising, was a first cousin of both Lord Edward FitzGerald, one of the leading figures in the United Irishmen, and General Sir Charles James Napier (1782-1853), famous as the captor of Sindh but also Governor of Kephalonia – ‘Captain Corelli’s’ island – and a leading Philhellene during the Greek War of Independence in the mid-19th century.

Richmond House, the main house of the former Loreto Convent in Wexford, was first built by the Duke of Richmond in 1792

***

Charles Lennox became the 4th Duke of Richmond in 1806 after the death of his uncle, Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond. Later, he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1807 to 1813.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Richmond was in command of a force that was protecting Brussels in case Napoleon won the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. On the night before the Battle of Quatre Bras, his wife – the former Lady Charlotte Gordon – held a ball for his fellow officers. The glittering celebration became famous as the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball and is referred to by William Makepeace Thackeray in Vanity Fair and by Lord Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.

Richmond became Governor General of Canada in 1818. But his time there was cut short unexpectedly. He was on a tour of Canada in 1819 when he was bitten on the hand by a fox. He continued on the tour, but rabies and he died 28 August 1819. He was buried at Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral in Quebec.

In the Victorian era, Richmond House was the home of William White (1803-1865) and later of Alderman John Greene JP (1803-1890), seven times Mayor of Wexford and founder of the Wexford Independent. The Loreto nuns moved into Richmond House in 1886, and their school grew up around the house.

Until recently, the original house was well maintained. But the future of Richmond House on Spawell Road now looks uncertain.

Wellington Cottage on Spawell Road … its name offers another connection with the Battle of Waterloo

Jew’s Bridge and
the oldest bridge

As I wondered about the architectural heritage of Wexford, I also wondered about whether the town had a Jewish heritage too. Stonebridge once marked the mediaeval boundary of Saint Mary’s and Saint Doologe’s. Although it no longer survives, it was once the oldest bridge in the town and was known as Jew’s Bridge in 1764.

I wondered whether it was known as Jew’s Bridge because a Jewish merchant of possible Sephardic descent, had moved to Wexford in the 1750 or 1760s, and had lived at this end of South Main Street, close to the Quays and Stonebridge Castle.

The original bridge at Stonebridge at Stonebridge was built over the Bishopswater River, and probably marked the northern gate of the earliest Norse or Viking settlement at Wexford. A fading plaque on the shopfront of a former picture framing business recalls that the Stonebridge dated back to the Norse period. Norse and mediaeval fishing fleets berthed in the estuary below the bridge. It is recorded that in 1172, King Henry II paid £45 for Wexford fish.

Later, the bridge was built in stone, and became known as Stonebridge and the Bridge of Wexford.

The first recorded murder or manslaughter in Wexford town took place at Stonebridge in mid-afternoon 25 February 1560. A quarrel broke out between Thomas Walsh a shoemaker, and Geoffrey Brian, a mariner. The insults led to blows being exchanged, before Brian stabbed Walsh below the chest.

Stonebridge Castle was also known as Stafford’s Castle, and was owned by James Stafford, the man blamed in tradition for betraying Wexford to Cromwell.

At one time, Stonebridge was known as Wexford Bridge. But, for some unknown, perhaps even inexplicable, reason, it was known as Jew’s Bridge in 1764.

The lane running from Stonebridge to Paul’s Quay marks the boundary between the mediaeval parishes of Saint Doologe’s and Saint Mary’s

***

Meanwhile, Stonebridge Castle, which became a gaol in 1665, was used to hold prisoners during the 1798 Rising. A new gaol was built at Spawell Road in 1812, and Stonebridge Castle became a ‘Lunatic Asylum’ and a ‘house of industry’ for vagrants and prostitutes, where the inmates were used to clean the streets of the town.

Stonebridge Castle was eventually demolished in 1866 to provide land for development along the quays.

Stonebridge Lane is also known as Sinnott’s Place and Larkin Lane. For generations, the large stone buildings in this area once housed malt stores, coal depots and timber yards. The lane leads from the corner of South Main Street to Paul’s Quay, between the Talbot Stonebridge Apartments and the Talbot Hotel.

The Stonebridge apartments on Paul’s Quay were built originally in 2008 as a lavish, 73-apartment complex. But the economic crash struck, the building never opened for use, and the apartments lay vacant for eight years until they were bought for redevelopment by the Talbot Hotel group, and are now known as the Talbot Suites at Stonebridge.

However, I can find no documentary evidence of even a small Jewish community in Wexford in the mid-18th century, and certainly no evidence of a synagogue in the town.

The site of Stonebridge in Wexford … known as Jew’s Bridge in 1764

This two-page feature was first published in April 2022 in the Church Review, the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan magazine

Four houses on Spawell Road and links between Wexford and the Battle of Waterloo

Richmond House, the main house of the former Loreto Convent in Wexford, was first built by the Duke of Richmond in 1792 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

The main house of the former Loreto Convent in Wexford is now a sorry sight on Spawell Road, surrounded by steel fencing and security notices.

But this house, once known as Richmond House, is of architectural value, and has historical associations with both the 1798 Rising and the Battle of Waterloo, with the famous Lennox sisters, and with a celebrated Victorian-era Mayor of Wexford.

The former Richmond House, which gives its name to later housing developments in the Spawell Road area of Wexford, was first built in 1792 by Charles Lennox (1764-1819), who succeeded his uncle as the fourth Duke of Richmond in 1806. This three-bay, three-storey over basement house was built on a square plan, with the ground floor centred on a prostyle distyle portico.

Charles Lennox, who built the house, was a nephew of the Lennox sisters, four 18th century aristocrats who inspired Stella Tillyard’s book the six-part BBC mini-series Aristocrats.

These four sisters were: Lady Caroline Fox (1723-1774), 1st Baroness Holland, Lady Emily FitzGerald (1731-1814), Duchess of Leinster, Lady Louisa Conolly (1743-1821) of Castletown House, Co Kildare, and Lady Sarah Napier (1745-1826) of Celbridge House, Co Kildare.

This means the future duke who built Richmond House in Wexford six years before the 1798 Rising, was a first cousin of both Lord Edward FitzGerald, one of the leading figures in the United Irishmen, and General Sir Charles James Napier (1782-1853), famous as the captor of Sindh but also Governor of Kephalonia – ‘Captain Corelli’s’ island – and leading Philhellene during the Greek War of Independence in the mid-19th century.

Charles Lennox became the 4th Duke of Richmond on 29 December 1806, after the death of his uncle, Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond. In April 1807, he became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and he continued in office until 1813.

The duke took part in the Napoleonic Wars and in 1815 he was in command of a reserve force in Brussels that was protecting the city in case Napoleon won the Battle of Waterloo.

On 15 June 1815, the night before the Battle of Quatre Bras, his wife – the former Lady Charlotte Gordon – held a ball for his fellow officers. The glittering celebration became famous as the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball and is referred to by William Makepeace Thackeray in Vanity Fair and by Lord Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.

Although the Duke observed the Battle of Quatre Bras the next day, as well as the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June, he did not take part in either, his role being in the defence of the city of Brussels.

Richmond became Governor General of Canada, then known as British North America, in 1818, but his time there was cut short unexpectedly. Richmond was on a tour of Canada, in 1819 when he was bitten on the hand by a fox. The injury apparently healed and he continued on the tour, but later in his journey the initial symptoms of hydrophobia appeared, a clear sign of Rabies. The disease developed rapidly, and he died 28 August 1819. He was buried at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Quebec.

The architectural value of Richmond House includes the compact square plan form centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase with good quality workmanship. The windows diminish in scale on each floor, producing a graduated visual impression.

In the Victorian era, Richmond House was the home of William White (1803-1865) and later of Alderman John Greene JP (1803-1890), seven times Mayor of Wexford and founder of the Wexford Independent.

Long before town planning, streetscaping and public water systems, Greene had a vision for supplying clean water to the people of Wexfcord town, raising the quality of life and the standards of living of Wexford’s growing population. When he was Mayor of Wexford in 1854, he erected ‘The Cock,’ the fountain on John Street that determines your identity and your place in Wexford, including who you supported in football and hurling – the John Street Volunteers or the Faythe Harriers.

The Loreto nuns moved into Richmond House in 1886, and their school grew up around the house. The ‘classical additions’ to the house in the early 20th century have been ascribed to the Dublin architect William Henry Byrne (1844-1917).

Until recently, the original house was well maintained, with the elementary form and massing surviving intact along with quantities of the original fabric, both outside and inside, despite the introduction of replacement windows in most of the windows.

The house, set back from the street, once stood in landscaped grounds and was part of a self-contained group alongside the adjoining former convent and school that once formed a pleasant ensemble on Spawell Road.

Wellington Cottage, also known simply as ‘The Cottage’ … built in 1863 ‘in the enriched Tudor style’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Another connection with the Battle of Waterloo on Spawell Road is provided by the gate lodge at Clifton which was once known as Wellington Cottage, or simply as ‘The Cottage.’

This gate lodge has been carefully restored in recent years. It has contributed positively to the group and setting of the Clifton estate, and was part of the continued development of the adjoining Ardara estate by Joseph Harvey (1809-1890).

In the Victorian era, it was admired as a ‘new and beautiful gate lodge in the enriched Tudor style’ that ‘excites in an especial manner the admiration of the visitor.’

It was built on a compact plan form centred on an expressed porch displaying the Harvey family coat of arms. Its picturesque appearance is enhanced by the multipartite glazing patterns, and the ‘spikey’ pinnacles embellishing the roofline.

It was recently restored after a prolonged period of being left unoccupied.

The cottage or gate lodge stands at the entrance to Clifton, a house on Spawell Road built in 1895 by Thomas Reilly on a plot bought from the neighbouring Ardara estate.

Clifton also has connections with Nicholas Byrne, one-time Mayor of Wexford, who died in 1951.

Clifton was built in 1895 by Thomas Reilly on a plot on Spawell Road bought from the neighbouring Ardara estate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Close-by, Ard Ruadh Manor is a house that I have stayed in on Spawell Road. This house was built in 1893 by Mary O’Connor (1837-1927), an outstanding builder and developer in Wexford, who built a terrace of houses on Upper George’s Street, Wexford, in the 1870s and 1880s. She is an interesting example of a woman who was a property developer and building contractor at the end of the 19th century. She developed a number of other terraces of houses in Wexford, including Glena Terrace with eight houses on Spawell Road (1890-1895)

Ard Ruadh has eight bedrooms, a drawing room, kitchen-diner, family room, a lounge with bay, and mature, private landscaped grounds.

Ard Ruadh was built on a deliberate alignment to maximise the scenic vistas overlooking rolling grounds and the estuary of the River Slaney. It is notable for its vibrant yellow brick Flemish bond walls offset by diaper work-like terracotta dressings, with a yellow brick running bond plinth with vermiculated yellow terracotta quoins at the corners, yellow terracotta sills, and yellow terracotta window surrounds with rusticated pilasters.

Here too, the windows diminish in scale on each floor, producing a graduated visual impression. The main rooms have polygonal bay windows, and there is a half-dormer attic. Other architectural features in the house include the decorative timber work, a high pitched multi-gabled roofline, contemporary joinery, chimneypieces; and plasterwork refinements.

The house has family connections with William Henry Hadden (died 1916), a leading Wexford merchant, and Dr James A Pierce.

Ard Ruadh Manor on Spawell Road was sold at auction for €850,000 in April 2003 by Wexford auctioneer John Keane. Bidding opened at €500,000 but was very brisk, with four different bidders, and concluded at €850,000.

The house was bought by a local person who planned to use it as private house. But the security signs I saw around the house at the weekend make me wonder whether it is in danger of being lost to future developments on Spawell Road.

Ard Ruadh Manor on Spawell Road was built in 1893 by Mary O’Connor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)