SHARP'S HOUSE
Sharp's House, Gosford Forest Park, Markethill, Co Armagh
1989
Idyllically set in a conservation
forest
The present Gosford Castle, which lies just outside the village
of Markethill, was the third to have been erected in the demesne
by the Acheson family, and was designed by Thomas Hopper for Archibald
Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford, who was for a time Governor of Lower
Canada. Started in 1819, the Castle was not completed until the
1850s, and it is the earliest example of Norman Revival architecture
in the British Isles. The Achesons' first house was a fortified
tower that was destroyed in the 1640 Rebellion; their second house
was visited by Dean Swift in the late 1720s, and at one time he
planned to build a house nearby.
Sharp's House is a two-storey stone-built house set within the
demesne. It pre-dates the present Gosford Castle, and is thought
to have been built in the latter part of the 18th century. An
estate map of 1754 shows several houses in this location, but
none can be positively identified as this one. The house has been
altered over the years, with the lower portion older and originally
single storey, and the main portion of the house added in the
course of the 18th century. The detail of the curved bay is very
similar to houses in Armagh which can be dated to the 1770s.
The old Gosford demesne is now known as Gosford Forest Park; it
has been managed by the Forestry Division of the Department of
Agriculture since 1969, and in 1987 it became the first 'conservation
forest' designated by the Department. However the conservation
brief did not extend to buildings, and after being used as a Scout
hall for some years, the house lay vacant and vandalised. An application
for listed building consent to demolish was withdrawn when Hearth
opened negotiations to buy the property.
In the course of the restoration the attractive staircase, with
its saddle-back ramped handrail and ornamental balustrades, was
restored, but most of the windows and doors had to be replaced,
with sash windows in the main part of the house and casement ones
in the return, panel doors to the main rooms and sheeted ones
in the small bedrooms. Plaster cornice mouldings were cast from
fragmentary originals in the elegant main rooms. The window in
the ground floor of the bow had been a conventional type, but
in the course of work evidence was uncovered that it had originally
been tripartite, and the window was restored accordingly.
Client: Hearth Revolving
Fund Architect: Hearth
Main Contractor: Francis Haughey, Keady
Restored: 1995-96
Accommodation: One three-bedroom house
Assisted by loans and grants from: Environment & Heritage
Service DoE through Tourism Sub-Programme (EEC) and own capital.
