Notes: http://www.askaboutireland.ie/v2/index.html Mote Park House: The Rise and Fall of a Big House in Roscommon. Coat of Arms Crofton House The Lodge Horse and Carriage Page of Diary Sheep Grazing Morning of the Auction Auction Catalogue Heritage Walkway This website has been created as part of a Nationally funded project by R oscommon County Library in association with An Chomhairle Leabharlanna , The Library Council Coat of Arms The Crofton estate in the townland of Ballymurray in Co. Roscommon was fi rst granted to John Crofton during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was t he first occupier, having been appointed Auditor General in 1584. In addi tion to this estate he also obtained extensive grants of lands elsewher e in the county as well as in Leitrim and Sligo. It was not until 1661 th at a Crofton obtained a title however, when Edward became a Baronet to Mo te for services rendered to Charles II during the Cromwellian rebellion. The total holdings of the Crofton’s in Co. Roscommon consisted of 11,05 3 acres, according to the Bateman Edition of Great Landowners of Great Br itain and Ireland in 1883. The size of the Mote Park estate in Ballymurra y consisted of c. 7000 acres. Although this was a sizeable estate, when c ompared with others such as the Essex properties consisting of the town o f Roscommon itself and extensive lands to the north, totalling some 36,00 0 acres, it clearly was not the largest. Any estate, no matter what its size needed to have a big house and Mote w as no exception. Mote Park House was built by the Crofton family in the l ater half of the eighteenth century, preceding the Castle of Mote erecte d by the family in 1620. Crofton House (It clearly was an imposing structure and reflects the influence of neo-c lassicism prevalent at this time. This style emphasizes for the first tim e a sense of permanence and security among the landowning class. The hous e was the most impressive of its type built in Co. Roscommon, the other s of this period being located at Runnamoat near Ballymoe, and Sandford H ouse in Castlerea. The house was originally an irregular two-storey-over-basement house, whi ch the architect Richard Morrison more than doubled in size by adding si x bays and an extra storey. It had a deep hall with a screen of columns , beyond which a door flanked by niches led into an oval library in the b ow on the garden front. These gardens contained many fine architectural features, some of which a re still intact. Perhaps the most splendid surviving feature is the origi nal entrance gate consisting of a Doric triumphal arch surmounted by a li on with screen walls linking it to a pair of identical lodges. The Lodge It has been suggested that this was designed by James Gandon, although ot hers have pointed out that while this certainly is feasible, certain elem ents, most notably the head and keystone of the arch, appear to be of a l ater date and have a provincial character. It is worth mentioning at this stage the work of Augusta Crofton . She wa s a renowned amateur photographer and honoured with an O.B.E. in 1920. A t present the National Library of Ireland are restoring over 3,000 negati ves of her photographs taken between 1880-1920. Many of these, such as th e one below, deal with daily life on the Crofton estate and we owe he r a debt for capturing for posterity many events otherwise lost. It is clear that the house enjoyed its heyday in the century after its co mpletion. It is hard to build an exact picture of its importance sociall y however because of the reluctance of the Crofton’s in their papers to c omment on matters not directly concerned with business and these papers r arely venture beyond the mundane into the personal. This is most eviden t in the diaries of Lady Georgiana Crofton written during the Great Famin e which display no insight into the worst aspects of the suffering involv ed but concentrates on various aspects of daily life with little if any p ersonal comment. It also overlooks the fact that her father paid regula r philanthropic visits to the poorhouse and infirmary. From the mid-nineteenth century however, as with so many other estates, t hings started to go downhill for the fortunes of the Croftons and their b ig house. It should be noted at the outset that the Croftons, while not a mong the best examples of improving landlords did keep their rents low an d endeavoured to help their tenants as much as possible. The fact that th e estate was well managed is evident from the 24 volumes of rentals of th e estate dating from 1834-1893, along with family records held at Roscomm on Co. Library. Rents received, expenditure on wages, bills, details of l and improvements and summaries of yearly rental statistics for each denom ination are clearly recorded. The problem of absenteeism was largely irre levant to the Crofton estate during this period as it was administered b y competent land agents. Page of Diary In 1865 a fire destroyed the entire house at Mote Park, as another had de stroyed their castle a century previously. While the house was being re-b uilt in 1866, the family occupied the old barrack room in the farmyard. F rom the 1870’s onwards the once feared power of the landlord was clearl y on the wane. Despite the Land Acts tenants made no effort to purchase t heir land. Arrears of rent increased with arrears accounting for over 30 % of total rent received by the 1890’s. It is clear that the house itsel f was also falling into disrepair as evidenced from the photograph belo w showing animals grazing on what were once the pristine gardens. Lord Edward Crofton died in 1912 to be buried in the family vault at Kill maine. In many respects he had become disillusioned with life on the esta te long before his death, showing little interest in his Irish properties . Instead he preferred, among other roles, that of representative peer a t Westminister. As he was a bachelor, his title, along with the subsequen tly conferred superior title of baron was passed to his nephew Arthur Edw ard. Although he took a practical interest in his inheritance, the last o f the Land Acts meant most of the estate was sold piecemeal in the earl y twentieth century. Ownership of what was left passed to his children an d then to his grandson Edward Blaise, to whom the title eventually passed . He was the last of the Croftons to reside at Mote, but moved to Englan d in the 1940’s. A sign that the final demise of the big house was forthcoming is evidence d by the public auction of October 1947. It occasioned quite a large publ ic interest as evidenced by a photograph taken of the house on the mornin g of the auction. An original catalogue still survives, and it is interesting to note that among other items, the library of th e house was extensive, necessitating eight pages in the catalogue. The bo oks mentioned date back over the previous two centuries and cover a wid e variety of topics, from politics, religion and works of literature, t o practical volumes on estate management. The 1950’s and early 1960’s saw the final nail driven in the big house’ s coffin with the Land Commission demolishing the house completely. Muc h of the beautiful woods surrounding the house were also felled, and repl aced with newer mixed conifer species. The remaining land was divided int o several properties for families transferred from the nearby congested d istricts. Now, instead of the big house, many smaller farm houses lay sca ttered over what was once the Crofton estate, while the present Lord Crof ton, Guy, son of Edward Blaise, lives and works as a diplomat in Germany . Mote Park still attracts many visitors however, marketed now as a herit age walkway, almost 10 miles in length and taking in whatever original fe atures still remaining intact. Sources used in addition to the Crofton papers located in Roscommon Count y Library. These are also all available at Roscommon Co. Library. Brennan, Niamh, Tracing the roots of the landed gentry…the Croftons of Ro scommon, Journal of the Irish Society for Archives, 1999, Vol. 6(1). Crofton, Henry Thomas, The Crofton Memoirs, York, 1911. Dodd, Luke, The Houses of County Roscommon ,Living Heritage, Vol. 10(1) A utumn1993. Finnerty, Mary, The Roscommon Estates of the Lords Crofton 1845-95, Unpub lished thesis, 1986. O’Hart, John, The Irish and the Anglo-Irish Landed Gentry, Gill and Son , Dublin, 1884. Weld, Isaac, Statistical Survey of the County of Roscommon, Royal Dubli n Society, Dublin, 1832.