Platten Hall, Co Meath

Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London. 

“(D’Arcy;IFR; Reeves;LGI1912; Gradwell, LGI1958) A very handsome red brick house with stone facings probably built ca 1700 by Alderman John Graham on an estate which, before the Williamite War, had belonged to a branch of the D’Arcy family. Considered by Dr Craig to be a possible work of William Robinson. Originally of three storeys; nine bay front, thee bay breakfront; splendid Baroque doorcase with segmental pediment, engaged Ionic columns and camber-headed fanlight. Camber-headed ground floor windows with scroll keystones. Long side elevations which in later years were largely blind; in the centre of one side, however, was a pedimented doorcase. Large two storey panelled hall with stairs and gallery of fine joinery; engaged fluted Corinthian columns superimposed on fluted Ionic columns. Carved frieze below gallery; fluted Corinthian newels and fluted balusters; ceiling with modillion cornice; floor of marble pavement. Oak panelling in dining room enriched with fluted Corinthian pilasters and elaborately carved segmental pediment over door. Pedimented stables at back of house. The house was originally set in a formal layout of elm avenues. Mrs Delany (then Mrs Pendarves) came to a ball here in 1731. A later John Graham left the estate 1777 to a friend, Graves Chamey; it was sold post 1800 to Robert Reeves, whose son, S.S. Reeves, removed the top storey, giving the house a rather truncated appearance. In later years, too, part of the house was derelict; which would explain why the side windows were bricked up. Platten Hall was sold post 1863 to J. J. Gradwelll; it was demolished ca 1950.” 

Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.

p. 115. “Very important three storey early 18C house attributed to William Robinson. The top floor was removed in the early 19C. Very fine interior which included a superb staircase and a panelled dining room. Built for Alderman John Graham. The dining room as re-erected in a house in Dublin. The house was demolished c. 1950.”

See also, for more on William Graham who lived at Platten Hall, Melanie Hayes, The Best Address in Town: Henrietta Street, Dublin and its First Residents 1720-80, published by Four Courts Press, Dublin 8, 2020.

Thomas U. Sadlier and Page L. Dickinson’s Georgian Mansions in Ireland, published in 1915 by Ponsonby and Gibbs, Dublin

A large bedroom, the door of which appears in LXVI is known as the Duke’s Room, the tradition being that Duke Schonberg’s body was laid in state here after the Boyne. 

“p. 81 For several centuries this property belonged to the Anglo-Norman family of D’Arcy. Sir John D’Arcy, a distinguished soldier under Edward III, sometime Constable of the Tower, came to Ireland in 1329, and for some years acted as Justiciary; he subsequently fought in both Scotland and in France, serving with distinction at the Battle of Crecy. The castle at Platten built by him passed at his death, 1347, to his younger son, William D’Arcy, father of John D’Arcy of Platten, who was sheriff of Meath in 1404 and 1415. Another Sir William D’Arcy, of Platten, the latter’s great-grandson, apparently a man of considerable bodily strength, carried Lambert Simmel on his back through Dublin, after he had been crowned in Christchurch, for which offence he was obliged to do homage and fealty to Sir Richard Edgecombe, Lord Deputy, in 1488. The family lived on here till the 17C, when they experience various vicissitudes. In 1641 they resisted the attack of Sir Henry Tichborne, ultimately surrendering Platten on terms by which the garrison departed without arms, but were allowed to take some of their good with them. It was perhaps at this period that the old chapel of the D’Arcys, some remains of which may yet be seen, became ruinous. Finally in 1690, on the attainder of Nicholas D’Arcy, who had taken sides with the Jacobites, the property was forfeited.

It next passed into the possession of Alderman John Graham, of Drogheda, a man of great wealth of whom we know little save that he bought landed property, doubtless at an undervalue, from the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates, and that for some years he sat in Parliament for his native city. On his death he was succeeded in the representation of that borough, and also at Platten, where he built the present residence, by his son William.

This William Graham married the Hon. Mary Granville, second daughter of George, Lord Lansdown; she doubtless met him at the court in Dublin when staying with her uncle, Lord Carteret, for he was Lord Leiutenant at the time of their marriage (1729). Thus the owner of Platten found [p. 82] himself allied with some of the first families in England – a circumstance which speedily led to his being sworn a member of the Irish Privy Council, and of coming to the notice of Mrs Delaney, or as she was then, Mrs Pendarves, his wife’s first cousin.”

“p 85 William Graham was sadly extravagant…spendthrift.” On his death, “Platten, in 1748, devolved on his elder son, John Graham, who in that year married Dorothy Sophia, daughter of Richard Gorges, of Kilbrew, in Meath.

‘We have unfortunately no further details as to life at Platten. Its owner, John Graham, seems to have become estranged from his family, and preferred to reside in Dublin, where he had a house in North Great George’s Street. Finally, on his death in 1777, all his property in Meath and Drogheda passed under his will to Graves Chamney, an intimate and valued friend, who for some years previously had resided in Platten Hall. The reason Mr Graham gives for thus passing over his wife and daughter in favour of Mr Chamney is “for his friendship in taking me out of gaol when my own and my wife’s relations would not relieve me.” Graves Chamney died unmarried in 1794, but the property remained in his family till soon after 1800, when it was sold to a Mr Robert Reeves, of Merrion Square, Dublin, who left it to his second son, Samuel Spaight Reeves. From this gentleman, who was resident here in 1863, and by whom the house was lowered a storey, it passed by purchase to John Joseph Gradwell, father of George Fitzgerald Gradwell, JP, the present landlord.”

No longer exists 

https://archiseek.com/2014/1700-platten-hall-co-meath

1700 – Platten Hall, Co. Meath 

Architect: Sir William Robinson 

Construction started circa 1700 for Alderman John Graham. According to Maurice Craig, possibly designed by Sir William Robinson. Demolished in the 1950s. Replaced by a smaller house on the same site. The farmyard building to the rear still exists. 

A description of 1906: “It is an ugly building now, in spite of its rich red colouring; but in former days, when it was a story higher, and had a gabled roof, its appearance was doubtless more attractive.  

Like all early Georgian houses, the main entrance is on a level with the ground ; it opens into the imposing hall, which contains a handsome grand staircase in three flights,/ supported by six Ionic columns, the floor being paved in black and white marble. The walls are panelled, and there are other symptoms of early construction; there is some tasteful decoration, the frieze being very richly carved, and displaying tiny figures, quite Jacobean in treatment. Note, too, the gallery, which we also illustrate, with its handsome balustrading, with ramps at the newels. Below the gallery the panels are in plaster.  

Platten once afforded considerable accommodation, but one wing has been allowed to fall into disrepair, as its bricked-up windows show, and the excellent rooms in the basement are no longer utilized.  

….the dining-room, a large apartment panelled in oak, which is to the right as we enter the hall ; it has handsome high doors with brass locks, and the wainscot is ornamented with boldly carved fluted pilasters. There is a curious, probably early Georgian, mantel in white and grey marble.” 

Anyone familiar with the Irish Georgian Society will know that the original organisation of that name was established in 1908 with the specific intention of creating a record of the country’s 18th century domestic architecture. Five volumes were produced over successive years, the first four devoted to Dublin while the last, which appeared in 1913, made an attempt to provide an overview of country houses. Two years later, another work, Georgian Mansions in Ireland, appeared. This book, written by barrister and genealogist Thomas U. Sadleir and architect Page L. Dickinson, both members of the now-dissolved Irish Georgian Society, was intended to correct what they believed to have been a problem with the earlier work: namely that its compilers ‘laboured under a disadvantage, for they had but slight knowledge of the existing material.’ The two authors proposed that whereas the compilers of the Irish Georgian Society volumes were well informed about historic buildings in Dublin, ‘as regards the country districts, their number, their history and their situation were alike unknown.’ For Sadleir and Dickinson, writing almost a century ago, the contrast between historic properties in Dublin and the rest of the country could not have been more stark. The former’s large houses, ‘so far from being, as they once were, the residences of the rich, are too often the dwellings of the poor; at best, hotels, offices or institutions. But the country houses present a delightful contrast. Some, no doubt, have gone through a “Castle Rackrent” stage; but – as anyone who cares to consult the long list in the fifth Georgian volume must admit – the vast majority are still family seats, often enriched with the treasures of former generations of wealthy art-lovers and travelled collectors.’ 
It is unlikely the authors would have been able to write such words even a decade later, and certainly not today. ‘Irish houses seldom contain valuable china,’ they advised, ‘but good pictures, plate, and eighteenth-century furniture are not uncommon. How delightful it would be to preserve the individual history of these treasures! The silver bowl on which a spinster aunt lent money to some spendthrift owner, and then returned when a more prudent heir inherited; the family pictures, by Reynolds, Romney, Battoni, or that fashionable Irish artist Hugh Hamilton, preserved by that grandmother who removed to London, and lived to be ninety; the Chippendale chairs which had lain forgotten in an attic. Even the estates themselves have often only been preserved by the saving effects of a long minority, the law of entail, or marriage with an English heiress.’ 
Below are three houses featured in Georgian Mansions in Ireland, with a selection of the pictures included in the book. The line drawings are by the architect Richard Orpen, who had been in partnership with Dickinson before the outbreak of the First World War. 

Platten Hall, County Meath dated from c. 1700 and was built for Alderman John Graham of Drogheda: Maurice Craig proposed the architect responsible was Sir William Robinson. Built of red brick and with a tripartite nine-bay facade, it was originally three-storied but the uppermost floor was removed in the 19^th century. Alderman Graham’s son William Graham married the Hon. Mary Granville, second daughter of George, Lord Lansdown and cousin of the inestimable Mrs Delaney who visited Platten on several occasions during her first marriage (when she was known as Mrs Pendarves). Sadleir and Dickinson quote one of her letters from January 1733, in which she described a ball given in the house: ‘we began at seven;  danced thirty-six dances, with only resting once, supped at twelve, everyone by their partner, at a long table which was handsomely filled with all manner of cold meats, sweetmeats, creams, and jellies. Two or three of the young ladies sang. I was asked for my song, and gave them “Hopp’d She”; that occasioned some mirth. At two we went to dancing again, most of the ladies determined not to leave Plattin till daybreak, they having three miles to go home, so we danced on till we were not able to dance any longer. Sir Thomas Prendergast is an excellent dancer – dances with great spirit, and in very good time. We did not go to bed till past eight; the company staid all that time, but part of the morning was spent in little plays. We met the next morning at twelve (very rakish indeed), went early to bed that night, and were perfectly refreshed on Saturday morning. …’ As for Platten when they knew it, Sadleir and Dickinson comment: ‘Like all early Georgian houses, the main entrance is on a level with the ground; it opens into the imposing hall, which contains a handsome grand staircase in three flights, supported by six Ionic columns, the floor being paved in black and white marble. The walls are panelled, and there are other symptoms of early construction; there is some tasteful decoration, the frieze being very richly carved, and displaying tiny figures, quite Jacobean in treatment. Note, too, the gallery, which we also illustrate, with its handsome balustrading, with ramps at the newels. Below the gallery the panels are in plaster. 
Platten once afforded considerable accommodation, but one wing has been allowed to fall into disrepair, as its bricked-up windows show, and the excellent rooms in the basement are no longer utilized…the dining-room, a large apartment panelled in oak, which is to the right as we enter the hall; it has handsome high doors with brass locks, and the wainscot is ornamented with boldly carved fluted pilasters. There is a curious, probably early Georgian, mantel in white and grey marble.’ 
Platten Hall was demolished in the early 1950s. 

http://meathhistoryhub.ie/houses-k-p/ 

Platten Hall was located at Donore, just west of Drogheda. Today the cement works occupy part of the estate. Bence-Jones described Platten Hall as a ‘very handsome red brick house with stone facings’ probably from about 1700. Craig considered it possibly the work of Sir William Robinson for John Graham. A large red-brick mansion the design occupied three sides of a square. Situated in an extensive demesne, originally wide avenues of elms radiated from it on all sides, like the spokes of a cart-wheel — a plan fashionable in England; but unfortunately these did not remain perfect. It had a large hall with an open staircase of three flights. Samuel Reeves took a storey off the house in the mid nineteenth century. One wing was closed off and the windows bricked up. The house was demolished in the second half of the twentieth century. The house may have replaced a medieval castle, belonging to the D’Arcy family. The house was originally set out in a formal layout of elm avenues. The church in the grounds was sued as a mausoleum by the successive residents of the Hall. Octagonal pigeon house attached to Platten Hall  

According to ‘The parish of Duleek and over the Ditches’ Plattin was purchased from the Forfeited Estates Court by Alderman John Graham of Drogheda. John Graham was the eldest son of Robert Graham of Ballyheridan, Co. Armagh. The Darcy family had held the property before the Battle of the Boyne. Platten being between Oldbridge and Duleek featured in the battle of the Boyne. Graham erected the three-storey red-brick mansion where he resided until his death in 1717. His second son, William, succeeded as he disinherited his first son, Richard. 

Mrs. Delaney (Pendarves) wrote of the Christmas at Platen in 1732 –  ‘We are to have a ball, and a ball we had; nine couples of as clover dancers as ever tripped. We began at seven, danced thirty-six dances, with only resting once, supped at twelve, everyone by their partner at a long table which was handsomely filled with all manners of cold meats, sweetmeats, creams and jellies. Two or three young ladies sang. At two we started dancing again; most of the ladies determined not to leave Platten till daybreak so we dance don until we were not able to dance any longer. We did not get to bed till past eight.’  A regular visitor to the Grahams Mrs Delaney makes a number of mentions of balls in their home. 

The extravagance of William Graham was a matter of public notoriety. Swift had to write to him as he did not meet the rent of a premises he held from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In 1734 Dean Swift wrote to Mrs. Delaney (Pendarves) that Mr. Graham was ruining himself as fast as possible. One of the bedrooms in the house was called the Duke’s Room after the Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland who visited the house in 1732 when the Boyne Obelisk was unveiled. 

William Graham died in 1748 and was succeeded by his son, John, who was M.P. for Drogheda 1749-1768. John married Dorothy Gorges of Kilbrew. John was High Sheriff of Meath in 1753. When John died in 1777 all his property went to his steward, Graves Chamney. Graves Chamney became heir as Graham said he had succeeded in ‘taking me  out of prison when my wife and relations would not  relieve me.’ He was   obviously in gaol for debt. Graham  resided for the most part in his house North Great Georges Street, Dublin rather than at Plattin. A branch of the Graham family settled at Cromore House, Doneraile, Co. Cork. 

In 1800 the property was sold to Robert Reeves of Dublin who bequeathed it to his second son, Samuel Speight Reeves. From Samuel the property passed to John Joseph Gradwell, High Sheriff of Drogheda in 1855. The Gradwells from Preston had already purchased Dowth Hall.  Mr. Gradwell died in 1873 and was succeeded by his son, George Fitzgerald Gradwell. The Gradwells were involved in the milling trade in Drogheda. In 1876 Ellen Gradwell of Platten Hall held 615 acres in county Meath. He had three sons and was succeeded by the third son, Francis William Edward Gradwell in 1933 and he was living in the house in 1941. The house passed through the hands of T.J. O’Neill and D’Arcy Slone. The house became derelict and was demolished.