Florence Court

For the adjacent village, see Florencecourt.

Florence Court

Florence Court is a large 18th-century house and estate located 8 miles south-west of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is set in the foothills of Cuilcagh Mountain. The nearby village is distinguished by the one-word name Florencecourt. It is owned and managed by the National Trust and is the sister property of nearby Castle Coole. The other National Trust property in County Fermanagh is the Crom Estate.

History

Florence Wrey (d.1718), daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 4th Baronet (c. 1653-1696) by his wife Florence Rolle. She was the wife of John Cole of Enniskillen, builder of Florence Court, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Her grandmother was one of the earliest English women to bear the name, Florence Rolle (1630-1705), the daughter and heiress of Denys I Rolle (1614-1638), of Stevenstone and Bicton in Devon. Collection of National Trust, Florence Court

The history of the building of Florence Court is subject to conjecture and the current house was built in at least two, if not three, phases. The first house on the site was built by John Cole, Esq. (1680-1726) and named after his wife Florence Bourchier Wrey (d.1718). She was the daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 4th Baronet (c. 1653-1696) of Tawstock, Devon, by his wife Florence Rolle, daughter of Sir John Rolle (1626-1706) of Stevenstone, near Great Torrington, Devon, (Sheriff of Devon in 1682), by his wife Florence Denys (1630-1705), one of the earliest women in England to bear the name Florence, the daughter and heiress of Denys I Rolle (1614-1638), of Stevenstone and Bicton in Devon. An anonymous history of Fermanagh written in 1718 describes John Cole's house as being 'very costly and sumptuous' but in 1739 Rev. William Henry described this building as being 'but small, being only the left wing of a grand building, designed by Mr Cole, which he did not live to execute'.

The architects of the current house are unknown. The central block was built first and various dates from 1730 to 1764 are proffered as its date of construction. It has been attributed to the German architect Richard Castle who worked at nearby Castle Hulme in 1728-9 and Florence Court shares similarities with some of Castle's other Irish houses. An estate map of 1768 shows the central block, standing alone, as having a heavily framed oculus window (in place of the current pair of windows and large, squat niche) on the second floor. This was a recurring device in Castle's work. Were Castle involved, dating the initial phase of building to 1730 may be plausible. On the other hand, Mr Henry's account nine years later does not mention there being a new house, lately built. Rowan suggests the plans could have been drawn up by Castle, but not executed until a much later date, citing the 'old fashioned' plan of the house.

The baroque plasterwork in the library and study at the front of the house appears to date from an earlier period to the rich rococo plasterwork in the dining room, drawing room and stair hall on the western side of the house, and the floorboards in these two rooms differ in width from those elsewhere in the house. It is conjectured that the central block may have been completed in two phases, with the rooms at the back of the house, along with the Venetian room, finished by 1764, when John Cole's son, Lord Mount Florence, held a famous housewarming party.

Florence Court was the seat of the Earls of Enniskillen before the National Trust acquired it in 1953, shortly before a devastating fire destroyed the upper floors of the house. Extensive restoration efforts have since returned Florence Court to much of its former glory, although some rooms on the upper floors remain closed.

Description

The house is best known for its exquisite Rococo decoration and fine Irish furniture. Many original items of furniture, previously sold, have been re-acquired and returned.

The estate includes a walled garden with displays of both temperate and semi-tropical plants, a working water-powered sawmill, an ice house, a natural spring well and the Florencecourt Yew. The Larganess River flows through the estate. Pasture lands and forestry occupy much of the estate. It is a prime source of Irish yew wood.

The fire

The Hall at Florence Court, c. 1890s

Early on the morning of 22 March 1955, a fire broke out on the first floor landing at Florence Court, adjacent to Lady Enniskillen's bedroom. Whilst fire brigades almost had control of the fire by 9am, dry weather conditions helped re-ignite the blaze. Flames reached the roof of the building which crashed down into the hall, so that by the evening around two-thirds of the Florence Court interior lay in ruins.

Lady Enniskillen, born Mary Cicely Nevill of the Marquesses of Abergavenny, discovered the fire, which broke out during one of her husband's rare absences from home. After rushing downstairs to the servant's quarters to raise the alarm, she went to nearby Killymanamly House to telephone the elderly 5th Earl of Enniskillen (1876–1963), who was at the Ulster Club in Belfast, to tell him that the house was on fire. He is said to have cried "What the hell do you think I can do about it?".

Much of the damage to the interior of Florence Court was caused by the gallons of water pumped onto the flames. The Dining Room, with its exquisite plasterwork decoration, was saved only by the prompt action of local builders Bertie Pierce and Ned Vaughan who, on the instructions of Viola Grosvenor, later the Duchess of Westminster, drilled six holes in the flat part of the ceiling to allow the water which had accumulated on the floor above to quickly drain away and thereby preventing ceiling collapse. Two of these holes are still evident in the Dining Room today.

Florence Court estate in early autumn; nestled in the foothills of Cuilcagh Mountain

The fire was only one of a series of events in the 1950s and 60s at Florence Court which marked the end of an era for the house and family. Following World War II falling agricultural prices, rising wage costs, death duties and a drastic reduction of the size of the demesne, the lifestyle of the 5th Earl of Enniskillen and his second wife Mary (née Nevill), was increasingly difficult to sustain. To secure the long term future of the house, Lord Enniskillen gave Florence Court to the National Trust in 1953. It was opened to the public the following year.

In 1956, the 5th Lord Enniskillen's only son and heir Michael, Viscount Cole, died suddenly aged 36; he was unmarried. In 1961, as the restoration of the house was nearing completion, Hurricane Debbie devastated the estate. In 1963, the 5th Lord Enniskillen and his wife, Lady Enniskillen, died within three months of each other.

The 5th Earl, upon his death, was succeeded by his nephew, Captain David Lowry Cole, M.B.E. (1918–1989), in 1963, who became The Rt. Hon. The 6th Earl of Enniskillen. David Enniskillen (as he was popularly known) had spent much of his life in the Colony of Kenya, having been elected a member of the Legislative Council of Kenya in the early 1960s, just before independence. In 1955, he was divorced from his first wife Sonia (née Syers), stepdaughter of his uncle the 5th Earl (who died in 1963 with his wife, Sonia's mother). By her, he had issue: one son and one daughter.

David Enniskillen and his second wife, Nancy, Countess of Enniskillen (née Nancy MacLennan; formerly a diplomat with the United States Foreign Service), moved back to Florence Court, living there from 1964 until 1973. In that year, in the early years of The Troubles, the Earl and Countess of Enniskillen left Florence Court, moving over to Kinloch House in Kinloch, Perthshire, in Britain. David Enniskillen thus became the last Earl of Enniskillen to actually live in Florence Court. He was succeeded by his only son Andrew, who became The 7th Earl of Enniskillen in 1989. Andrew Enniskillen continues to live on a vast estate in Kenya.

Blandings

During the spring of 2012, the BBC filmed parts of Blandings, a television comedy, at Florence Court. Most of the series, however, was filmed at Crom Castle. The series was first broadcast on BBC 1 during January and February 2013.

References

1. 50 Years Since the Fire – An Exhibition to Celebrate the Reconstruction of Florence Court, The Print Factory: Enniskillen (not in print)

Further reading

• Rowan, Alistair, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (better known as the Pevsner Guide to North West Ulster). Penguin, London, 1979. ISBN (for the 2003 Yale edition) 9780-3000-96675.
• James, Kenneth W., Damned Nonsense! – The geological career of the third Earl of Enniskillen. Ulster Museum, Stranmillis, Belfast, 1986. ISBN 09007-61180.
• Tinniswood, Adrian, County Fermanagh. The National Trust, Heelis, Swindon, 1998 (revised 2006). ISBN 9781-8435-92365.
• Purcell, Mark, The Big House Library in Ireland: Books in Ulster Country Houses. The National Trust, Heelis, Swindon, 2011. ISBN 9780-7078-04163.

External links

• Florence Court at the National Trust
• Virtual Tour of Florence Court Northern Ireland – Virtual Visit Northern Ireland
• Fire exhibition at Florence Court