Context 153 - March 2018

22 C O N T E X T 1 5 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 8 Beyond the vernacular, and the castles and churches (the latter mostly quite modest), the development of style came late to the Isle of Man, with the Georgian period being the first to offer much of substance. Until the fourth Duke of Atholl built the Castle Mona, completed in 1803/4, there was no grand house to offer precedent or example. Similarly, later economic stagnation meant that the post-Victorian periods are often under-represented. The late-19th and early-20th-century promise offered by a phase of Edwardian architectural competitions that drew in architects from across the water, and the brief flourish from Mackey Hugh Baillie Scott and Armitage Rigby petered out somewhat. It was not really until the 1990s that buildings of better quality once again started to appear. The Isle of Man is remarkably rich in Victorian and later stained glass, with some particularly fine twentieth- century examples. Apart from limited archaeological survivals, such as at Rushen Abbey, and the simple forms of churches, the earliest substantial buildings are the ruins of old St German’s Cathedral and other structures within the curtain wall of Peel Castle, which has deteriorated rapidly since Bishop Wilson robbed the church roof of slate; and the lower elements of Castle Rushen in Castletown. Rushen is well-maintained, following somewhat imaginative early-20th-century reconstruction by Armitage Rigby. St German’s has the remains of some distinctive chevron banding – a common Norman detail, tentatively dated as 13th century. There are intimations of the baroque in Bishop Wilson’s rustic recast west front at the Old St Mary de Ballaugh church,which date from 1717.The dual external stair over the porch that gave access to a musicians’ west gallery has long gone, but the surviving later steps at Old St Runius, Marown, give an idea of what they may have Castle Mona, the main front in Arran stone with Coadestone medallions, recessed clustered columns and crenellations The west front of St Mary de Ballaugh, as reworked by BishopWilson.The bellcotes are typical of the more rustic Manx churches. doorway. This coincided with the Georgian obsession with symmetry, evident in the many pattern books that were published in this period, especially by the likes of the Scot, John Claudius Loudon (1834), and with the interest in agricultural improvement that was brought to the island by incoming landowners, especially those from Scotland and by Anglo-Manxmen such as the MP John Christian Curwen.These men educated the Manx in improved land and animal husbandry, and instigated an improvement in farm building. In rare instances, the form of a Georgian Scottish steading was used.