Overview
Milford House gave the world football’s penalty kick, the first Irish home lit by hydroelectricity, and – in the words of BBC Newsline – a family archive of “mass kidnappings, inventions which revolutionised the worlds of business and sport, letters to and from Stalin.” All of it comes from the McCrums, the linen dynasty who built the model village of Milford a mile southwest of Armagh city.
One thing to be clear about before you go: the Milford House you actually tour is not the great mansion. That house – the one with the hydroelectricity – stands derelict in the village, listed among the twelve most at-risk buildings in Northern Ireland. What you visit is a Victorian townhouse at 3 Victoria Street in Armagh city, where the Milford Buildings Preservation Trust keeps the family’s collection and tells the story. The penalty-kick pitch and the model village are back out in Milford.
The McCrum story and the original house
Robert Garmany McCrum, who ran McCrum, Watson & Mercer – for a time Ireland’s largest linen manufacturer – built the original Milford House in the village between 1865 and 1904, and kitted it out well ahead of its time. It was the first residence in Ireland lit by hydroelectricity, and it had the first telephone system in County Armagh, along with central heating and mains water pumping decades before ordinary homes saw any of it.
The fortune didn’t hold. The Wall Street crash and the collapse of the linen trade led to a week-long auction in 1930 that emptied the house of its contents – the Trust now runs an “items lost at the 1930 auction” strand to trace where they went. The building later became the Manor House School (1936–1965) and then a hospital (1966–1988) before falling empty. It’s the atmospheric townhouse at 3 Victoria Street, still the McCrum-Miller family home, that now carries the story, its rooms filled with Victorian furniture, portraits and period gadgetry.
The penalty kick and William McCrum Park
The McCrum name travels furthest through one rule. William McCrum (1865–1932) grew up in the model village and kept goal for Milford FC, and after a season of watching defenders hack down attackers with impunity he proposed, in 1890, a direct shot to punish serious fouls near the goal. The English press mocked it as the “Irishman’s motion” and the “death penalty”, but on 2 June 1891 the International Football Association Board adopted the penalty kick in Glasgow.
The pitch where he thought it up is believed to lie within William McCrum Park, opened in 2010 by former Northern Ireland striker Gerry Armstrong, with panels tracing the rule from an Armagh field to the laws of the game. The McCrum family grave in nearby St Mark’s churchyard was restored in 2015 with FIFA funding. The park is free and open year-round – for a football fan it’s the real pilgrimage here, and it costs nothing.
Tours and afternoon tea
A guided house tour runs about an hour and covers the family’s rise and fall, the building’s Victorian gadgetry and the ongoing rescue work; costumed and group tours are available, and a “Lesser Spotted Milford House” group tour (£6 per person, catering extra) links three sites in one visit.
The signature experience, though, is the silver-service afternoon tea at £25 a head, which includes the tour. It’s served in the Dining Room on period silver and china by staff in Victorian dress – sandwiches, smoked salmon, scones and cakes, with a run-through of Victorian tea etiquette. If you’re coming to be shown around rather than to chase football history, this is the one to book.
Out in the village you can walk the original terraced workers’ streets and step behind them into the Milford Cutting Nature Reserve, a former Great Northern Railway cutting now looked after by Ulster Wildlife, with 18 species of butterfly and rare orchids on the grassy banks in early summer.
Practical information
- Opening: Weekends and public holidays, April to September, 2pm–6pm, with the last tour at 5pm; other times by prior arrangement. It’s a small, trust-run house, so ring or email ahead rather than just turning up, and book if you want the afternoon tea.
- Admission: Adults £8, concession £6, family £20, groups £6 (catering extra). Afternoon tea, including the tour, is £25 per person. Art Fund pass holders go free. William McCrum Park and the village walks are free.
- Getting there: 3 Victoria Street, Armagh, BT61 9DS, a short walk from the Mall. On-site parking is limited; there’s more in the city centre and near the old Armagh Gaol. Coaches can’t park on site but can drop off at the door.
- Accessibility: The ground floor is accessible – one low step at the door and uneven flagstones underfoot – with a ground-floor toilet. Upper floors are reached by stairs only; photo albums stand in for anyone who can’t manage them. Assistance dogs welcome.
- Contact: 028 375 25467 / 07854 784256, milfordhouse57@gmail.com.
Nearby
A visit pairs well with other County Armagh heritage. Ardress House, a National Trust farmhouse with a cobbled farmyard and walled garden, is a short drive north, and in the city itself the Armagh Observatory & Planetarium and Armagh County Museum fill an afternoon.
Book at least a couple of days ahead, especially for the afternoon tea. And if the penalty kick is what brought you, leave time to walk out to William McCrum Park in the village – the tour is in the city, but the pitch is where the story actually happened.