Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB09/05/019

Address :
Tullylagan House 40 Tullylagan Road Cookstown BT80 8UP

Townland:
Tullylagan

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
08/06/1987 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Country House

Former Use
Country House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
141-03

IG Ref:
H7986 7224

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A two-storey three-bay early 19th century house with a single storey wing, both on an exposed basement, the main house designed in a classical style. It stands in a rural area set back from the public road within its own extensive grounds, but visible from the road. The main entrance is in a porch which faces south. The south elevation is symmetrical with a projecting central entrance bay. Roofs are of hipped form, of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with a wide overhang on shaped modillion brackets with unusual flared circular projections on the end. There is a lateral chimney stack the full width of the main ridge carrying twelve battered square rendered pots. Rainwater goods comprise moulded guttering and circular downpipes. Walling is of coursed ashlar sandstone, with two-storey plain pilasters to the extremities of the main floors of the main block above a plain projecting platband. Windows in the main wall are rectangular timber verticlly hung sliding sash, with horns, 6 over 6, to the main floors of the main block, and 3 over 6 to the basement storey, which includes a window behind the later stone steps to the front door. The projecting central entrance bay has coupled Doric pilasters to the extremities on each of the two main floors surmounted by Doric entablature and frieze, each with a central window sashed as previous to the main wall but set in shouldered moulded surrounds of battered Greek Revival type, the first floor one being surmounted by a plain frieze and moulded cornice. Each side wall of the projecting entrance bay contains a window at first floor level, sashed as previous and set in a moulded rectangular surround, flanked by coupled Doric pilasters, and a doorway at ground floor level containing an original rectangular twelve-panelled rectangular surround and also flanked by coupled pilasters. The doorway on the west side is the main entrance to the house, and is approached by a later exterior dog-leg stairway of snecked rock-faced sandstone containing a full-depth segmental arched opening on the south face, surmounted by a blank stone shield. On the east side of the porch the ground floor doorway remains in elevated isolation now that the original ground level has been lowered. The west elevation of the main block is of similar materials to the south, with similar pilasters to the extremities. There is one window to the first floor as previous, with a door and fanlight in place of the ground floor window below it, leading onto a large modern balcony along the front of the wing, carried on four circular cast iron piers. The balcony is bounded by a modern balustraded parapet and is timber sheeted to the exposed underside. In the basement storey below the balcony is a rectangular timber door. Originally there were two windows in the first floor of the main block but the one to the left hand side has been blocked up so neatly as to leave no apparent trace of it. The wing projecting forward from the west elevation is of two storeys of similar materials but plainer character to the main block. Walling of the south front is as previous, but is of snecked masonry to the west and north sides. It contains sashed windows in all three elevations, of similar detailing to previous. The basement storey on the south side also contains a small bulls-eye window at low level, and a neatly blocked up rectangular doorway. The north side also contains one doorway with a rectangular timber panelled door; alongside it is an old iron cow-tail pump fixed to the wall. The north elevation of the main block is of three storeys as previous, of similar materials and character to the south front, including giant pilasters to the extremities and modillion brackets. It is four windows wide to all floors, sashed as previous to the south front. The east elevation is of similar character and detailing to the north, but is only two windows wide to each storey, with a doorway to the right hand side in the basement instead of a window. It is small paned with a small paned fanlight. SETTING: The house is approached by a long driveway from the west, without any formal gateway there, and also by a drive which it shares with a hotel built in its grounds, next to the original outbuildings which has a new formal main entrance gateway comprising ironwork gates set in sandstone piers flanked by curved screen walls. At an intermediate point on the hotel driveway there is another set of smaller original stone piers without gates but incorporating a pedestrian side gate. There is also a small gateway of original chamfered piers and ironwork gates isolated in the grounds next to the western driveway. The grounds in general are laid out as parkland with mature trees, with rolling lawns near the house. Within the lawns are a few old garden features including steps and retaining walls with ball finials. Immediately around the house are gravelled paths extending to a sizeable parking area in front of the main entrance. Adjacent to the rear of the house is a single-storey outbuilding currently under construction. Now incorporated within the estate but presumably originally outside it is the old twin-arched Tullylagan Bridge of masonry construction but much repaired with concrete, which no longer carries the public road which has been moved to a modern bridge further to the south. The outbuildings to the north have been largely replaced or absorbed by the modern hotel.

Architects

Jackson, Thomas

Historical Information

Built in 1828 for Thomas Greer to the designs of Thomas Jackson, architect of Belfast. Originally called New Hamburg or Hamborough. In 1904 Thomas MacGregor Greer commissioned Alfred Henry Hart and Percy Leslie Waterhouse to design a new house at Tullylagan. Plans, which were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1905 (No. 1516), were in a neo-Tudor Cotswold English style. In the end the house was never built and instead the exisitng house was enlarged by digging the ground level immediately around the building, transforming the basement level into the ground floor. This required a flight of exterior steps to be built to provide access to the front entrance. The work was carried out under the direction of Thomas MacGregor Greer who had taken over the estate in 1898; he died in 1941. During his years at Tullylagan the estate lands were used in the 1930s for trials of tractors developed by Harry Ferguson, a mechanic who pioneered and invented this form of vehicle. References - Primary Sources 1. OS Map of 1833-4. 2. Eight folios of the proposed new house by Hart and Waterhouse. PRONI.D 2339/8/29. 3. Building News 88, 30th June (1905). Secondary Sources 1. S. Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), Vol 1, p 455. 2. UAHS, Dungannon and Cookstown (Belfast, 1971), p 45. 3. H. Dixon, 'Honouring Thomas Jackson, 1807-1890 (Architect)', in Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society Proceedings and Reports, Vol 9 (Belfast, 1978), pp 23-31. 4. M. Bence-Jones, Burke's Guide to Country Houses, Vol 1: Ireland (London, 1978), p 227. 5. A.J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North-West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979), p 484.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

Z. Rarity W. Northern Ireland/International Interest V. Authorship

Evaluation

This is an early 19th century country house in a classical style designed by an important Irish architect, Thomas Jackson. Aside from the unusual circumstances of its basement storey having been exposed in a way that was never intended by the architect, which has altered the overall appearance of the building and its overall proportions, the various parts of the design are in themselves well proportioned. The building displays a number of characteristic details outside, such as the giant pilasters, coupled pilasters, sloping-jamb surrounds, modillion brackets, and a bank of chimneys, while the interiors are replete with ornamental features, such as elaborate plasterwork, appropriate to the style. The building enjoys a pleasant parkland setting and whilst of considerable local significance as one of the 'big' houses of the area, has a much wider interest as a substantial work by a leading Irish architect of the time.

General Comments

Date of Survey

08 February 2008