Loughry House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This is an attached two-storey former house, built c 1754. It is now in use as the administrative wing of an agricultural and food technology college. It is roughly square in plan with a double-pitched roof. There is a projecting flat-roofed single-storey entrance porch to the front elevation. There are several returns and extensions built at various intervals surrounding the house. To the north of the main house is a long rectangular hipped roof ‘Arts and Craft’ style extension, built c. 1908; this is in use as a library. To the rear West are several two-storey returns, built c. 1754, and further extended in the form of a two-storey long rectangular extension to the North, c. 1850’s; this was a dormitory wing but is now vacant. To the South of the main house is a large two-storey flat-roofed extension, built c. 1960’s; this is currently a dormatory wing. There are several mill outbuildings to the rear West, built c. 1857, (HB09/05/020D) and Swift's house (HB09/05/020C).
The house is set within its own grounds accessed via a road to the North. There are extensive playing fields to the East with Killymoon River forming the boundary to the South.

The front East elevation overlooks an extensive tarmac area and onto the playing fields. It is five bays in width with a single-storey projecting entrance porch to the central bay. Two rounded fluted Tuscan columns to the outside support this, and two fluted rectangular pilasters to the inside. The columns support an entablature, having a decorative frieze, and a projecting carved cornice. There is a square-headed door has a carved stone shouldered surround. The door is timber paneled with an overlight.
Ground floor windows are square-headed with decorative painted carved stone surrounds set on cut-stone sills. Windows to the upper level have similar carved stone surrounds, however with a scalloped feature to the top. There is a continuous dentilled stringcourse to window sill level. All windows have 1/1 timber sliding sash frames.

The side South elevation is gable-ended. The 1960’s extension now abuts the building to the left at this location, which obscures the view of the double-gable. The visible gable end to the right has no openings to the ground floor. Windows to the upper level are as previous; however they have been blocked up. The side of the chimney is located to the centre of gable at the ridge. The rendered verge has a decorative scallop pattern.

The side North elevation is partially obscured by additions and returns. The double-pitched roof is visible at this location. Both gable-ends have chimneys and verges as before.

The roof is pitched and slated with pierced clay ridge tiles. There are four identical brick chimneys with a projecting carved cornice. Rainwater goods are cast-iron, including hoppers. There are decorative carved wrought-iron double brackets to the gutters.

External walls are painted render with quoin stones to edges. There is a continuous dentilled stringcourse to first floor sill level.

1906’s ‘Arts and Crafts’ style return:
The front elevation of the library is Arts and Crafts in style; it is 13 bays in width.
Ground floor windows are segmental-headed with 6/6 timber sliding sash frames. Windows are set on cut-stone sills. The upper level windows are square-headed with frames as previous. The second bay from the left is projecting. The shallow projecting bays are stone faced with wall-hung tiles to central recess. The façade rests on a stone plinth.
The ground floor of the 7th bay has a semi-circular window with a decorative replacement brick surround. There is a three-storey rendered tower to the end bay with regular stone to the ground floor.

The rear elevation has a brick single-storey flat-roofed extension to the ground floor. There are timber casement windows to the ground floor. There are square-headed 6/6 timber sash frames to the first floor with a projecting parapet to the North end.

The roof is hipped and slated with three chimneys visible to the front elevation.

External walls are rendered. There is a large external concrete escape stair to the North.

19th century extension block(s):
The rear 19th century block has an assortment of styles. The East elevation of the block adjacent to the main house has an assortment of square-headed and pointed arched windows. There is a two-storey brick stair core to the inner corner of the main house and the extension. One of the square-headed windows to the left of the ground floor has a carved stone lintel over. The lintel is long and rectangular in shape with a half-hexagon shape over. It has carved reliefs and depicts the date ‘1680’; however, it is believed to be relocated from elsewhere.
The same elevation of the block to the far North has an assortment of pointed arched windows. The end bay has a projecting three-storey tower, in similar style to the ‘Arts and Crafts’ style block.

The rear elevation has an irregular and scattered arrangement of returns and extensions. There are various square-headed and pointed arched openings located in random fashion. There are several external staircases extending to the ground floor from the lower external level.

Outbuildings:
The outbuildings are two-storey painted stone. They have a mixture of square-headed, pointed-arched and round-headed openings.

Setting:
There is a long driveway from the road; this continues through the estate past various college buildings. The house is set on a rise overlooking playing fields. In front and slightly below the main entrance there is a tarmac car park.

Historical information

The origins of the Loughry Demesne can be traced to 1611, when land in the area was granted by King James I to his Chief Harbinger, Robert Lindesay, who is believed to have built himself a timber residence on the southern side of the Killymoon River, close to the village of Tullahogue, ‘surrounded by a ditch with a high bank of Clay and a quick-thorn hedge’. Robert died c.1629 and his lands passed to his son, another Robert, who built a new residence on the present site in 1632. This house was destroyed in the 1641 rebellion and the site was abandoned until 1671, when a new dwelling was commenced. This second house was finished in 1674, shortly after Robert’s death, and survived until c.1750 when it too was destroyed by fire, although this time the blaze is thought to have been accidental. Although there appears to be no extant documentary evidence to prove it, the relatively steeply-pitched roof and simple symmetrical lines of the present building suggest that it is that built in c.1754 to replace the 17th century residence.

Although the house is marked (as ‘Loughry – Lindsay Esq.’) on Taylor’s and Skinner’s road map of 1777, the first ‘accurate’ representation of the building would seem to be the OS map of 1833-34. On this, the main two-storey, five openings-wide, gabled block to the south is shown, along with a rear return/ returns and the long wing to the north, an arrangement which is by and large repeated on the revised map of 1857, but with somewhat more extensive rear returns. Unfortunately, little else can be said of this house during this period, for the first valuation book of c.1835 for this part of Derryloran parish, which would almost certainly have contained the dimensions of the building, (along with an estimation of its age), is currently missing, and the ‘house notes’ for the second valuation of 1858 appear to have never been deposited at PRONI. Moreover, there is no description of the house in the 1830s OS Memoirs, (merely a mention of it), or, seemingly, any other available contemporary account of its appearance.

The valuers do tell us, however, that Frederick Lindesay added a ‘saw mill, steward’s house offices and lodge’ to the demesne in 1863, (the saw mill and ‘offices’ undoubtedly equating to the large structure to the immediate west of the dwelling), and that in the house itself was ‘improved’ by his son, Frederick ‘Fritz’ Lindesay, upon his coming into the estate in 1871-72, raising the rateable value from £50 to £65 as a result. Part of the latter improvements probably involved the addition of the section to the north end of the north wing, which is believed to have originally contained ‘a banqueting hall and musicians’ gallery’, as well as the porch (which is not indicated on the earlier maps), and the decorative mouldings around the window openings.

Fritz Lindesay led an extravagant lifestyle, and by the time of his death in 1877, he had amassed debts said to have been in excess of £42,000. His younger brother and successor, Joshua Lindesay, attempted to rectify this by leading a frugal existence. Consequently he appears to have vacated Loughry during the 1880s, living within the much more modest Rock Lodge, to the south of the estate. Joshua died in 1893, leaving the family’s financial problems unresolved, and shortly afterwards the house and estate were sold to Cookstown businessman, John Wilson Fleming. According to Lindesay family historian, Ernest Godfrey, either before or just after the sale, a fire ‘destroyed the top storey of the mansion’. The extent of the damage caused by the fire, and the amount of rebuilding –if any- is uncertain. All the valuers comment on during these years is the addition of some ‘new offices’ (i.e. outbuildings) in 1902. The house is shown on the OS map of c.1905, much as 1857, but with the short section at a right angle to the north end of the long north wing, and to the rear the large L-shaped mill / outbuildings.

In 1908, John Wilson Fleming sold the house and its demesne to the Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, who, in January 1908 opened the Ulster Dairy School on the site. Shortly afterwards, the school built a new front wing and, within the original building, converted the library to an office, the dining room to a sewing room, the small drawing room to a superintendent’s room, the large drawing room to a school room, the ‘blue’ bedroom to a staff sitting room, another bedroom to a small dormitory, the ‘yellow’ room to a superintendent’s room, ‘Bachelor’s Walk’ [the long north wing?] to a teachers’ wing, and the banqueting hall and musicians’ gallery to another dormitory.

In 1922, following Partition, the school was handed over to the Northern Ireland Ministry of Agriculture. In 1949 it became Loughry Agricultural College. Originally catering for solely female students, (with the aim of training farmer’s wives of the future and enabling students to work on farms or in the poultry and dairy industries), the college admitted male students for the first time in 1962. By the 1970s the main emphasis of the college shifted from dairying to food courses. This expansion both in terms of student numbers and scope lead to the building of new structures on the site from the 1960s onwards, most notably the large modern style complex to the south end of the original house

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Taylor’s and Skinner’s maps of the roads of Ireland’ (Dublin, 1777)
2 ‘OS Memoirs of Ireland vol.20...’, eds. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams, (QUB, 1993), p.34
3 PRONI VAL/1B/622A-B First valuation, Derryloran parish, 1834-c.1838 [The second volume of this set is currently (January 2008) missing.]
4 PRONI VAL/1A/6/38 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 38, with valuation
references, 1834-c.1838
5 Lewis, Samuel, ‘A topographical dictionary of Ireland…’ vol.1, (London, 1837)
6 ‘Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland’, (Manchester, 1846)
7 ‘Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland’, (Manchester, 1856)
8 PRONI VAL/2A/6/38 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 38, with valuation references, 1857-58
9 PRONI VAL/2B/6/6/22B Second valuation, Derryloran parish, 1858
10 PRONI VAL/12B/37/21A Annual valuation revision book, Tullaghoge ED, 1860-63
11 PRONI VAL/12B/37/21B Annual valuation revision book, Tullaghoge ED, 1864-80
12 ‘Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland’, (Manchester, 1870)
13 ‘Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland’, (Manchester, 1880)
14 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5C Annual valuation revision book, Tullaghoge ED, 1881
15 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5D Annual valuation revision book, Tullaghoge ED, 1881-94
16 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5E Annual valuation revision book, Tullaghoge ED, 1895-1912
17 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster directory’ 1902- (Belfast News-Letter, 1902- )
18 PRONI OS/6/6/38/3 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 38, c.1905
19 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5F Annual valuation revision book, Tullaghoge ED, 1913-29
20 PRONI VAL/3B/7/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Tullaghoge ED 1935
21 PRONI VAL/3C/7/7 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Tullaghoge ED, 1936-57
22 PRONI VAL/4B/6/9 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Tullaghoge ED, 1956-72
23 PRONI VAL/14A/126 Third general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Sandholes ED, 1975
24 PRONI VAL/14B/174 Third general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Sandholes ED, 1976-87
25 PRONI VAL/14C/156 Third general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Sandholes ED, 1987-93

Secondary sources
1 Burke, Sir Bernard, ‘A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Ireland’ (London, 1912), pp.406-07
2 Godfrey, Ernest, ‘The Lindesays of Loughry, Co. Tyrone- a genealogical history’ (London, 1949)
3 Rowan, A.J., ‘The buildings of Ireland – North west Ulster’, (London, 1979), p.229
4 Dean, J.A.K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster – A gazetteer (Belfast, 1994), p.145
5 ‘Loughry through the ages’ (DANI, ?2000)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is an interesting arrangement of historic buildings built in various periods, providing an insight to the progression of various architectural styles from 1750 to 1960, although the main Loughry House is somewhat devalued by the surrounding mixture of styles.

The house is simple is style and well proportionedwith restrained classical decoration adding much to the composition.

Although some altered from its original character, the present setting compliments the building with a pleasing open aspect.

Although no documentation appears to exist, the presumed association with Swift adds much interest the to building.

This shares a group value with Swift's House HB09/05/020C.