Loy House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This is an attached two-storey former dower house to Killymoon house, built c. 1830, possibly to the designs of John Nash. The house was originally built together with (HB09/13/002B) as one property, it is now divided into two.
HB09/13/002A is located to the North and HB09/13/002B is located to the South.

The house is roughly square in plan with a projecting regency bowed bay to the front. There is a hipped two-storey return to the rear with a further hipped two-storey extension abutting the return. A single-storey uPVC glazed lean-to extension is located to the rear of the extension, built c. 1970. The house is set back from Chapel Street within the Northern suburbs of Cookstown.

The front West elevation faces onto the road. The projecting bowed bay is to the right. There is a doorway and windows to the left. There is a wall to the left access drive with a coach arch.
The projecting bowed Regency bay has square-headed 6/6 timber sash frames, set on cut-stone sills. Both the frame and sill are bowed.
The main doorway is early 19th century Regency style and is set into an elliptical-headed recess. Rounded fluted pilasters with Tuscan capitals are located to each side of the door and set on cut-stone plinth blocks. The pilasters support a projecting moulded cornice. The cornice is surmounted by a radial fanlight set within the elliptical-headed recess.
Windows are square-headed 6/6 timber sash frames, set on cut-stone sills.
The upper levels have windows as previous. Classical proportions reduce to upper levels.

The rear East elevation has a timber and glazed double doorway to the ground level, with an overlight. It has an assortment of 6/6 timber sash windows and timber casement windows. There are painted cut-stone sills to windows.

The main roof is hipped with natural slate. The roof to the projecting bowed bay is also hipped and slated. There is a rendered chimney to the North of the main roof and a brick chimney to centre of roof. The rear elevation has a chimney with clay pots. There are replacement uPVC rainwater goods.
External walls are rendered, however a large amount of climbing foliage covers the front elevation.

Returns:
The hipped two-storey return to the rear has a 6/6 timber sash window to the ground floor and a timber casement window to the first floor.
The hipped two-storey extension abutting the return also has an assortment of 6/6 timber sash windows and timber casement windows. There are painted cut-stone sills to windows.
The single-storey glazed lean-to extension has continuous timber glazing to the perimeter set on a low-rise rendered stall riser. There is a high boundary wall behind the lean-to. There is a landscaped garden to the rear of the yard.

Setting:
The house is set back from Chapel Street behind a boundary wall. There is a small garden to the front with a gated path leading to the entrance door. The boundary wall has simple cut-stone square pillars and pyramidal stone caps. The house has an access drive to the North leading to the rear yard to the South via the coach arch. The rear yard is concreted, and is bound by a high wall with climbing foliage.
The house is set to the Northern side of the town centre at the beginning of the mainly Victorian suburban Molesworth Road.

Historical information

This house and its neighbour to the south (no.82, HB09/13/002B) form what was originally a single dwelling, which is shown on 1st edition OS map of 1833-34. Known as ‘Loy House’, this property was one of the grandest (if not the grandest) property within Cookstown’s main street. According to the 1971 UAHS list of historic buildings in Cookstown, it was built to serve as the Stewart (of Killymoon) dower house, and was designed by John Nash; however no documentary evidence is produced to support either of these statements. The dower house idea appears plausible, particularly so given the size of the building and the fact that no Stewart dower house has come to light. The idea of Nash authorship, despite his having designed Killymoon Castle, (in 1803), and near by Derryloran parish church, (in 1822, but subsequently rebuilt), appears less certain; however the distinctly regency bowed bay –which probably originally housed the entrance- does suggest that the structure may at least be contemporary with Killymoon.

Pigot’s Directory of 1824 lists the occupant as Rev. Hugh Hamilton, so the property does not appear to have been acting as a dower house at that date. By November 1834, when the first valuation was carried out, a William Achmuty [?Auchtermuchty] was in residence. The valuers record the house as a relatively new building, which was constructed, to their knowledge or in their judgement, within the preceding thirty years or so; the dimensions for the main portion of the dwelling are given as 76ft x 39 x 19½, the ‘porch circular’ 10 x 8 x 19½, with a ‘return’ 13 x 6½ x 16, ‘offices’ of 110 x 20 x 16½, 18 x 17 x 5, 40 x 17 x 10½, 18 x 17 x 6, 45 x 18½ x 8½, a ‘gate house’ of 21 x 18½ x 8½, and ‘cellar offices’ of 11 x 39 x 8. The valuers tell us that the ‘house and field [were] under lease’, and the rateable value is noted as £46-8-6. The c.1838 modification to the valuation lists the rateable value as £30.

A William Fountain [?after whom near by Fountain Road is named] was living in Loy House when the first Slater’s Directory was compiled in 1846. Sometime between this date and the second valuation of 1859 the building was divided into two properties. This is likely to have occurred in or shortly after 1851, when the Stewart family’s Cookstown estate was sold. In 1859, this, the northern property, is recorded as the home of an Adam Fulton, Andrew Mulholland (the mill-0wner of Ballywalter Park Co. Down, who bought part of the Stewart estate in aforementioned 1851 sale), the lessor, and the rateable value, £28. Fulton remained there until 1874, when a John M. Weir took over the lease. In 1877 the return to the south end was enlarged raising the rateable value to £32. A William MacMillan is listed as the occupant in 1883, Sarah Bole in 1887, and, the following year the Sisters of Mercy (Cookstown). The Sisters were succeeded by a John McKenzie (who previously lived at no.84 HB09/13/001A) in 1894, with a Jane McKenzie following him in 1906, and acquiring the freehold sometime between c.1929 and c.1935, and remaining there until 1960. The next occupant was a Gerald Conway, who bought the property in 1964, and who was still in residence in 1972.

The current resident states that he believes the property was used as a school house at some point in the early 20th century. Interestingly, John McKenzie (who was resident between 1894 and 1906), may have been a schoolmaster, as a man of the same name is recorded as running a school in Fairhill Road between 1884 and 1909.

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Pigot & Co's Provincial Directory of Ireland’, (Manchester, 1824)
2 PRONI OS/9/10/1 OS plan of Cookstown, 1833
3 PRONI VAL/1B/622A First valuation, Derryloran parish, 1834-c.1838
4 PRONI VAL/1D/6/2 Valuation plan of Cookstown, c.1838
5 Lewis, Samuel, ‘A topographical dictionary of Ireland…’ vol.1, (London, 1837)
6 ‘Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland’, (Manchester, 1846)
7 PRONI VAL/2C/63 Second valuation, Union of Cookstown (Dublin, 1859) [This is the printed version of the second valuation. The handwritten version (which may have been more detailed and include property dimensions etc.) no longer exists. The printed volume merely provides names of tenants and leaseholders, and rateable values.]
8 PRONI VAL/2D/6/3/1-2 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1859-82 [2 sheets]
9 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5A Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1860-63
10 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5B Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1864-68
11 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5C Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1868-81
12 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5D Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1881
13 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5E Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1881
14 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5F Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1882-90
15 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5G Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1882-88
16 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5J Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1889-94 [The reference number for this book is out of sequence in the
PRONI catalogue- the dates it covers are actually earlier than VAL/12B/37/5H.]
17 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5H Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1895-99
18 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5K Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1889-99
19 PRONI VAL/12E/171/1/1-2 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1892-97 [2 sheets]
20 PRONI OS/33/1/1-5 OS plan of Cookstown, 1895 [5 sheets]
21 PRONI OS/9/10/2/1-2 OS plan of Cookstown, index map, 1895 [2 sheets]
22 PRONI OS/9/10/3/1-5 OS plan of Cookstown, 1895 [5 sheets]
23 PRONI VAL/12A/6/11 Valuers’ office notebook, Cookstown Union, 1895-1900
24 PRONI VAL/12E/171/2/1-3 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1897-1910 [3 sheets]
25 PRONI VAL/12B/37/7A Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1901-07
26 PRONI VAL/12A/6/16 Valuers’ office notebook, Cookstown UD, 1901-10
27 PRONI VAL/12B/37/7B Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1909-15
28 PRONI OS/33/2/1-4 OS plan, 1909 & 1918 [4 sheets]
29 PRONI VAL/12B/37/7C Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1916-29
30 PRONI VAL/3G/142/1 /1-4 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1936-37 [4 sheets]
31 PRONI VAL/3C/7/8 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Cookstown Urban, 1936-57
32 PRONI VAL/3G/142/2/1-4 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1937-51
33 PRONI VAL/4B/6/10 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Cookstown Urban vol.1, 1956-72
34 PRONI VAL/4B/6/11 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Cookstown Urban vol.2E, 1956-72

Secondary sources
1 Oram, R.W. and Rankin, P.J., Historic buildings…Dungannon & Cookstown (Belfast, UAHS, 1971)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This late-Georgian town house was constructed as a single dwelling together with the adjacent HB09/13/002A building, with which it shares group value. When viewed together with the adjacent house they create the intended balanced symmetrical appearance of a single entity. This house is enriched with a fine classical doorcase, and the bowed Regency bay is typical of the more elaborate houses of this era.

The house has an important historical connection to the Stewart family of Killymoon and may be a quite rare an example of an early nineteenth century dower house.