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Tyrella House + Tyrella Beach Down

All the Demands of the Temple of The Sun at Baalbec

It’s late 2015 and first glimpse (through a verdurous vista) from the sweeping avenue past the hilltop sham fort (every entrance should have one) is of a squarish main block five bays side on, four bays full frontal. Surprisingly Tyrella House isn’t covered by Mark Bence-Jones in his 1978 Guide to Irish Country Houses. The house’s character changes when viewed from the garden: the main block is elongated by a long lower wing (moonlit later). This arrangement has adapted well to 21st century use: guest accommodation fills the main block while the owner David Corbett lives at the end of the wing. Five years later, his son John and daughter-in-law Hannah would take over the house. The large glasshouse attached to the wing would become a wedding reception venue.

Princess Diana famously quipped “three’s a crowd” but not when it comes to the architectural taste of 18th century Ulster squires. Tripartite windows were all the rage. Their legacy is a series of glazed triptychs framing views of the countryside. And draughts – ménage à froid. The entrance front of Tyrella has a pearly twinset of tripartite windows. Clady House in Dunadry, County Antrim, has five. Glenganagh House in Ballyholme, County Down, six. Drumnabreeze House and Grace Hall both in Magheralin, County Armagh, eight. Craigmore House in Aghagallon, County Antrim, 10. Crevenagh House in Omagh, County Tyrone, innumerable.

Tyrella’s fenestration is really special, stretching head to toe, and like Montalto outside Ballynahinch in County Down, skirts the driveway. Its regal dining room resembles “Hardwick Hall more windows than wall”. Soon, majestic silverware will sparkle in the candlelight. The princely drawing room is like being immersed in Elizabeth Bowen’s 1942 description of her home: “The few large living rooms at Bowen’s Court are, this, a curious paradox – a great part of their walls being window glass, they are charged with the light, smell and colour of the prevailing weather; at the same time they are very indoors, urbane, hypnotic, not easily left.”

Later, at the close of the day, lying in the queen size bed as the pale transitory colours of the hour fade, dreams past and future are present. Outside, through the curved glass of the oriel window, across silent lawns, the tamed headland lies submerged in shadow while the ridge of the Mourne Mountains melts into silver drifts of cloud backlit by gold, lilac, mauve and pink lining.

The designer of the house isn’t known but whoever he was, the outcome is a meeting of mind and métier, the result mellowed and augmented through the ages. Conservation architect John O’Connell remarks, “This is a very accomplished Georgian box as they used to say.” Architectural historian Nicholas Sheaff reckons “it is an incredibly elegant county house and in some ways reminds me of James Gandon’s Abbeville outside Dublin”. Art collector and tastemaker Charles Plante compliments, “I love the front dripping with ivy and the chic Regency bow window.”

Three arched openings – a window on either side of the entranceway plus the door itself – are set behind a slim Doric hexastyle portico which celebrates the triglyph’s verticality, the architrave’s horizontality and the order’s proportional totality. “It’s Tuscan Doric,” explains architectural historian and Country Life contributor Dr Roderick O’Donnell. “Tuscan is rural, countrified, perfectly correct for this type of house. The window proportions are dictated by the portico. That’s particularly attractive.”

A stained glass window of the Craig family crest in the study is a leftover from previous owners. Notable family members included the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Sir James “Not an Inch” Craig (1st Viscount Craigavon), and his architect and yacht designer brother Vincent who combined both his skills when designing the Royal Ulster Yacht Club in Ballyholme. Janric Craig, 3rd and last Viscount Craigavon, lives in London and sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.

Vincent inserted his signature window type into Tyrella. No fewer than four oeils de boeuf grace the garden front. Charles observes, “The garden elevation is charming; the bull’s eye window in the gable is really special.” Most extraordinary of all is the first floor stained glass pane (set in a six pane casement window) which projects at an acute angle to appear permanently ajar.

David posits, “Vincent more than likely introduced the ceiling beams and light fitting in the hall. And he designed the hall fireplace. It’s very Malone Roadsy!” This airy space is painted a deep ochre which Charles calls “John Fowler orange”. Upstairs, Free Style panelling looks Vincentian. So does the recently reinstated glasshouse. Back to David, “The conservatory is actually almost entirely new except for the brickwork. It took three years to recreate. The pale green paint inside is the original colour.” Tyrella isn’t quite as Georgian as it first appears. “The middle bit behind the new Regency addition is William and Mary.” The house used to be even bigger. “My father demolished about a third of it – the cream room, jam room, butler’s pantry, the dark kitchen and so on.”

Tyrella was the seat of Reverend George Hamilton and his wife Ann Matilda, daughter of the 5th Earl of Macclesfield, at the end of the 18th century. Rural legend has it that the Reverend used the stones from the old parish church to rebuild the house in 1800. Did this slightly sacrilegious behaviour cause his downfall? He would go bust shortly afterward. Arthur Hill Montgomery bought the estate in 1831. Six years later, Samuel Lewis records in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland: “Tyrella House, the handsome residence of Arthur Hill Montgomery, is beautifully situated in a richly planted demesne of 300 acres, commanding extensive views over the bay, with the noble range of the Mourne Mountains in the background, and containing within its limits the site and cemetery of the ancient parish church.”

Arthur was the fourth son of Hugh Montgomery of Grey Abbey House on the Ards Peninsula, County Down. Bill Montgomery, a great-great-something-grandson of Hugh, still resides at Grey Abbey House with his wife Daphne. Dwelling on the past, David comments on the subject of ghosts, “I hate to disappoint you. All the people have sold the house, left, and gone on to do something else. Spent money on it, changed hands. None of them have lingered. I don’t miss ghosts – wouldn’t want one.”

It’s time to enter the dining room. Plat du jour de nuit. A love song to Northern Irish cuisine. Spinach and ricotta tartlet; stuffed sea bream; and mascarpone, raspberry and lemon tart. No spirits of any kind but plenty of Pinot Grigio (Renideo 2009) and Sauvignon Blanc (Pays d’Oc 2012). The dining experience isn’t always this tranquil according to the host. When Country Life visited in 1996, dinner was interrupted by ebullient bovine neighbours nosily emerging from between the rhododendrons. He smiles, “The magazine published ‘during dinner a herd escaped and raped the garden like a Mongol horde’. Marauding overweight rogue cattle licking the dining room windows wasn’t the look we were going for at all!”

Descendants of the previous owners, the Robert Neill and Sons Ltd dynasty, recall early 20th century life. Coline Grover says, “I lived in the house with grandparents and relatives various from 1940 until they sold it in 1949, and moved with them to Old Forge House in Malone, south Belfast. Tyrella House was wonderful with a swing house underneath the nursery wing. It was incorporated into the property and had two marks on the ceiling where if you went high enough your feet touched the ceiling! And there was a rock garden with a two storey playhouse called Spider House.”

Coline’s cousin-in-law Ian Elliott adds, “The Georgian house had a boudoir and some lovely Arts and Crafts additions – and that fabulous view to the Mournes. In the 1920s after the 1st World War it was bought by the Neill family – brothers Jack, Samuel and William – as part of their businesses of coal, construction and farming. They already owned East Downshire Fuels in Dundrum as well as Neill’s Coal in Bangor, Kingsberry Coal in Belfast, and Bloomfield Farm in Newtownards where the shopping centre is now. The family circle elected Billy Neill to live and farm there with his wife Vera. She was formerly Phelps of Kent, a direct descendant of Jane Lane who helped Charles II escape from the Battle of Worcester in the 1640s. They raised their three children there. The Corbetts, whiskey distillers from Banbridge, have owned it since 1949.” Coline’s brother Guthrie Barrett concurs that “Billy Neill sold Tyrella in 1949”.

“I haven’t been back to Tyrella House since 1949,” says nonagenarian Beresford Neill, known to all as Uncle Berry. He lives in Deramore Park, Malone, now. “A most wonderful childhood. Absolutely beautiful. Tyrella was completely and utterly the back of beyond. For goodness sake, it was completely feudal. There were no neighbours. We had our own entrance into the church next door and our own pew. My father got married in February 1917 and he bought the estate: 300 acres, a 3.5 acre walled garden, a 48 roomed house.”

He continues, “There was no electricity. In 1906 a gas heating machine was installed. It had huge pipes and a great big cage in the kitchen. There was no telephone until 1933. How Mama coped I don’t know. We’d a cook, housemaid and three gardeners. There were three bathrooms – one for staff, two for the family. We always had dogs – mostly Labradors. There was a large wood to the side of the house and a rock garden. The rocks were transported in 1890 from Scrabo to Tullymurry by train, then by horse and cart to Tyrella. It was a tremendous effort!”

“Berry reminisces, “In 1944 I enlisted as a private soldier in the Rifle Brigade. It’s now called the Rifles. It was a very swish regiment. After the War, I got transferred to Ballykinler Camp. I spent the whole of 1946 there. I’d a marvellous time! I could walk over the fields from Tyrella to Ballykinler in 10 minutes. We had the most enormous beech tree at Tyrella but a storm split it down the middle. It was sawn up by a gardener of course but a stump remained. One quiet Sunday afternoon I decided to blow up the remains of the tree. I thought I was the last word in explosives! I got seven anti-tank mines. I made a fuse and set them off. Bang! The birds stopped singing. Silence. Then … tinkle tinkle. Several of the windows in the house shattered. Sheer bloody stupidity! I should’ve opened the windows first!” Neill Guy Beresford “Berry” Campbell would die peacefully in Malone in 2020.

“We don’t usually open to paying guests in November,” admits David due to people not understanding that large Irish country houses aren’t overheated hotels. Heavy curtains and concertina shutters are good at keeping out the chills though in the guest bedrooms. A newly installed biomass boiler has added a level of contemporary comfort. “I’ve kept the 1906 boiler with its original instruction manual. It’s beautiful – like the beast of a furnace on the Titanic!” That would be Uncle Berry’s huge pipes and great big cage.

And bags at dawn. Peering over the bedroom landing, the oval staircase resembles a gargantuan pencil sharpening, a banister bordered carpeted curlicue, a variation on the Fibonacci spiral. Downstairs, breakfast is laid out country house style – buffet on the sideboard. “I do recommend Lindy Dufferin’s Greek Style Yoghurt,” says David. Historian Dr Frances Sands opined during an exclusive visit to 20 St James’s Square London, “Breakfast was the only meal of the day you served yourself. That’s why there is side furniture in the breakfast room. If there is no separate breakfast room, really then the dining room should be referred to as the eating room. There was a huge fear of odour in Georgian times. The eating room would have had no curtains, carpet or silk wall hangings. Seating would have been leather.” The dining room or rather eating room at Tyrella House was originally the billiard room.

It is impossible to leave Tyrella without mentioning the beach. The Mountains of Mourne thrillingly tower over kilometres of unspoiled golden strand between Clough and Killough. Coline Grover observes, “Tyrella Beach never changes of course.”

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Architects Architecture Art Country Houses

Rathfarnham Castle Dublin +

A Strong Tower

In the midst of suburban Dublin stands an Elizabethan castle. It narrowly avoided demolition in the 1980s: Rathfarnham is south Dublin prime real estate. Archbishop Adam Loftus, an ambitious Yorkshire clergyman who would become Lord Chancellor of Ireland, built the property. It was remodelled several times in the 18th century although the askew angled four flanker towers betray its earlier origins. “Rathfarnham Castle is an enigmatic house,” remarks heritage architect John O’Connell. “And brilliant white! There is a very good drawing room and wonderful gallery. There is also a spectacular James ‘Athenian’ Stuart saloon and if that’s not good enough there is the Sir William Chambers horseshoe stair!” Now owned by the Office of Public Works, Rathfarnham Castle grounds and interiors are open to the public.

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Architects Architecture Country Houses Design Luxury People

Sudbrook Park + Richmond Golf Club Petersham London

All Square

The English Country Home edited by Vanessa Berridge was published in 1987. Despite its title, Sally Phipps writes about Mount River, a country house in County Kildare which would later be bought by the Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. She notes, “The owners… worked with the architect John O’Connell, who is becoming to Irish houses what John Fowler was to English ones: many have benefitted from his keen appreciation of individual atmosphere and history.”

On an off-duty visit, John casts his unrivalled eye over Sudbrook Park, now Richmond Golf Clubhouse, Petersham. The outer London village is synonymous with Petersham Nurseries, the garden centre with a restaurant which has become the restaurant with a garden centre. Wealth is in the air. Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner observe in The Buildings of England London: South, 1983: “Petersham, for its small size, is unusually rich in fine houses of the late 17th century and 18th century whose dates and ownership require further investigation.” Grade I Listed Sudbrook, built to the design of James Gibbs, is the finest.

James Gibbs is a member of that exclusive club of architects whose surnames have become adjectives. Gibbsian, Corbusian, Miesian, Palladian. O’Connellian will come. The South London guide continues, “The enviable clubhouse of the golf course is the house by James Gibbs built in 1726 for the Duke of Argyll and Greenwich (the grandson of the Duchess of Lauderdale of Ham House). Nine bays, brick and stone dressings. Basement, main and upper storey. Slender segment-headed windows with aprons. Brick quoins, parapet. The main accent on the garden as well as the entrance side a giant portico of Corinthian columns with frieze and raised balustrade, projecting only slightly in front of the façade, so that the space behind the columns is actually a loggia. On the entrance side the effect has been spoiled by a tall extension forward of the portico. On the garden side a splendid open stair towards the entrance, starting in two flights parallel with the façade and then joining up into one. The plan is typically Palladian. The centre is a cube room which runs through from front to back portico. The other rooms open out from it, and on the upper floor have to be reached from the small staircase. The cube room is luxuriously decorated: giant coupled pilasters, coved ceiling, marble fireplace, doorways with very finely designed heads and pediment – Gibbs at his most baroque.”

“The garden front portico is in antis and so shallow it doesn’t rob the Cube Room of light and prospect,” explains John. As for the 10 metre Cube Room: “Everything is resolved. It’s a robust ensemble. James Gibbs’ workshops would have pulled all of this together and produced presentation drawings for the client. The stucco work is so emphatic. The subtle beading of the coupled Corinthian pilasters is very Mies van der Rohe in its attention to detailing!” Sudbrook Park has been the very grand clubhouse of Richmond Golf Club since the end of the 19th century.

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Architects Architecture Country Houses People Town Houses

Pettigo Donegal + Fermanagh

The Boundary Lines Have Fallen in Pleasant Places

It’s the only village in Ireland where the Main Street is in County Donegal (Ireland’s most northwesterly county) and the High Street is in County Fermanagh (the United Kingdom’s most westerly county). The 1925 Boundary Commission carelessly used the three metre wide River Termon as the border, forever splitting the village between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland or at least up until today. The River Termon, all 16 kilometres of it, rises from Scraghy near Omagh and flows into Lough Erne at The Waterfoot, a demesne three kilometres southwest of Pettigo. Its water meadows are home to brown trout, dippers, grey wagtails, heron, mallard, mink, otters and white clawed crayfish. In ancient times the river formed the boundary, or “Terminus”, of the Monastic Lands of Lough Derg.

Elevated and isolated, Pettigo has a long and distinguished history. In Celtic times it was known as the Place of the Blacksmith. By the medieval period, it had emerged to become the gateway to St Patrick’s Purgatory on nearby Lough Derg. “The church at St Patrick’s Purgatory is a wonderful basilica, like something from Ravenna,” observes heritage architect John O’Connell. Pettigo prospered as a market place in the 17th and 18th centuries. One of the oldest reminders of this notable heritage is Termon Castle, southwest of the village and close to Lough Erne. Its ruins are located in the Republic, just 256 metres from the border. Built by the Gaelic Clan McGrath in the late 16th century, an indelible mark on the landscape, it bears all the scars of Cromwellian bombardment. Some architectural elements such as gun loops and window mullions are still intact.

The Church of Ireland, Templecarne Parish Church, and the former courthouse cum market house (a common combination in Ireland – see Kinsale), set at perpendicular angles to one another, form the focal point of the village centre along with the group of three storey houses opposite. The church dates from 1836 and is typical William Farrell: austere elegance. John O’Connell says, “Farrell was a very solid architect.” The building has a timeless quality – like Mr F’s Colebrooke Park and Ashbrooke House, both in County Fermanagh – derived from his restrained application of decoration. The tall gothic arched windows contain an unusual detail. Mr O’C explains, “The angled glazed inset is, in fact, a device for ventilation. Thus from the inside the hinged flap could be opened, usually with the assistance of a cord.” Samuel Lewis wrote in his 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, “The church, situated at Pettigoe, is a small, old, and dilapidated structure, towards the rebuilding of which Mrs Leslie (the proprietor of the estate), the Rector, and the Protestant parishioners have contributed a large subscription.”

The Reverend Charles Eames is the current Rector. “My vision for this church,” he states, “is to make an impact for God, here in Pettigo, by helping people understand the enriching messages of eternal hope given to us by Jesus Christ.” Sadly the grand Templecarne Rectory lies in ruins in fields next to Termon Castle. This long low two storey house is asymmetrically arranged with a single storey porch tucked between blocks set at right angles to one another. The original roughcast rendered finish, where not covered in ivy, has mostly given way to reveal the red brick construction material. Samuel Lewis notes, “The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Clogher, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £300. The glebe-house was built in 1813, at an expense of £978.9.2¾ of which £623.1.6½ was a loan from the late Board of First Fruits, and the remainder was defrayed by the then incumbent: the glebe comprises 141 acres of good land, valued at £176.16.8 per annum.”

The Barton Family Memorial is located to the west of the church. Their estate is The Waterfoot. Samuel Lewis records, “Waterfoot, the residence of Lieutenant Colonel Barton, is pleasantly situated.” A quirky triple jelly mould headstone has an equally quirky inscription, “The Victory. 1 Corinthians XV, 54 to 57. A White Stone. Amen. Rev I 18. ‘Tell his disciples he is risen from the dead.’ Matt XXVIII 7. Barton Family Vault.” Andrew Barton Patterson (1864 to 1941), Australian poet and journalist grandson of Robert Barton, wrote Waltzing Matilda. In January, snowdrops grow over the vault.

The former courthouse cum market house, restored and converted into a family home in 2006, is more provincial in character. It dates from circa 1850. The terrace of three houses opposite, restored in 2016, is of a surprisingly grand scale for such a remote location. The houses rise a storey higher than most of the village buildings and display distinguishing delineated window surrounds and half columned doorcases. Called The Palisades, their grandeur is less surprising when it transpires they once formed the village home of the landowning Leslie family. Sir Winston Churchill, a relative of the Leslies, was a frequent visitor. The most famous recent scion, Sir Jack Leslie 4th Baronet of Glaslough and Pettigo, died at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, County Monaghan, in 2016.

Terence Dooley writes in The Decline of the Big House in Ireland (2001), “The Leslies of Glaslough were amongst the largest landowners living in south Ulster during the 19th century. By the 1870s, they owned almost 50,000 acres located in the seven counties of Monaghan, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Meath and Tyrone. Their largest estate was in County Donegal (28,827 acres) and included St Patrick’s Purgatory, Lough Derg, from which the Leslies ironically derived significant income from Catholic pilgrims during the Penal Era.”

He continues, “From the 1840s, the Leslies had become related through marriage to some of the most influential landed families in Ireland and Britain. Sir John II (1857 to 1914) married Leonie Jerome, the daughter of a wealthy American newspaper tycoon, in 1884. This marriage meant that the Leslies became related through marriage to the Dukes of Marlborough as Leonie’s sister was Lady Jennie Churchill, wife of Sir Randolph and mother of Sir Winston. Both marriages were frowned upon in landed circles.”

High Street is named not after its retail offer but rather its steep gradient. Pettigo may be the sort of place which novelist Edna O’Brien would describe as, “You have to get a bus to get a bus”, but it has community spirit(s). Ever since Brennan’s Lounge overlooking the River Termon on the Northern Irish closed last century, both sets of Pettigonian nationalities frequent the pubs on the southern side.

John Elliott has lived all his life in Pettigo: “In my young days I remember 20,000 to 30,000 people coming to Lough Derg each summer. It was a lovely sight to see the smoke of the trains from each side of the platform which was roofed for the pilgrims. In the 1960s there were a lot more shops on the High Street in Pettigo like George McCreagh’s grocery and hardware shop. In my young days it was a good business centre. Fair Day was the 20th of every month, and cattle and sheep would be sold then. The old market yard is beside the former railway station. Magee Donegal Tweed would buy woven tweed for their big pullovers. The Burtons who own The Waterfoot had a forge in front of the Methodist Church.”

Across from the Methodist church at the top of High Street stands a significant looking tree. A sign on the railings surrounding it reads, “The Crimean War Tree was planted by W F Barton Esq and J P Clonelly, Pettigo, in commemoration of the taking of Sebastopol in 1856. Edward Barton and many others from the Pettigo area served in the Crimean War. After the capture of Sebastopol the Crimean War was virtually at an end. On 21 September the little town of Pettigo presented a sense of unusual animation and excitement, that evening having been set apart for rejoicing in honour of the capture of Sebastopol. The preparations were on an extensive scale, as F W Barton Esq of Clonelly had procured a large supply of fireworks from Dublin.”

John Elliott continues, “I remember going on a Sunday School trip on the train to Bundoran. The railway station in Pettigo was closed in the 1950s. Pettigo used to be packed on Sunday nights. People drove from Omagh and as long as you could hold onto the steering wheel you got here and home again. This applied all round the border – lots of music and great craic like that. The empty three storey house backing onto the river was Brennan’s Guesthouse. I remember Sir Jack Leslie – he wore a hat and a white coat. The Leslies lived in The Palisades, the white house opposite the Church of Ireland.”

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Architects Architecture Country Houses People

Emo Court Laois + James Gandon

Let Them Eat Hake

“They all knew each other, or about each other,” suggests Mark Girouard in his chapter “A Country House Childhood” in Town and Country, 1982. He’s referring to the Anglo Irish. That was even the case in the 19th century. “The owner of Ballyfin saw his neighbour’s property Emo Court and wanted that,” confirms award winning architect John O’Connell who runs an international Grade 1 Conservation Practice based in Dublin. No surprises there, for Emo Court is an architectural masterpiece. It’s one of the Big Houses of Ireland, the size of a terrace of Dublin townhouses. A copper dome on the middle of the roof lends it a municipal air. Its architect, London born James Gandon (he would move to Ireland when he was 40), designed some of Dublin’s great public buildings: his Custom House and The Four Courts still grace the banks of the River Liffey. James Gandon didn’t just inspire Ballyfin. Attempts have been made to emulate his Dublin Custom House at least twice: Doolin + Butler’s 1912 University College Dublin and Jones + Kelly’s 1935 Cork City Hall.

“It’s a railway station in disguise!” John jests. “The volume of the library is Rome come to Laois. The interior is like being inside a very public building.” In the late 18th century landowner John Dawson, 1st Earl of Portarlington, was running in the same social circle as James Gandon. In 1790 he commissioned the architect, who had trained under Sir William Chambers, to design a country house on his estate. John notes, “The Earl was a great sponsor of Gandon.” The construction of the house continued after the death of both client and architect. The 2nd Earl engaged London architect Louis Vulliamy alongside Dublin architects Arthur and John Williamson. Elevation and profile ink and watercolour drawings by the Williamsons dated 1822 survive in the Irish Architectural Archive. The 3rd Earl commissioned Dublin architect William Caldbeck to complete the house. Despite these multiple hands at work across eight decades, Emo Court resonates complete neoclassical perfection. On a grey rainy day its copper dome still shines bright as a green beacon of good taste.

At one time, only The Phoenix Park in Dublin was a larger enclosed estate in Ireland than the 4,450 hectares of Emo Court. In 1920 the 6th Earl sold Emo Court to the Irish Land Commission who in turn sold it on to the Jesuits along with 100 hectares. Almost half a century later, the splendidly monikered  Major Cholmeley Dering Cholmeley-Harrison, an English financier, snapped it up for £42,000. He enlisted the London architect Sir Albert Richardson to restore the house. In 1994, the Major presented Emo Court to President Mary Robinson who received it on behalf of the Irish nation.

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Architecture Country Houses People Town Houses

The Cootes + Mountrath Laois

Puntsland

It’s one of the most architecturally interesting towns in Ireland. Nearby is the early Georgian Roundwood House. Contemporary architect John O’Connell says, “Roundwood is so intact. It’s like a doll’s house.” There’s a reddish terracotta rendered multi pointy gabled three storey with attics house in the centre of the town partially concealed behind a cobweb of telegraph wires on Patrick Street overlooking the River Whitehorse. It looks late 17th century or at youngest early 18th century. “That is where the Cootes, the local landowners, used to live,” John explains, “before they came into money and moved to Ballyfin.” Mountrath has that beautiful planned look to it: three identical villas grace the Abbeyleix road and another three jazz up the Portlaoise road. The Earls of Mountrath, family name Coote, made sure of that. The first historic monument to hit you if you are idling time pre Ballyfin is St Peter’s Church, the stone walled beacon of Protestantism. It’s an early 19th century cruciform. Samuel Lewis records in his 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland that the Earl of Mountrath donated the site in circa 1796 and the church was consecrated in 1801, before being enlarged 31 years later.

Samuel Lewis describes the town as follows, “This place, called also Moynrath, or the ‘fort in the bog’, became, in the beginning of the 17th century, the property of Sir Charles Coote, who, although the surrounding country was then in a wild state and overspread with woods, laid the foundation of the present town. In 1628, Sir Charles obtained for the inhabitants a grant of two weekly markets and two fairs, and established a very extensive linen and fustian manufactory, which in the war of 1641, together with much of his other property here, was destroyed. His son Charles regained the castle and estate of Mountrath, with other large possessions, and at the Restoration was created Earl of Mountrath, which title, on the decease of Charles Henry, the 7th Earl, in 1802, became extinct. The present possessor is Sir Charles Henry Coote, Premier Baronet of Ireland. The town, which in 1831 contained 429 houses, is neatly built, and has been the seat of successive manufactures; iron was made and wrought here till the neighbouring woods were consumed for fuel, and on its decline the cotton manufacture was established; an extensive factory for spinning and weaving cotton is carried on by Mr Greenham, who employs 150 persons in the spinning mills, and about 500 in weaving calicoes at their own houses; the average quantity manufactured is from 200 to 250 pieces weekly. Stuff weaving is also carried on extensively; there is a large brewery and malting establishment, and an extensive oil mill; and the inhabitants carry on a very considerable country trade.”

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Architects Architecture Country Houses Design Developers Town Houses

Lee Manor House + Garden Lewisham London

Banking on Success­­­­

Vitruvius’ desirable virtues of “firmness, commodity and delight” spring to mind. “There are so many moments of true quality within and outside this villa,” believes heritage architect John O’Connell. “An inspection of the exterior would suggest that there were once small wings. This is such a clever and compact plan. The vaulted lobby on the first floor is so accomplished and structurally brave. The first floor central room with its closets has a bed alcove.” Lee Manor House and its remaining three hectares of grounds form one of the thrills of southeast London. The house has been repurposed as a crèche, a library and a doctors’ surgery with reception rooms for hire. The garden is open to the public.

In the late 20th century a glass lift was inserted in the middle of the staircase hall. “I used to be disturbed when I saw alterations like this super lift, but now am more understanding,” remarks John. “But one is always encouraged to place the lift on the exterior of an historic building. The best example I know, apart from Montalto in County Down, is Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria in Genoa. An astounding museum, and a must. Indeed Genoa is a city of palaces and many are accessible. This city is the Liverpool of Italy: rough in parts!” Another successful example is the Office of Public Works’ elegant full height glass and steel shaft abutting the rear of the Irish Architectural Archive on Merrion Square, Dublin.

Architectural historian Dr Roderick O’Donnell summarises, “Stylistically the Manor House is quite conservative – Taylorian rather than Chambersian.” Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner’s entry in their Buildings of England South London, 1983, reads: “The Manor House (Lee Public Library), probably built for Thomas Lucas in 1771 to 1772, by Richard Jupp, is an elegant five by three bay structure of brick on a rusticated stone basement, and with a stone entablature. Projecting taller three bay centre. Four column one storey porch, now glazed; a full height bow in the centre of the garden side. Inside, the original staircase was removed circa 1932, but the large staircase hall still has a screen of columns to the left, and on the landing above a smaller screen carrying groin vaults. Medallions with putti. Pretty plasterwork in other rooms, especially a ceiling of Adamish design in the ground floor room with the bow window.”

At the end of the 18th century the house and estate were sold to Francis Baring, director of the East India Company and founder of Baring’s Bank. The better known architect Sir Robert Taylor designed villas for several of the East India Company directors. “Lee Manor House is extremely well handled,” John remarks, “and exhibits a lovely, almost James Gandon, flow. Moving around, it has at least three lovely elevations. The brickwork is very accomplished but the basement rustication has been crudely handled of late. The original high execution elsewhere displays the architect’s ability to bring a design forward to fruition.”

Marcus Binney provides this summary in Sir Robert Taylor From Rococo to Neoclassicism, 1984, “Taylor’s major contribution to English architecture is his ingenious and original development of the Palladian villa. The first generation of Palladian villas in Britain – Chiswick, Mereworth and Stourhead are three leading examples – had all been based purposely very closely on Palladio’s designs. They were square or rectangular in plan with pedimented porticoes, and a one-three-one arrangement of windows on the principal elevations. Taylor broke with this format. First of all his villas (like his townhouses) were astylar: classical in proportion but without an order; that is, without columns or pilasters and with a simple cornice instead of a full entablature.” Lee Manor House does have Taylorian features such as the semi elliptical full height bay on the garden front but is missing others such as his trademark Venetian window. In that sense, Richard Jupp is even more conservative than Sir Robert Taylor.

Lee Manor House conforms to the House of Raphael formula: a basement carrying a piano nobile with a lower floor of bedrooms under the parapet. “This is very interesting as it sits within the gentleman’s villa format. Pray how did you find it?” enquires John. “Lee Manor House is a very fine villa. On the ground floor, I would expect the large apse or exedra to the saloon contains or contained a fireplace. It reminds me of the first floor back room of Taylor’s 4 Grafton Street in Mayfair. This large apse is of added interest, as it would be taken up by Robert Adam in the arresting hall at Osterley Park, Isleworth, and again by our hero James Wyatt for his first and most daring scheme at Abbey Leix, County Laois, and again at Portman House on Mayfair’s Portman Square. The latter is now a smart club.”

John continues, “Another villa that comes to mind is Asgill House, in Richmond, circa 1770, which is both fine and intact. This villa was restored with the advice of Donald Insall and can be seen from the railway line. One can even go back to Marble Hill House in Twickenham, and on to James Gibbs at the exquisite Petersham Lodge – a knockout villa – which is now the clubhouse for Richmond Park Golf Course. Petersham Lodge is really worth a visit too; even the ‘landscape’ and bevelled edged mirrors over the fireplace are still in position!”

“Finally, there is the equally arresting Parkstead House designed for the 2nd Earl of Bessborough by Sir William Chambers with its very heroic portico. Lord Bessborough was an Anglo Irish peer. This can be visited. Indeed there is a good publication by English Heritage on this very subject. The original wings have vanished but the garden front and saloon are intact. There is mention of the remains of a garden temple in the grounds.” Joan Alcock writes in Sir William Chambers and the Building of Parkstead House Roehampton, 1980, “The design of Parkstead is based on the Palladian villa.” John O’Connell postscripts, “Richard Jupp was chief architect to the East India Company. His successor was Henry Holland. Lee Manor House fits into a form that one can see emerge in the 1770s.”