15 Lisnamuck Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4HN

Meath Park is a detached Georgian house built in 1826, situated on the west side of Lisnamuck Road in Aghadowey, south of Coleraine. It is a symmetrical two-storey-with-attic, three-bay rendered house set within mature grounds. Its proportions and detailing are typical of the period, making it a well-preserved example of a middle-sized Georgian house. The mature grounds and impressive tree-lined entrance add significantly to the quality of the setting, and the house makes an important contribution to the historic rural landscape of Aghadowey.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The house has a rectangular plan with a portico to the front and a full-height return to the rear. The roof is pitched, covered in natural slate with blue/black angled ridge tiles, and has rendered chimneystacks to the gables with moulded caps and four tall clay pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are fitted to the projecting eaves, with cast-iron downpipes and hoppers; plastic rainwater goods have been installed to the rear. The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render with a plinth course and raised quoins.

Windows throughout are 1/1 timber sash with horns, set in floated pole-moulded lugged surrounds with a keyblock — vermiculated at ground floor level — and projecting painted sills, unless otherwise noted.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged around a distyle portico, with five window openings on each floor. The portico has a plain entablature and cornice, pilaster responds, a timber-sheeted soffit, and is reached by four stone steps. The doorcase has an elliptical head and contains a raised-and-fielded four-panel timber door with bronze door furniture, surmounted by an elliptical-headed transom light and flanked by sidelights on painted block panels; replacement obscured glazing is used throughout the doorcase.

The south gable has two diminutive 2/2 windows at attic level, a 6/6 window at first floor left, and two 1/1 windows at ground floor left, the outermost of which is smaller. The west, rear elevation is abutted on the left by the full-height return, and has a 6/6 window and a diminutive four-paned timber casement at first floor right, and a round-headed replacement stairwell window at the centre. The south elevation of the return has a 6/6 window and a tripartite timber casement at first floor level, with a timber-sheeted and glazed half door to the left and double-leaf French doors to the right at ground floor. The north elevation of the return has a 6/6 window to the centre at first floor. The north gable has two diminutive attic windows, a 6/6 window to first floor right, and a 6/6 window to ground floor right.

SETTING

The house sits on a large mature plot accessed via a shared laneway and a long sweeping tree-lined avenue to the north. Painted smooth rendered chamfered gate piers stand at the north entrance, with a modern cattle grid. The site is bounded and the house sheltered by a variety of mature trees, with a timber fence to the north. The rear yard is laid with modern slab paving and enclosed to the south by a high castellated rendered wall, with a roughcast rendered square gate pier with a flat concrete cap at the yard entrance. A modern gabled garage stands to the south. To the front of the house stand two large carved and painted lions, each on a painted pedestal.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Meath Park dates from 1826 and is recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1831–2, captioned "Meath Park House." At that date it appears as a rectangular structure with a return and a single outbuilding to the rear. By the second edition of 1849–52, further outbuildings had been added, at least one of which appears to survive as part of the farm courtyard to the south. Local historian Mullin suggests the house was originally called "Mutton Hole" and was occupied successively by William Forrester and then Henry Orr, though no dates are given and this account may relate to the land rather than the present house.

Meath Park is listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 at £18 as the house of James Wilson Esq. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe it as a "good brick house... surrounded by some plantations of small extent" and confirm the 1826 date. The Memoirs also record that James Wilson wished to demolish the "Grey Stone," the capstone of a Neolithic tomb in the townland of Crosslea, in order to remove the fragments — possibly for use as building stone — but was eventually dissuaded by a Presbyterian clergyman. James Wilson married Maria, daughter of the Reverend James Horner, and had three children; one son, William, emigrated to America but returned to Meath Park in the 1880s.

Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 lists the occupier as James Wilson's widow, Maria Wilson. The house and outbuildings, still valued at £18, formed part of a farm of over 168 acres leased from George Alexander. The property remained in the Wilson family for some years. From 1885 it was occupied by William Wilson, who had returned from America to work as agent for the Anchor Line, in partnership with James Mullan of Castlerock. The Anchor Line operated passenger ships between New York, Londonderry, and Glasgow from 1856 until the outbreak of war in 1939.

Meath Park had fallen vacant by 1892 and appears to have been unoccupied at the time of the 1901 census. By 1911 the house had been taken over by Hugh R. Morrison, then 20 years old, who described himself in the census as a "gentleman farmer." He lived there with his 28-year-old wife and a live-in cook. The ten-room house was designated first class. In 1919 the house was "improved" and a number of additions were made to the outbuildings, including a new engine house for electric light containing a 6 horsepower engine and a new motor shed; the valuation was raised to £30 as a result. The house subsequently passed to William James Wallace Bruce, minister of Aghadowey Presbyterian Church, who was resident in the early 1930s when the First General Revaluation took place. At that time the ground floor accommodation comprised two reception rooms, a kitchen, scullery and pantry; the first floor contained three bedrooms, a dressing room, a study and two bathrooms; and the attic had two storerooms. The house was listed in 1977 and continues in use as a private dwelling.