Methodist Manse, 28 Loy Street, Cookstown, Co.Tyrone, BT80 8PE

Methodist Manse, 28 Loy Street, Cookstown

A mid-Victorian house of modest pretention, designed in a plain form of Italianate style. Built in 1863-64 to serve the neighbouring Methodist church (which dates from 1858), it stands in a built-up area facing the main street of Cookstown, set back slightly within its own grounds and located immediately adjacent to the Methodist church to which it is connected by a short stone balustrade.

The building is a two-storey three-bay gabled structure constructed in smooth cement render, lined and blocked, with a projecting plinth, platband, slightly projecting quoins, and a simple frieze moulding to the porch. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with timber barge boards and oversailing eaves with tongued and grooved sheeted timber soffits. Two chimneys, one on each gable, are constructed of patterned red and yellow brickwork. Rainwater goods comprise extruded aluminium gutters and circular uPVC downpipes.

The main entrance faces west, set centrally in the west elevation within a rectangular timber panelled door with plain fanlight set in a segmental arched surround with plain reveals. A rectangular projecting porch with projecting quoins frames the entrance. Windows are all timber vertically hung sliding sashes, two over two with horns, and vary in shape. Those to the ground floor flanking the porch are tripartite with segmental heads to the central light. Above the porch is a pair of coupled semi-circular headed openings, with rectangular headed windows to the flanking first floor windows. All windows are replacements dating from the 1980s. The north and south gables are blind, with quoins to the west extremity only. Projecting shaped timber brackets support the eaves.

The east or rear elevation is of three storeys due to the drop in site level past the line of the front wall. It is of similar materials to the front but of asymmetrical arrangement with windows and projections of modern type. These are fixed lights and top-hung vents of varying sizes and rectangular form. A deep two-storey block projects from the centre, and a shallower single-storey block projects to one side, containing a modern garage door. In 1870, Reverend W.L. Doonan added new offices to the rear.

To the front is a small garden with lawns to each side of a concrete path, enclosed by a low smooth rendered plain wall with stone copings surmounted by plain ironwork railings and a simple ironwork gate. Short runs of stone balustrading abut each corner of the house at the front, the one to the north connecting with the church alongside. To the rear is a garden with concrete areas, beyond which lies the extensive tarmac carpark of the church.

The building has undergone modernisation of interior finishes and fenestration to the rear, but retains its original exterior appearance to the front where it forms part of an interesting group with the associated Methodist church. The manse was first occupied by Reverend E. Harpur with an original rateable value of £17, and was subsequently occupied by a succession of Methodist ministers throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, including Reverend John Wilson (1867), Reverend George R. Walsh (1868), Reverend W.L. Doonan (1870), Reverend William B. Lambert (1873), Reverend Alexander Fullerton (1876), Reverend William Quaile (1879), Samuel Dunlop (1883), Reverend George Robinson (1885), Reverend James Daly (1888), Reverend John G. Whittaker (1891), Edward West (1894), Reverend Henry N. Nevin (1895), Reverend William Clark (1898), Reverend Hugh Moore (1902), Reverend A. Crawford (1905), Reverend Fleming Orr (1907), Reverend James R. Clinton (1910-1914), John A. Walton (1914), Reverend W. Wimperas (1917), Reverend Sayers (1921), Reverend James W. Moore (1923), Reverend J. Johnston (1927), Samuel H.J. Currie (1936), Reverend Allen (1937), Reverend Rooney (1941), Reverend W.M. Lipsett (1946), Reverend J. Firth Little (1951), Reverend E. Colvin (1958), Reverend A.E. Nelson (1962), Reverend Robert Ferguson (1964), Reverend Sidney Edgar (1966), and Reverend W. Taylor (1970).