69 Urbal Road, Coagh, Cookstown, BT80 0DP

69 Urbal Road is a well-proportioned late Georgian mill owner's house built around 1850. It is a detached two-storey structure on a roughly rectangular plan with a two-storey full-width lean-to return to the rear west. The house occupies the eastern end of Urbal Road, fronting directly onto it with a small garden to the front.

The front east elevation is three windows wide. At ground floor level, a centrally placed flat-roofed projecting porch dominates the façade. The porch has a square-headed timber panelled door with two fluted pilasters to each side, supporting a carved timber frieze. An elliptical-headed fanlight surmounts the frieze, and single-light sidelights flank the door on cut-stone sills. Larger pilasters at the porch corners support a carved projecting stone cornice. Windows to both ground and first floors are segmental-headed with 2/2 timber sliding sash frames set on cut-stone sills, with margin panes throughout.

The south side elevation is gable ended, containing a square-headed 6/6 timber sliding sash window at ground floor level and two round-headed 7/7 timber sliding sash windows at first floor, all with margin panes. The north side elevation is also gable ended but contains no openings. The rear west elevation is largely obscured by the two-storey lean-to return, which features an irregular assortment of square-headed and round-headed timber sliding sash and casement windows. A square-headed door to the right is accessed by cut-stone steps.

External walls are painted render. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with artificial slate patches. Two matching rendered chimneys rise from the roof, one at each gable end. The eaves project slightly and are supported by timber-corbelled brackets to the gables. Rainwater goods appear to be cast iron.

The building retains much of its original character and decorative ornamentation. The house has group value with the listed Ultimo House opposite (HB09.07.020), which was built by one of the Duff brothers following the success of their mill business on this site.

Historical Context

The site's earlier history is uncertain. An Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34 shows a small building in this vicinity, possibly occupying this spot. The 1833 valuation book records an old thatched house here, occupied by Robert McMullen and measuring 44½ feet by 21½ feet by 11 feet, with thatched sheds of various dimensions. To the west stood a 'spade mill' marked on the map and noted as being in ruins.

The present house, complete with its L-shaped return, appears on the 1857 Ordnance Survey map alongside a large factory building to the southwest marked 'Coagh Spinning Mills'. Both house and mill were the property of Thomas Duff. The plot also included 21 mill worker's houses. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1840 mention that Duff operated a flax mill within this townland, which had been rebuilt in 1838. The house itself does not appear to be older than around 1855. The mill expanded over the following decades, enabling Duff to commission this new residence. Thomas Duff died around 1870, and by 1872 the business was in the hands of the Duff Brothers. That same year, a new addition to the mill was constructed containing 2,260 spindles. The increased production and wealth allowed James Duff to build himself a new residence, Ultimo House, in spacious grounds on the opposite side of the road from the works.

The mill continued to operate in various forms, incorporating a sawmill and tow dressing works by 1924, and remained in operation until the 1970s. The house itself appears to have remained within the Duff family until relatively recently.

Setting

The house fronts directly onto Urbal Road, which is largely mixed in character, comprising buildings from the early Victorian to mid-twentieth century. To the rear stands a near-ruinous mill building, part of a large but now nearly derelict mill complex to the west. Some portions of the sluice gate and gearing mechanism remain visible.