24 Cookstown Road, Moneymore, Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, BT45 7QF

24 Cookstown Road is a handsome, well-proportioned rectory built in 1831 in Georgian style with Palladian qualities. It was probably influenced by John Bowden, architect to the Board of First Fruits, though Bowden was dead by 1831. The building retains much of its original interior detail and is set within secluded wooded grounds with a long avenue approach from Cookstown Road. The outbuildings are neatly kept and preserved.

The rectory is a three-bay-wide, two-storey house with basement, stone-faced and slated. It has a square plan with Palladian proportions. The front elevation features a flight of seven steps ascending to the main entrance, a fine classical composition of three-quarter engaged Roman Doric columns on each side of a six-fielded-panel door, complete with pedestal bases. The doorway has glazed side screens in margin glazing, with outer pilasters supporting an entablature of triglyphs and metopes and cornice, all in ashlar sandstone. The entrance landing spans across the basement area.

The front facade has single twelve-pane double-hung sliding sash windows on each side at ground floor and three similar windows of lesser height at first floor. At basement level there are two six-pane double-hung sliding sash windows protected by metal grills. The walls are of redstone, snecked with fine lime mortar joints. A sandstone band stringcourse defines the ground floor, circumscribing the building.

The building has natural slated triple roofs, hipped, with valleys parallel to the front, lead ridges, hips and valleys. Two wide-in-depth chimney stacks straddle the ridge of the front roof with very tall pots, and a further stack sits between the second and third roofs. The roof has good overhang all round, supported on pairs of moulded sprockets, with fascia, ogee metal gutter and downpipes not visible on the front facade.

The south-east side features a single large eight-light window, with the tall lower lights divided into five panes each with no opening lights. This is balanced by a blank of similar size. At first floor there are two twelve-pane double-hung sliding sash windows and a blank of equal size, each evenly spaced. The triple-pile roofs are not expressed on this side, probably not original. There is one six-pane double-hung sliding sash window under the ground-floor window at basement level, with two blanks all evenly spaced, and a single downpipe.

The south-west side has four twelve-pane double-hung sliding sash windows at ground floor and similar windows at first floor, evenly spaced but of lesser height. At basement level there are four six-pane double-hung sliding sash windows with iron grills. This elevation has eight vertical pipes: one downpipe and seven waste and ventilation pipes.

The north-west side has an arched eighteen-pane double-hung sliding sash window at the staircase and passing landing, with a six-pane double-hung sliding sash window above and below, the latter with iron grill. To the right of the window is a projecting bay with lean-to roof housing a toilet. To the left is a twelve-pane double-hung sliding sash window to a first-floor room. Paired soffit sprockets run all round. At basement there is a sheeted door and single six-pane double-hung sliding sash window contained within a smooth rendered panel.

The building has a forecourt in front with lawns around the south and west, and a terrace to the north-east accessed by steps from the basement area opposite the back door and from the main avenue.

Outbuildings are grouped to the west around an enclosed yard, accessed from the terrace and also from the main avenue. A two-storey stone-built four-bay coachhouse has two six-pane double-hung sliding sash windows on either side of a flight of external steps leading to a first-floor door. Both gables are without windows. The facade to the yard has two segmented-arched coach doors and two single sheeted doors. At first floor there are three louvred openings. The roof is slated and hipped.

At the south-east end of the yard is a part open and closed shed and store with three open bays with circular cast iron columns supporting timber beams carrying the roof. On each side is random stone walling enclosing stores, each with a single sheeted door. The remainder of the yard is enclosed with stone wall and double gates at the gable of the coachhouse.

The building is sited in secluded wooded grounds with a long avenue approach from Cookstown Road. The gate piers in brick are not original, as there was road realignment in recent times.

In recent times the rectory has had considerable repair work carried out to the basement. Six years ago the roof was retimbered and slated under the supervision of Mr Leathem, diocesan architect.

The plan arrangement is not unlike that of the former rectory at Banagher in the Feeny Ward, erected in 1817 and possibly designed by John Bowden. The Moneymore rectory appears to have been influenced by this earlier work, though it is a more resolved plan with more subtle detail.