Lissan House, Cookstown, **See General Comments**

Lissan House, Cookstown

Lissan House is an extensive country house of late 17th century origin, built by the Staples family and enlarged and altered progressively through the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. It stands in a densely wooded private demesne of over 250 acres in a very rural setting, set well back from public roads, and is one of the most historically significant country houses in Northern Ireland. The listing covers the house together with its long gallery wing.

Historical Background

The estate was established in 1620 when the Staples family set up an ironworks and built workers' houses here. The founder of the Irish branch of the family was Sir Thomas Staples, 1st Baronet, fifth son of Alexander Staples of Yate Court, Gloucestershire, who arrived in Ireland in the early 17th century and settled first at Moneymore before building at Lissan. The precise form and location of his first residence at Lissan is uncertain, but it may have been in the block now attached to the south-west corner of the present house, known today as the Creamery. Robert Staples was created Baronet of Ireland in 1628 and served as High Sheriff of County Tyrone in 1640. Successive members of the family held the office of High Sheriff and sat in Parliament. One, Sir Thomas Staples, who died in 1865 aged ninety, was the last surviving member of the old Irish Parliament. Another notable occupant was Robert Ponsonby Staples, an eminent artist of the late Victorian and Edwardian period. The house remained the home of the Staples family for over 300 years, reputedly the longest continuous occupation of a country house by a single family in the western part of Ulster. The last owner and occupant, and last descendant of the family, was Hazel Dolling, daughter of the 13th Baronet, Robert George Alexander Staples, who died in 1970. She died in 2006 and bequeathed the house and estate in trust to the community, intending it to become a centre for music and the arts for central Ulster. The Friends of Lissan House Trust are working to that end.

The original house of the late 17th century was built of brick made on the estate, local stone probably from a quarry close to the house, and massive oak beams thought to have come from the estate woodlands. The core of that building survives within the present house, particularly in the kitchen area where the walls are between six and eight feet thick, and in the basement where very old timbers survive. The house was originally built around 1690 by Sir Robert Staples, extended in the early 1800s, and altered and extended again in the 1870s, including the addition of a clock tower in 1878 and the windowed porte-cochere around 1880. The main staircase and entrance hall were enlarged around 1888. The long gallery wing to the west was integrated with the house in the early 1900s to allow easy access to the first floor for the then owner, who was confined to a wheelchair. An Edwardian innovation of particular note was the introduction of electricity generated by a water turbine from 1902 to the present day, making Lissan House one of the first houses in Ireland to have electric power.

Despite its 17th century origins and Victorian additions, the house as it stands presents a broadly 18th century character in its general form and exterior appearance, while the interior is largely of the 19th century with some 18th century elements.

Architectural Overview

The house is a three-storey rendered building with hipped slated roofs. It has a single-storey porte-cochere projecting from the entrance front, a single-storey projection at the east end, and a circular clock tower projecting at the west end. The plan is an intriguing one: the latent 17th century arrangement is discernible in parts, while other parts reflect additive building over successive centuries. The rearrangement of the main staircase and the opening up of the main entrance hall has created a spectacular spatial feature. The structure includes some very thick masonry walls indicative of 17th century construction, as well as massive timbers from the 18th and 19th centuries. The combination of elements from four centuries, standing within a largely intact demesne, makes Lissan House one of great rarity in Northern Ireland and of almost unique value.

South (Entrance) Front

The south elevation is nine windows wide across the first and second floors, with windows unevenly spaced but broadly aligned vertically from ground floor to second floor. The walling is smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked, with a raised vertical pilaster-like panel to the upper floors at the right-hand extremity.

The hipped roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in diminishing courses toward the bottom, with overhanging eaves on shaped timber rafter ends. Three chimney stacks are visible on this elevation; the one at the right-hand end beyond the front ridge is of very large girth. All chimneys are smooth cement rendered with a weathered sandstone cornice and carry octagonal stoneware pots. Rainwater goods are of cast iron, comprising moulded guttering and circular downpipes.

Windows to the second floor are rectangular timber two-light casements set in plain reveals with projecting stone cills. Those to the first floor are rectangular two-light casements surmounted by what appears to be a fixed top light. Ground floor windows vary: some are similar to the first floor, others are entirely fixed lights or have top-hung vents. One window at the right-hand extremity contains vertically hung sliding sashes of 1-over-1 arrangement with horns. Below this window at ground level is a canted ventilator.

The Porte-Cochere and Entrance Porch

Projecting from the ground floor is a single-storey porch containing the main entrance, which extends outward to form a bow-ended porte-cochere of unusual arrangement. The walls of both the porch and porte-cochere are smooth cement rendered with a moulded sandstone cornice and a sandstone blocking course to the parapet, behind which is a flat roof. The porte-cochere is entered through an elliptical-arched sandstone dressed opening in each side, forming an elliptical-vaulted passage. The arches are moulded and span between stop-chamfered square sandstone piers with moulded cornices, which continue upward as stop-chamfered sandstone pilasters. The bowed front of the porte-cochere contains three sets of large vertically coupled square four-pane windows with stone block surrounds and double-chamfered sandstone transoms, surmounted on the parapet by a circular moulded sandstone vase. The sides of the porch are glazed up to springing height of the arches with full-length square 12-pane timber fixed-light windows resting on sandstone cills.

Within the vaulted passage, the front wall of the porch contains a pair of sandstone Tuscan columns set in antis — that is, within the square piers of the porte-cochere — with very finely vertically grooved column shafts. These columns frame the main entrance, which comprises a glazed and panelled door set in a timber screen with sidelights and a fanlight, flanked by six-pane timber fixed-light windows. Facing this on the rear wall of the porter's room in the bowed end of the porte-cochere is white painted smooth render with a projecting plinth. This rear wall contains a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door with lattice panes, flanked by narrow panels, with a plain fanlight over the whole set in a semi-circular arched opening.

West Elevation and Clock Tower

The west elevation is three storeys high, with two windows to each side of a central semi-circular three-storey projection which rises to a fourth storey as a circular tower. The hipped roof of the main block is covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses. Walls are smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked, with moulded stringcourses to each storey that step up over door and window openings.

In the main block, windows to the second floor are rectangular timber two-light casements resting on a stringcourse. Those to the first floor are larger two-paned fixed lights, one incorporating a top-hung vent. The ground floor contains three glazed rectangular timber doors and one circular-panelled rectangular door. In the projecting bay, the first three storeys have rectangular sandstone dressed stone mullioned or transom-and-mullioned windows. The fourth storey contains a circular copper clock face set in a square sandstone surround, with a shallow copper-covered domical roof behind a parapet, surmounted by a timber louvred lantern with a copper cupola.

Gallery Wing

Connected to the north-west corner of the house is a later two-storey gallery wing projecting at an angle. Its south face consists of a glazed gallery at first floor level, which is timber boarded and has a timber framework of glazing. Below, at ground level but running into the slope of the hill, the walling is partly of timber sheeting including timber sheeted doors, and partly of harled brickwork set back behind a series of circular cast iron columns which support shaped timber beams carrying the timber boarded flooring of the gallery above. At the western end is the side of a smooth cement rendered porch with rusticated quoins.

The roof of the gallery is pitched, covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses. The west gable is smooth cement rendered, partly lined and blocked, and contains a segmental arched opening between rusticated quoins. This arched opening leads into an open room with a high rafter ceiling, containing within it a lower segmental arched and vaulted cement rendered open porch with seated recesses to each side, a tiled floor, and a pair of arched timber panelled doors leading into the gallery. The northern side of the gallery wing is of rendered finish with a slated roof, containing rectangular small-paned windows in segmental headed openings. The east gable is smooth cement rendered and contains one small window above a crudely formed projecting ground floor room with a low pitched roof.

North (Rear) Elevation

The north elevation is of broadly similar character to the south front: three storeys, seven windows wide to the second floor, with a full-height raised pilaster strip to the left-hand extremity. Materials are as to the south front, except that the slates appear to be in regular courses. Windows are of similar character and detailing, except for two at the right-hand end of the first floor which have small pane divisions. The second ground floor window from the left-hand end contains a small-paned lower light which opens as a doorway onto a flight of plain stone steps.

East Elevation and Ballroom Extension

The east elevation is three storeys high and three windows wide, much of it covered by a tall single-storey projection at ground floor level. The walling of the main block is rendered as elsewhere and the roof is slated as previously described. There are two second floor windows, one to each side of a rendered blind opening, and two first floor windows partly hidden behind the steeply hipped and slated roof of the projection below.

The projection is of rectangular plan with a wide canted bay to the front. Its east side is constructed of ashlar sandstone with a slightly raised frieze and a projecting stringcourse that forms the cill to a large rectangular window in each face of the canted bay. At the top of each of the two front angles of the bay are oval-shaped iron tie bars clasping the corners. The windows are double glazed and small-paned with margin lights to the inside, covered on the outside with bulkier framed plate glass. The northern side of the projecting bay is smooth cement rendered and contains two rectangular blind recesses. The southern side is also smooth rendered but is mostly covered by a comparatively modern lean-to conservatory, timber framed with a corrugated sheeted roof and uPVC rainwater goods.

Setting and Demesne Structures

The main driveway approach loops around a lawn in front of the house and includes a passageway through the porte-cochere. The lawn is bordered by mature trees. To the north is dense woodland with a river running through it.

A number of other structures stand within the demesne. To the west are various outbuildings grouped around a large grassed yard, forming a very interesting group with the main house. Beyond that to the west is a walled garden of four and a half acres containing a gardener's cottage. To the north of the walled garden, in an overgrown area, is an ice house. Lying downhill from the house on its east side is a small generator station dating from 1902. To the east of that is a bridge known as the White Bridge over the river, from which there is an uninterrupted view of the east end of the house. There is also a bridge called Laurel Bridge over the rear driveway well to the west of the house, and another bridge called Harry's Bridge over the main driveway well to the south-east. Further to the south-east along the main driveway is a gate lodge and main gateway. The estate also includes an 18th century bridge and cascade designed by the architect Davis Ducart.

In addition to these separately listed structures, a number of other features survive within the demesne in very ruinous condition. These include an old mill standing in dense woodland between the river and the main driveway to the east of Harry's Bridge, now consisting of a gable and one side wall of rubble stonework. There are also substantial ruins north of the walled garden on both sides of the rear drive as it passes through the upper yard, including gateways and buildings of as yet unidentified function.