Cookstown

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Cookstown
Scots: Cookestoun
Irish: An Chorr Chríochach

Image:Cookstown crest.jpg
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Cookstown (Northern Ireland)
Cookstown

Cookstown shown within Northern Ireland
Population 10646 (2001 Census)
Irish grid reference H8178
 - Belfast 45 miles
District Cookstown
County County Tyrone
Constituent country Northern Ireland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town COOKSTOWN
Postcode district BT80
Dialling code 028
Police Northern Ireland
Fire Northern Ireland
Ambulance Northern Ireland
European Parliament Northern Ireland
UK Parliament Mid Ulster
NI Assembly Mid Ulster
Website: http://www.cookstown.gov.uk
List of places: UKNorthern IrelandTyrone

Coordinates: 54°38′49″N 6°44′42″W / 54.647, -6.745

Cookstown (An Chorr Chríochach in Irish) is a town in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. It is the fourth largest town in the county (next to Omagh, Strabane and Dungannon respectively) and has a population of 10,646 people (in the 2001 Census). It was founded in 1609 by Alan Cooke during the Plantation of Ulster. It was one of the main centres of the linen industry. A working linen mill can still be seen at Wellbrook Beetling Mill outside Cookstown.

Cookstown's main street, known as the One Mile Street, is the longest, widest and deepest in Ireland. [1]

Contents

[edit] Places of interest

The main street, looking north. Slieve Gallion is in the background
The main street, looking north. Slieve Gallion is in the background

Cookstown's main street hosts an open air market each Saturday.

The annual Cookstown 100 National Road Race is a motorbiking event attended by many motorbiking enthusiasts. It is the opening race of the road racing calander in Ireland and is usually held in April.

Ardboe High Cross and Abbey (Irish: Seanchrois Ard Bó agus Ministir Naomh Colmán), one of the best examples of a 9th/10th century High cross in Ireland is 10 miles from Cookstown. 22 panels illustrate stories from the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible.

Other ancient sites nearby include Beaghmore stone circles and Tullyhogue Fort, the crowning place of the kings of Tyrone (Tir Eogain), the O'Neills. Destroyed in 1602, the fort was salvaged to some degree in 1964, when the site was cleared and presented. Though none of the original buildings remains, the unusual layout (raised inner mounds, but no outer defensive ditch) is still clearly visible.

The Donaghrisk walled cemetery to the southwest of (and clearly visible from) the fort is the resting place of the O'Hagans, the chief justices of Tyrone (and as such, they presided over the crowning ceremonies of the O'Neills).

Lissan House lies on the outskirts of Cookstown. It is a huge structure of little architectural beauty but enormous historical significance and was, until the death of its last inhabitant, Hazel Radclyffe Dolling (daughter of the 13th Baronet of Lissan, Sir Robert George Alexander Staples), in 2006, the oldest domestic dwelling in Ireland continually inhabited by one family. From outside it rather resembles a large industrial building and was not helped by the insertion of steel framed plate glass windows in the early twentieth century. The entrance front is dominated by a gargantuan porte cochere built in about 1830 complete with coachman’s rooms. Inside, one is immediately stuck with the appearance of the bizarre and gargantuan oak staircase which rises from the stone flagged entrance hall the full height of the building. This was constructed by a local carpenter from the remnants of a rare seventeenth century staircase which collapsed (along with the floors between it) as a result of dry rot in the 1880’s and is quite unique, having flights springing at every conceivable angle (some of which go nowhere) and going to every conceivable nook of the house. The other most notable feature of the house is its grandly dignified octagonal ball room added by Sir Thomas Staples (Queen's Advocate in Ireland) in about 1830 with its fine if rather restrained neo-classical plasterwork, Dublin chimneypiece and carved door frames. The house currently lies empty, its contents in storage, but a Trust was established on the death of Mrs. Radclyffe Dolling to oversee the restoration of the house and its development into accommodation and conference facilities.

Killymoon Castle is about 1.5 kilometres (1 mile) south east of Cookstown. This imposing structure is Cookstown's finest piece of architectural heritage. It was built in just over a year at a cost of £80,000 and was Nash's first Irish Commission. It is two stories high and has two large towers to the East and West, one circular the other (slightly lower) octagonal. Parts of the original castle were retained and its former Chapel became Nash's library. Inside the dramatic entrance porte cochere can be found a stunning return staircase leading to the octagonal drawing room and oval dining room. The Stewarts sold the castle in 1852 and, after passing though the hands of some 6 owners, it was sold for the final time in 1922 to a local farmer for the princely sum of £100. The same family retains it to this day.

In 1868, Viscount Stuart (later the Fifth Earl of Castlestuart) married Augusta Richardson-Brady, heiress to the Oaklands estate on the outskirts of town. Immediately upon the marriage, Lord Stuart set about reconstructing Oaklands into the splendidly camp Tudor revival Drum Manor. This fine battlemented sandstone structure once had a tall tower to the East near the entrance front which was dominated by a gargantuan entrance portal surmounted by a large tracery window which contained some splendid Victorian armorial stained glass. Lord Stuart was also responsible for setting out the formal gardens and Demesne which survive to this day (in varying states on disarray). Drum Manor was, until 1980, the finest example of its type in the Cookstown District. In that year, Lord Stuart's grandson sold the estate to the Forestry Commission who set out the fine woodland habitat that exists there today. However, in an attempt to avoid incurring Rates liability, the Commission tragically decided to demolish the Manor. Today, Drum Manor Forest Park is one of Cookstown District's largest tourist attractions (complete with the highest-rated caravan site in the District) but the Manor lies forlorn, only its ground floor and tower surviving. Inside, where once there was a vivid collection of gothic carved wood, mosaic and stained glass, today exists a ghastly overgrown and totally incongruous faux-Japanese garden. Only the Manor's two pretty gate lodges remain intact to hint at the former grandeur of the estate.

Cookstown also boasts two very fine examples of nineteenth century ecclesiastical architecture. The first, St Luran's Church of Ireland Church on Church Street is thought to have been originally constructed in 1822 by John Nash and certainly plans for the church exist in his hand. However, even if Nash's church was completed, at most only the tower and first bay of this structure have survived Victorian extension by the rather dull architect Welland in 1859. Nash's plans show a castellated and battlemented church from which only the tower and spire bear any resemblance to the structure standing today. The interior is an entirely uninspiring and typical Victorian church structure with a chancel arch, hammer beam roof and large sanctuary with sparse but dignified decoration. The second church is J.J. McCarthy's majestic Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity which was constructed between 1855 and 1860 with a soaring tower and spire at the West End. It is one of McCarthy's earliest works in which the influence of AWN Pugin is still paramount and the later florid French Gothic of his latter years is nowhere to be seen. The church is constructed in the Early English style with a nave of 5 bays leading to a chancel arch and reduced chancel area beyond. Until the early 1980's this area was a riot of stenciled decoration, stained glass, mosaic, carved marble and Caen stone, but in 1980 the side altars, marble altar rails, spectacularly carved pulpit, original high altar and Telford Pipe Organ were all ruthlessly torn out and dumped outside the baptistery which was itself cleared of its font and shuttered off. The remaining neo-Gothic stenciling work was painted over and the ceiling stenciled work painted over in pale blue whilst the marble and mosaic floors to the Chancel were carpeted over. Only the gargantuan Caen Stone reredos survives (minus its central spire and High Altar) in a somewhat tatty condition behind one of the reclaimed Caen stone and Carrera Marble altars, the front of which bears a carved representation of the Assumption of the Virgin (presumably formerly in the Lady Chapel which would have been to the right of this space).

The crowning feature of the church today is the magnificent and utterly titanic Eastern Window. This was designed and manufactured by Hardman of Birmingham (a firm employed and partly run by AWN Pugin) and has representations of the Canonized Bishops and Abbots of the Archdiocese of Armagh around a representation of the Virgin crowned in glory and below a tripartite window representing the constituents of the Holy Trinity. The remaining stained glass is mainly by Mayer of Munich and dates to the end of the nineteenth century (representations can be found of the Holy Family, the revelation of the Sacred Heart, Saint Brigid and Saint Patrick) though there is a very fine Art Deco window showing the Annunciation in the style of Harry Clarke in the former Lady Chapel (now a seating area). Much of this glass has very recently been damaged and it is particularly distressing to see one of the lower panels of the spectacular Hardman window (unique in Ireland) with a large hole present.

[edit] Politics

In elections for the Westminster Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly it is part of the Mid Ulster constituency.

The local authority, Cookstown District Council, was established in 1973, and includes part of County Londonderry, notably the villages of Moneymore, The Loup and Ballyronan.

[edit] History

Evidence of settlement in the Cookstown area dates back to around 3200 BC but the real history of the town only began in the Seventeenth Century.[citation needed]

[edit] The Plantation of Ulster

When James I acceded the English throne in 1603, he faced financial ruin.[citation needed] Securing his succession had been an expensive business and his profligate lifestyle had led to the accruement of huge debts to his Scots and English subjects. In an attempt to salve his financial sores whilst at the same time removing the threat of Rebellion among his Irish subjects (especially in Ulster where the old Irish landlords led by the Earl of Tyrone had rebelled unsuccessfully against Elizabeth I), James decided to demise upon his debtors large tracts of land in the northern parts of Ireland. These lands had formally been in the possession of Rebellious Irish landlords who had fled the country after the failure of Tyrone's rebellion of 1607. The demise of land was usually made on condition that the lands be developed and made profitable. The wholesale plantation of Ulster began in earnest in 1609 when hundreds of English and (much more significantly[citation needed]) Scots "undertakers" were granted leases of land in Ulster.

The lands around the present site of Cookstown had formally been in the hands of the O'Mellan Clan and was broadly known as "Mellanagh". This land was confiscated by James and held to be the property of the Established (Anglican) Church and was thus presented to the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh who was charged with overseeing the settlement of the area. In 1620, a small portion was leased by James Stewart (whose successors had a huge impact on the town a century later[citation needed]) and lands around the townland of Cor Criche were leased to an ecclesiastical lawyer, Dr. Cooke, who fulfilled his part of the lease by building 10 houses on the land (today covering the area known as Oldtown), which he stipulated were all to have front gardens (a tradition which until recently remained in place). In 1628, King Charles I of England granted a Patent to Cooke permitting the holding of a weekly market[citation needed] (which still exists to this day). It was thus that "Cooke's Town" was originally founded.

[edit] The 1641 Rebellion

In 1641, the native Irish revolted against the Planters in a bloody rebellion. Cookstown, being in the heartland of Ulster insurgency, was abandoned to the rebels who immediately seized the important Iron works at Lios Áine (later Lissan) and the area became a hotbed of activity as pikes and weapons were forged for the rebel cause. Lissan was one of the first estates in this area to be settled when it was left to Thomas Staples of Yate Court near Bristol in 1610. His son Robert Staples constructed a great[citation needed] house on the estate around twenty years later and this structure (though disastrously extended ever since) still survives today. The first settlers of the Lissan Estate did not escape unharmed during the 1641 rebeillion. Sir Thomas' wife and their five children were captured and imprisoned at Moneymore Castle about 5 miles away and held there until Moneymore and the estate were liberated by Sir Thomas (who had been in Dublin when the Rebellion broke out) and the Royalist army in 1643. When the armies of Charles I reached Cookstown in 1643, they routed the rebels and razed the remains of the town to the ground.

[edit] The Eighteenth Century-The influence of the Stewart family

It seemed as though the development of a town in the area had been put to a very sudden and final halt. Over the proceeding years, the lands around Cookstown were progressively bought up by William Stewart, grandson of James, until in 1671 all of Dr Cooke's lands were in the hands of the Stewarts and they had created the Castle and Demesne of Killymoon. Settlement however remained sparse to say the least and by 1734, only 2 inhabited houses remained at Oldtown. William Stewart and later his son James set out daring plans for the town soon after this. Inspired by the Wide Street Commission's work in Dublin, they planned a new town to be built along a tree lined boulevard 135 feet wide which would connect the Killymoon Demesne with Oldtown, a distance of over a mile and a quarter. This elegant street was laid out by the mid 1740's and has remained at the centre of Cookstown's development ever since covering Killymoon Street, Church Street, Chapel Street, Loy Street, William Street, James Street and finally Oldtown Street and being the longest main street in Ireland. All traces of Cooke's town were obliterated at this point.[citation needed]

Throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century, Cookstown prospered quietly as a market town where linens, seeds and other agricultural produce were marketed at its famous market. In 1802, Col William Stewart (James Stewart's unmarried son) approached the famous London architect, John Nash and requested that he visit the area to rebuild the Castle of Killymoon which had been burnt in 1801. This imposing structure is Cookstown's finest piece of architectural heritage.[citation needed] It was built in just over a year at a cost of £80,000 and was Nash's first Irish Commission. It is two stories high and has two large towers to the East and West, one circular the other (slightly lower) octagonal. Parts of the original castle were retained and its former Chapel became Nash's library. Inside the dramatic entrance porte cochere can be found a stunning return staircase leading to the octagonal drawing room and oval dining room. The Stewarts sold the castle in 1852 and, after passing though the hands of some 6 owners, it was sold for the final time in 1922 to a local farmer for £100. The same family retains it to this day.

In addition to Killymoon, there is evidence to suggest that Nash also designed the original St Luran's Parish Church on Church Street in 1822 and certainly plans for the church exist in his hand.[citation needed] However, even if Nash's church was completed, at most only the tower and first bay of this structure have survived Victorian extension by the rather dull architect Welland in 1859. Nash's plans show a castellated and battlemented church from which only the tower and spire bear any resemblance to the structure standing today. The interior is an entirely uninspiring[citation needed] and typical Victorian church structure with a chancel arch, hammer beam roof and large sanctuary with sparse but dignified decoration.

It is also suggested that Nash designed the Dower house of Killymoon on Chapel Street (now divided into two houses) and it is certain that he designed the Rectory at Lissan (a wonderfully frilly exercise in toy Gothick) for the Rev John Molesworth Staples in 1807.[citation needed]

[edit] The Nineteenth Century

However, as with most provincial towns in Ireland, Cookstown's greatest development came with the industrial revolution.[citation needed] With the establishment of Gunning's Linen Weaving Mill, the expansion of the Wellbrook linen finishing estate, the establishment of Adair's weaving mill at Greenvale and the final arrival of the railways, Cookstown's population quadrupled between 1820 and 1840. The railways allowed the fast transport to and from the town of agricultural produce and the town's expansion seemed unstoppable. Two railways established termini at Cookstown - the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in their dignified dressed stone station designed by Charles Lanyon (now much altered as a Chinese restaurant on Molesworth Street) and the Great Northern Railway in their pretty picture book brick station next door (now Cookstown High School's Hockey Club). Both transported goods and livestock for sale to Cookstown's market which flourished as never before.

With the exception of Killymoon Castle, all of Cookstown's best architecture dates from this period and the town still resembles almost exactly the town developed at this time. Probably foremost among the buildings of this period is J.J. McCarthy's Church of the Holy Trinity on Chapel Street. This magisterial structure was constructed between 1855 and 1860 with a soaring tower and spire at the West End. It is one of McCarthy's earliest works in which the influence of Pugin is still paramount and the later florid French Gothic of his latter years is nowhere to be seen. The church is constructed in the Early English style with a nave of 5 bays leading to a chancel arch and reduced chancel area beyond.

Other fine buildings of this period include the muscular Scots-Baronial former Courthouse (currently derelict) on Chapel Street; the dignified Classical First Presbyterian Church (Loy Hill) and Italianate Molesworth Presbyterian Church ( Molesworth Street); the pretty provincial Romanesque Methodist Church (Church Street); the Hibernian Bank on James Street (destroyed by terrorist activity[citation needed]) and the pair of railway termini aforementioned on Molesworth Street.

[edit] The Twentieth Century

With the linen and later the hat-making and brick manufacturing industries, Cookstown continued to prosper in the early twentieth century and its population continued to expand. Little architecture of any note dates from this period as the grandiose Victorian structures of the previous generation continued to fulfill their purpose admirably. The Great War had a devastating effect on the local community at a cost of life commemorated in the prominent Cenotaph (loosely based on Lutyens' Whitehall Cenotaph) at the centre of the town. This is Cookstown’s sole piece of public sculpture. As industry developed, a Technical College was established on Loy Hill in an imposing Queen Anne style red brick structure. This was opened by Mrs. Adair, whose husband owned the Greenvale Mill, in 1936 and the building currently lies derelict awaiting development. All of Cookstown's main educational institutions date from this period, Cookstown High School seizing the Victorian mansion and former residence of the Gunning family at Coolnafranky and the Catholic Church constructing its convent schools and St Mary's Boy's School (now demolished), all on Loy Hill.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Cookstown became the centre of much regimental activity.[citation needed] Killymoon was requisitioned by the American Army and a large internment camp was established on the recently reclaimed land at Burn Road. The town suffered no enemy damage during the war and the industries of the town prospered.

This however proved to be the last belle époque of the industrial town of Cookstown. While the linen industry survived to some degree in Ulster until well into the 1960s, increased fabric imports from the Far East rang the death knell for the industry across Northern Ireland. Cookstown attempted to put on a brave face[citation needed], constructing its distinctively moderne town hall in 1953 (now demolished) and opening the Daintyfit clothes factory on Burn Road as well as establishing an internationally renowned Agricultural College at Loughry, but the prosperity of the town was now severely in doubt. Gunning's mill closed in 1956 and was swiftly followed by Adair's Mill and the Wellbrook estate. The railways ceased to operate from the town in 1963 and while the market continued to be held on Saturday, its agricultural significance to the wider Ulster community never recovered and the sale of livestock finally completely ceased in 2004. One ray of light for employment came in 1970 with the opening of the Blue Circle Cement factory at Derryloran. This provided much in the way of employment for the local population, but the factory has polluted the town ever since.[citation needed] The sole building of architectural note from this period was Liam McCormack's Chapel, the cube-shaped body of which is tacked on to the high Victorian Gothic Convent of Mercy at Chapel Street at one of its corners. This most unusual patterned concrete and bronze façade was constructed in 1965 and contains (now greatly damaged) important stained glass by the Dublin artist Patrick Pye. ===The Troubles

People are getting used to a new beginning and don't want to be preached to anymore by a minority of load mouthed bigots.

[edit] The Present

After the PIRA's initial ceasefire in 1996.[citation needed] The town began a plan to regenerate the town centre which had been blighted by the destruction of its Victorian buildings. The tree-lined boulevard thought up by James and William Stewart was restored and a scheme of regeneration saw the creation of green space, flowerbeds and restored shop frontage. With Ulster's industry now substantially defunct, the town began to attract instead financial investment from shopping and tourism. In 2000, the architecturally uninspiring Burnavon Arts and Cultural Centre opened on the site of the former Town Hall on the Burn Road and began to attract large scale cultural and artistic events to the town whilst a year later, a development scheme began which saw the former LMS Railway Terminus turned into a shopping centre. Today, Cookstown has been almost completely regenerated with plans for further regeneration work to be carried out throughout the town centre. Another large shopping centre on Molesworth Street was built in 2007, and is now being extensively extended.[citation needed] The old Gunning and Moore Weaving Mill at Broadfields has been transformed into a large retail park with outlets of Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Homebase and Next being the first of a planned many[citation needed] to set up here. The formally untapped tourist potential of Cookstown is now in full flight with local sites of historic interest (including the last surviving Linen Beetling Mill at Wellbrook, Drum Manor Forest Park and soon Lissan House) attracting many hundreds of visitors per year.[citation needed] The town's central location and many hotels (for a population of just over 11,000 it has no less than 4) has meant that it is a natural location for conferences and meetings involving delegates from across Northern Ireland. It was the natural choice of location for the Mid-Ulster Sports Academy (established in 2003) and the planned Police Service of Northern Ireland training academy (which is to be built at Loughry commencing in early 2009). Many of the traditional local run businesses in the town have now seiced to exist due to various economic factors. Whilst the conveinience of the recent suppermarket developments is essential to the modernisation of the town, it is imposible to replace the local family run shops that were once the hub of community's up until the mid 1990's when many of them ceased to exist. The Cookstown District Council has, in recent years been determined to establish Cookstown as the so-called "Retail Capital" of Mid-Ulster and has begun a concerted re-branding and marketing of the town nationally. The Council, which recently appointed a Town Manager as an experiment in town planning, has secured millions of UK pounds sterling and ensured that inward investment has been at its highest level since the establishment of the town in the seventeenth century, developing beyond recognition the tourism, retail and hospitality sectors in the area.

[edit] People

  • Tyrone GAA Eoin Mulligan who won two All Irelands With Tyrone in 2003 and 2005 is from the town
  • Fulham F.C. and Northern Ireland central defender and captain Aaron Hughes.
  • It is the birthplace of Ulster Vanguard founder William Craig.
  • It is the birthplace of Republican political activist Bernadette Devlin, Who was raised in a small housing estate called Rathbeg (meaning small fort in Galic), one of the leaders of 1960s civil rights movement and the youngest woman ever to be elected to the British parliament (aged 21).
  • It is also home to comedians Owen O'Neill and Jimmy Cricket.
  • Oliver Sheppard, sculptor was born in Cookstown in 1865. His The "Death of Cuchalain" piece was chosen by De Valera as the national memorial to participants of the 1916 Rising and now resides in Dublin General Post Office.
  • Jonathan Swift stayed at Loughry Manor as a guest of the Lindsay family while writing Gulliver's Travels (published in 1726).
  • Birthplace of Mary Mallon, aka Typhoid Mary (on 23 September, 1869).
  • The Cookstown Drama Group won the confined section of the All Ireland One Act Drama Finals in Clonakilty, County Cork on 2 December 2007 with their production of Ruby of Elsinore by Bruce Kane. It was directed by Nigel O'Neill and starred Lorraine Creighton, Linda Heenan, Mairead Eastwood, Gerry Eastwood, Sean Hurson and Charlie Eastwood. This is the first group from Northern Ireland to win the Finals.

[edit] Sport

[edit] Miscellanea

Cookstown is famous for its sausages, known as the "Cookstown Sizzler", which were advertised on television by Rolf Harris and George Best.

Fictionalised as "Ballyglass", it is the hometown of the hero of "Utterly Monkey", a novel by local writer Nick Laird (husband of novelist Zadie Smith).

The local paper, The Mid Ulster Mail, is the biggest selling local newspaper in the area.

In the film The Devil's Own, the character played by Brad Pitt claimed to be from Cookstown, which he described as being "on the shores of the Lough". Cookstown is actually 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the shores of Lough Neagh, only slightly closer than Belfast. It is possible the character could have been thinking of the closest town to his father's shoreside farm, though this would have been unlikely given that there are many small villages such as Ardboe which are closer than Cookstown.

Jimmy Kennedy, although born in Omagh, grew up in the Cookstown area and was educated at Cookstown Academy (the forerunner of Cookstown High School). He is well known for the many songs he wrote including, 'The Teddy Bears' Picnic', 'Red Sails in the Sunset', 'The Hokey Kokey' and 'South of the Border'. He won numerous awards during his lifetime, and his name was entered in the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in New York in 1997.

[edit] 2001 Census

On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 10,646 people living in Cookstown. Of these:

  • 26.0% were aged under 16 years and 15.6% were aged 60 and over
  • 49.7% of the population were male and 50.3% were female
  • 52.8% were from a Catholic background and 45.1% were from a Protestant background
  • 3.9% of people aged 16-74 were unemployed.[2]

[edit] Education

[edit] References

  1. ^ Visiting Cookstown
  2. ^ NI Neighbourhood Information Service NISRA

[edit] External links

[edit] See also