Lissan House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lissan House |
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Lissan House
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| General information | |
| Type | House |
| Architectural style | Ulster Plantation House with Georgian and Victorian additions |
| Location | Cookstown, County Tyrone |
| Coordinates | 54°40′58″N 6°45′52″W / 54.682702°N 6.764539°W |
| Construction started | Evidence of building on site c.1580; first constructed c.1620; reconstructed c.1690 with notable alterations in c.1780, c.1840 and c.1880 |
| Governing body | Lissan House Trust |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Alterations by Davis Ducart |
Lissan House is an old, important house in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It was once the home of the Staples family, who were a noble family.
It's located near the Sperrin Mountains, surrounded by old woods, close to the town of Cookstown. Today, Lissan House is a popular place for visitors to explore.
Contents
The Staples Family at Lissan
The Staples family lived at Lissan House for a very long time, from around 1620 until 2006. This is the longest time any family has lived in one house in Ireland!
The first Staples family member to live here was Thomas Staples. He came from England around 1610. This was part of a plan called the plantation of Ulster, where new people were encouraged to settle in Ulster.
Early Days and Challenges
Around 1622, Thomas Staples married Charity Jones. In 1628, King Charles I made him the first Baronet of Lissan and Faughanvale. A Baronet is a special title, like a knight, that can be passed down in the family.
Around the same time, Thomas bought land, including the area where Lissan House now stands. It's thought that a house and an iron forge (a place to melt iron) were already on the land. The forge helped the house survive the Irish Rebellion of 1641. During the rebellion, rebels used the estate to make weapons. Because of this, the buildings were saved, even though nearby towns were destroyed.
Charity, Lady Staples, and her four children were held captive for almost two years. They were eventually freed when the rebels were stopped.
Building the House We See Today
The house you see today was mostly built by Sir Thomas's grandson, Sir Robert Staples. He became the fourth Baronet. Around 1690, he improved the estate, building mills and making the iron forge bigger. He also built much of the current house, using parts of the older dwelling.
Sir Robert also created a large, five-acre walled garden that you can still see today. A huge oak staircase was a main feature of his house. It still dominates the house, even after being rebuilt in the 1880s.
Lissan in the 1700s
For almost 100 years, the ownership of Lissan House was debated in court. This was due to a legal issue from the marriage of Sir Robert Staples. Eventually, in 1774, the courts decided that Lissan would become the home of a different branch of the Staples family.
John Staples and His Travels
The new owner was John Staples. He was a very talented lawyer and a member of the Irish Parliament. He traveled to Italy twice, bringing back many books, paintings, and sculptures to Lissan. He was even painted by a famous Italian artist named Pompeo Batoni.
John Staples married twice. His children married into some of the most important families in Ireland. He and his second wife were also the great-great-grandparents of the famous writer C. S. Lewis.
New Designs and Improvements
John's father, Rev. Thomas Staples, helped start the Tyrone Mining Company. He brought an architect named Davis Ducart from Italy to Ireland. Ducart designed the White Bridge on the Lissan Estate. He also planned a special water garden with fountains and waterfalls. These features still exist on the estate today.
In the 1830s, the White Bridge was rebuilt. Its new design was inspired by a screen inside Lissan House.
Changes in the 1800s
When the eighth Baronet, Sir Robert, passed away without a direct heir, the Baronet title went to John Staples's oldest son, Thomas. He became the ninth Baronet, bringing the title back to Lissan. Sir Thomas Staples was a well-known lawyer.
He married Catherine Hawkins, who was also from a wealthy family. They bought a large house in Dublin. Sir Thomas also made big additions to Lissan House. The most notable was a large ballroom. This room was built to have great views of the water gardens.
The ballroom was very fancy, with an early central heating system and double-glazed windows. The floorboards were specially designed for dancing. The room was decorated in a striking red and black style, with expensive hand-painted Chinese wallpaper. Small pieces of this wallpaper can still be seen today.
Sir Thomas's younger brother, Rev. John Molesworth Staples, asked a famous architect named John Nash to design the Lissan Rectory and a church in Cookstown. Nash was known for designing buildings for King George IV.
The Estate's Decline
Sir Thomas died in 1865 without children. So, the Baronet title and the estate went to his nephew, Nathaniel, who became the 10th Baronet. However, Sir Thomas left all the valuable items in the house and most of the family's money to his wife, Catherine.
When Catherine died, Lissan House went to Sir Nathaniel, but the house's contents were given to other relatives. This meant Sir Nathaniel suddenly owned a large house with very little furniture and not much money. This started a quick financial decline for the estate.
When Sir Nathaniel finally moved into Lissan in the 1880s, he still tried to live a grand life despite his money problems. He added a covered entrance for carriages to the front of the house. He also bought a clock tower from a nearby town and added it to the house.
This clock was made in 1820, and its bell can still be heard today. Sir Nathaniel lived with an unusual companion, Mary Potter, from Cookstown.
By the time Sir Nathaniel died in 1899, the family was almost completely broke. To make things worse, the 11th Baronet, Sir John Staples, became mentally unwell. He spent his time as Baronet in special care homes until he died in 1933.
Because of this, the estate was managed by James Head Staples, Sir Nathaniel's second oldest son. He and his wife tried to make money by building a creamery and taking in boarders. Mrs. Staples taught cooking and lace-making to local girls. James also installed a water turbine in 1902, which provided electricity to the house until 2004. It still works today! However, the estate continued to struggle financially.
Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples, the Artist Baronet
By 1911, James Head Staples was too unwell to manage the estate. So, his younger brother, Robert Ponsonby Staples, moved to Lissan in 1912. Robert Ponsonby Staples was an incredibly talented artist. He studied art in Germany and became a famous portrait artist in London.
His paintings are now very valuable. His most famous work, An Imaginary Cricket Match, is at Lord's Cricket Ground. Other large paintings are in the House of Lords and Westminster. Robert Ponsonby was also known for being a socialite and a friend of King Edward VII. He was famous for refusing to wear shoes, believing it was good for his health.
Even though his paintings are worth a lot today, he didn't make much money from them during his lifetime. After moving to Lissan, his money ran out. He would often ask the postman for a loan or pawn his own paintings to get cash. A big sale was held during his time, where many of the remaining paintings and furniture were sold off. He became the Baronet in 1933 at age 80 and died 10 years later.
Lissan in Recent Times
By 1943, the estate had lost most of its furniture and land. It was almost bankrupt. Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples's oldest son, Sir Robert George Alexander Staples, the 13th Baronet, couldn't afford to live at Lissan. He hired a relative, Harry Radclyffe-Dolling, to manage the estate and moved to England for work.
Harry Dolling divided the house into many small apartments. From 1943 until the late 1960s, over a hundred people lived in these flats, which were carved out of the once grand rooms. Many of the remaining valuable items were sent to another house for safekeeping and were never returned.
Sir Robert George Alexander worried that his family would no longer own Lissan. He only had two daughters. His elder daughter, Hazel, had a career at sea. Neither daughter seemed interested in the crumbling estate. However, after her father's death in 1970, Hazel visited Lissan and met Harry Dolling. Within a year, they married and moved into Lissan, making it a single family home again.
While Hazel inherited the house, the Baronet title passed to a distant cousin, Sir Jack Staples. The title continued to pass through various cousins, none of whom had male heirs.
Because the last few Baronets had no male heirs, a search began in 1990 to find the next Staples Baronet. A genetic research program started in 2002 to help find a new heir. Several candidates have been identified, but none have fully proven their claim. As a result, when Sir Richard Molesworth Staples died in 2013, the Baronetcy was declared "dormant," meaning there is no current holder of the title.
Saving Lissan House
After inheriting the house, Hazel lived there alone from 1990. By 1997, she realized that no family member could afford to take care of the estate. Hazel had dedicated her life to preserving this unique and historic property. So, she decided to create a special group called a Charitable Trust. This trust would find a way to secure the future of the estate.
In 2003, Lissan House was featured on a TV show called Restoration. The show promised over £1,000,000 for the winning building's restoration. Lissan and Hazel, its owner, became very popular with the public. Lissan made it to the grand final but narrowly lost. Sadly, even though the show brought Lissan a lot of attention, it didn't provide any funding.
The Charitable Trust was re-formed in 2004 as the Lissan House Trust. Hazel Radclyffe-Dolling passed away in April 2006. In her will, she left the entire estate to the Trust. Her condition was that a plan for restoration had to be secured within three years of her death.
Today, Lissan is a fascinating part of Ulster's history. In August 2007, the Lissan House Trust opened the house to the public for the first time. Nearly 5,000 visitors came in just eight days, showing how popular Lissan could be.
In 2010, the first phase of restoration work began. Major repairs were done to the main house, making it structurally safe. The roof was replaced, and old cement was removed and replaced with traditional materials. The windows were also updated. Inside, the house was redecorated, and new forest trails and an adventure playground were built. An exhibition about the house's history was also installed.
The Trust is now looking for funding for the second phase of restoration. This will include restoring the interior decorations, rebuilding the conservatory, and fully restoring the farmyard buildings.
Lissan House officially opened to the public as a tourist attraction and events venue in Spring 2012.
Images for kids
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Rubbing of the Brass tomb plate of Alexander Staples of Yate Court (d. 1590). He is shown with his two wives and eleven children. His youngest son was Sir Thomas Staples, 1st Baronet Lissan & Faughanvale (d.1653)
