boyle local area plan 2012 - 2018 - Roscommon County Council

PART I: INTRODUCTION & CONTEXT Chapter 2: Historic Context, Settlement Policy & Vision
2.2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BOYLE TOWN
THROUGH ITS BUILDINGS
Boyle is one of the principal towns in County
Roscommon, and is situated on the banks of the Boyle
River, which connects Lough Gara and Lough Key.
The town is located within a steep valley which has
resulted in many streets having a sloping and
undulating character. Its narrowest street, Green
Street, is built on the ancient path that led from the
ford over the river to the Curlew Pass through the
Curlew Mountains, which was used for at least two
thousand years. From about 1729 it became the old
mail coach road out of Boyle with extra horses yoked
up to climb the steep hill over the mountains.
The town owes its existence to Boyle Abbey which
was established here in 1161 as a Cistercian monastery
by monks from Mellifont Abbey in Co. Louth, under
the patronage of the local ruling family, the
MacDermotts. It is one of the best preserved abbeys in
Ireland. It was invaded by English forces under lordsjustices
Maurice Fitzgerald and MacWilliam in 1235.
In 1659, the Cromwellians occupied the monastery
and did a great deal of destruction. It was mutilated
again during the 17th and 18th centuries when it was
used to accommodate a military garrison. In 1603 a
lease of the abbey and its lands was granted to Sir
John King by James 1. The town was incorporated as a
borough in 1613. The King Family, Earls of Kingston,
built six mansions over the next 200 years in the town
and in Rockingham, including King House from c.
1730, which survives today.
The development of the majority of present day Boyle
Town began around the mid-18th century. Henry Fry
arrived in Boyle in 1742 at the invitation of the Kings
and set up a weaving industry in the town; he built
Frybrook House c.1753 for himself. A new Church of
Ireland church was built on land donated by Lord
Kingston in 1765, consecrated in 1773. Freeman’s
Royal Hotel opened with the landlord’s approval on
the south side near the bridge in 1788, later known as
the Royal Hotel. A new small Catholic chapel was
built to the east of the town.
However it was in the early 19 th century that
development really kicked off and most of the
buildings that survive today date from this century.
Works were coming to an end on the Kings’ final
family mansion at Rockingham by architect John
Nash, later John Lynn, under the first Viscount Lorton.
A new suburb east of King House was developed with
key buildings located here - Abbeyview House,
c.1790, later occupied by their land agent, the estate
rental office from c.1800, a glebe house from 1806,
and a constabulary barracks around this time; these
were consolidated with later buildings, a school,
dispensary, bank, charitable loan society, lectureroom.
A new bridge was built over the river, a single-arch
structure, to the east of the town in 1817, as part of a
national scheme for improving mail coach roads. This
meant that the town centre was bypassed and this was
the start of a whole network of new roads though the
grounds of the abbey. Carrick Road was cut through
c.1825 and Military Road laid out. The military were
now occupying King House and Main Street was
slowly being leased from the Kings for development
from c. 1825. A new provisions market was
established by Lorton on the north side near the old
Boyle Bridge in 1826. The Crescent was laid out
c.1828. A new courthouse was built c.1830, subsidised
by Lorton on a site he donated; it was accompanied by
a bridewell grant-aided by central government. The
fine Tangier House was built to the rear. A new Boyle
Bridge in the centre was erected between 1832 and
1836, half of which was paid for by Lorton.
Intensive development tracked these changes; this was
undertaken by individuals usually with a lease from
the landlord. The buildings were generally built of
limestone with sandstone used in some public
buildings. A very good description of the town from
1832 by Isaac Weld testifies to all the new
development going on and recording the economic
boom in trade and retail. The town served an extensive
agricultural region and sent exports of corn, butter and
yarn to Sligo and to Drumsna for carriage to Dublin.
The mid-19 th century saw a consolidation of these
new developments. A new Presbyterian church and
house was erected in 1858 on Carrick Road. There
were also places of worship for Wesleyan Methodists
and Baptists. The railway arrived in 1860 which
opened up more of the southern end of the town for
terraced housing and added new bridges and workers’
cottages to the townscape. Another new Boyle Bridge
was built in 1864. Patrick Street to the west was
widened about this time and the old thatched cottages
replaced. Market Square, now known as The
Crescent, was very busy. It gained a tower clock
erected c.1880 to the memory of the Hon. Laurence
Harman King-Harman, who died in 1875, by his
tenants. The fine Catholic St Joseph’s church was
built to the east in 1876 amid the cluster around the
Convent of Mercy which went on to include schools,
a nun's chapel, laundry, presbytery and outbuildings;
this church was replaced again in 1978.
Boyle Local Area Plan 2012-2018 Page 6