boyle local area plan 2012 - 2018 - Roscommon County Council

PART II: DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR 2012 – 2018 & BEYOND Chapter 6: Built & Natural Heritage
2b) Boyle ACA – Character Statement The first step appears to have been the construction of the new bridge, “New Bridge”,
over the river in 1817, which lead to a new road, Carrick Road, cutting though the
The shape and character of this ACA derives from the influence of the local south side onto Bridge Street. Until this there had been very little development on this
landowning King family upon the ancient hilly paths which centred around a ford on side of the river and the only buildings predating this intervention that survive today
the River Boyle, their direct intervention through the strategic location of public in the ACA seem to be the Royal Hotel and Daly’s. The subsequent creation of an
structures in the early 19 th century, and the impetus this gave to development which open public space through the location of the courthouse and its associated buildings
swept through the whole town centre in the early 19th century and was to continue for by Lorton towards the southern end of the town, near the top of the hill, c. 1830, and
the rest of that century.
the Crescent development at the top of the hill which enclosed the open space,
influenced much of the development of Bridge Street. A new bridge was erected
Sir John King was granted a lease of Boyle Abbey and its lands in 1603 and over the between 1832-1836. On the north side the approach was also multi-pronged – there
next 200 years the family built six mansions for themselves. When the final house at was the opening of a market in 1826 by Lorton with its formal entrance screen which
Rockingham was almost complete the First Viscount Lorton initiated a massive created another public space near the bridge and the widening of Bridge Street, and
programme of public works in Boyle town that laid down much of the spatial lines the addition of estate buildings such as the rent office, a dispensary, agent’s house and
and forms, if not the architectural fabric itself, of the ACA.
other buildings in a neighbourhood east of King House (now occupied by the
military), at the opposite end of the town to poverty-stricken ‘Irish town’; another
new road, Military Road, cut through to these which enabled the development of the
former avenue leading to its entrance gates and which attracted some of the best
terraces over time. This eventually lead to the widening of sections of Patrick Street
and a new wider Boyle Bridge in 1864. (See Map 6a)
These developments did not obliterate the ancient road pattern but modernised it and
one cannot help but compare the landlord’s townplanning here to the machinations of
the Wide Streets Commissioners upon the shape of Dublin. Individuals then
speculatively built homes and shops to join up the lines and there was an explosion of
commerce in the early 19 th century. The huge changes that the town experienced at
this time were recorded by Weld in 1832 and Lewis in 1837.
Views of the ACA from outside and inside it
Boyle Local Area Plan 2012-2018 Page 59