Archerstown, Thurles, Co Tipperary – ruin
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 7. “(Langley/IFR) A plain two storey three bay high-roofed Georgian house. Wing with Wyatt windows.”
and supplement:
“The house incorporates parts of the medieval castle of the Archer family. A section of the castle bawn wall is incorporated in the wall of a small deer park, which still contains deer believed to be descended from the deer that were here in the Archer’s time.”
Detached three-bay two-storey with attic house, built c. 1800, with lower two-storey slightly advanced single-bay two-storey addition to east end of front elevation and later lean-to two-storey extension to rear. Incorporating fabric of earlier structure. Pitched slate roof having rendered chimneystacks, and having flat roof to addition. Roughcast rendered walls. Square-headed timber sash windows, tripartite to ground floor and addition, six-over-six pane to first floor of main block, nine-over-nine pane to ground and to addition, with stone sills. Gabled porch addition to front. Garden to front, with wrought-iron railings. Rendered outbuildings to east with pitched and lean-to slate roofs. Ruined medieval castle to site.
Appraisal
The irregular fenestration is an unusual and notable feature of this house. Georgian architecture usually adheres to strict rules of symmetry and proportion and the variety in the placement and form of the openings is probably due to the incorporation of an earlier building. The site of the house retains interesting outbuildings and archaeological features which contribute to the continuity and setting of the house.
The Tipperary Gentry. Volume 1. By William Hayes and Art Kavanagh. Published by Irish Family Names, c/o Eneclann, Unit 1, The Trinity Enterprise Centre, Pearse St, Dublin 2, 11 Emerald Cottages, Grand Canal St, Dublin 4 and Market Square, Bunclody, Co Wexford, Ireland. 2003.
Langley of Coalbrook, Brittas Castle and Archerstown
p. 121. The third main branch of the Langleys, the Langleys of Archerstown, was founded by Thomas, brother of Henry who founded the Brittas branch. Thomas acquired the Archerstown [122] property in the parish of Thurles, and in 1780 married Catherine, daughter of John Nicholson, who was renting Turtulla House, now the clubhouse of Thurles golf club. Archtertown was formerly the property of the Archer family, who were dispossessed in the Cromwellian times. They resided in a tower-house type of castle which had a bawn attached and a water mill nearby. By 1654 the castle was “out of repair” and apparently never used afterwards as a residence. The former status of the Archer family can be gauged from the finely sculpted table tomb in St Mary’s churchyard in Thurles.
The Archerstown Langleys built a modest two storey Georgian house abutting the old bawn walls of the castle, a section of which survives, looking over the yard. They also built a deer park, the high walls of which still remain. The Christian name Henry was favoured also by this branch of the Langleys. Thomas’s eldest son and successor was so named, and he was a captain of the Tipperary yeomenry, which was very active in the Thurles area in 1798. He had a family of eight children, five who died young, including his eldest son Thomas. He was succeeded by his second son Henry (1817-1899), who was a magistrate and who married Catherine Maria, daughter of Dr John Toler, of Dublin.
His eldest son, Herny Oliver, an army officer and JP, who succeeded to Archerstown, married Ethel Maud, daughter of John Max of Maxfort, thurles. On his death in 1927 his only son Henry Richard (Harry) succeeded. He became a veterinary surgeon, and married Sheila Hinds, from Canterbury, New Zealand. They had two children, Oliver Henry, who succeeded and also became a vet, and Ann Catherine, who married Peter William Walsh-Kemmis of Garrans, Stradbally. Oliver died a few years ago and his widow Diana and family manage the farm.
Irish Historic Houses 