Cangort Park, Shinrone, Co. Offaly
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. 56. [Trench sub. Ashtown] “An elegant two storey villa, built for William Trench, brother of 1st Lord Ashtown, and completed by 1807. Conclusively attributed to Richard Morrison by Mr McPartland, who describes it as “full of spatial surprises, introduced by the extraordinarly funnelled entrance.” The latter is a deep arched recess, beneath which the entrance door is set; it has a wide concave surround and is the dominant feature of the three bay entrance front; a front identical to those of two other Morrison villas in Offaly, Ballylin and Bellair. The interior is ingeniously planned, with domed lobbies and rooms that are bowed or covered with trellis-work barrel vaults. The plasterwork is by James Talbot, who was associated with Morrison on other houses.”
Detached three-bay two-storey over basement country house, built in 1807, with bow to east-facing side elevation and recessed entrance porch. Hipped slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, rendered chimneystacks, cast-iron rainwater goods and open eaves. Ruled-and-lined roughcast rendered walls with tooled limestone plinth course and quoins to basement. Timber sash windows with hammer dressed limestone surrounds and sills. Keystones to windows on ground floor. Windows to front elevation and bow with chamfered limestone surrounds. Continuous sill course to first floor windows on front and side elevations with shouldered arch detail above entrance. Ground floor windows flanking bow set within blind arches. Segmental-headed window openings to basement of east-facing side elevation with limestone block-and-start surrounds and horizontal sliding sash windows. Cambered-arch window openings to front and rear elevations with horizontal sliding sash windows. Recessed entrance porch consists of a segmental-headed arched opening with hammer dressed limestone architrave, deeply coved stucco surround leadings into the porch with a groin-vaulted ceiling. Segmental-headed arch with panelled soffit frames square-headed door opening with architrave surround flanked by pilasters with console brackets supporting dentil cornice and decorative foliate frieze. Glazed double doors with classical panel set within egg-and-dart frame above. Greek key skirting to porch. Door accessed up six limestone steps. Basement area enclosed by rendered plinth wall. Sundial set on a fluted limestone column to front site. Ruined summerhouse to rear site. Coursed rubble stone wall enclosed front site to west. Limestone piers and wrought-iron gates and railings to front site. Walled garden and stable yard to west of house.
Designed by Sir Richard Morrison for William Trench and completed 1807, Cangort Park in an important villa designed by one of the most prolific and successful villa architects practicing in the early nineteenth century. Almost identical to Bellair in north County Offaly, Cangort Park also shares many similar features with other Morrison designed villas. The deeply recessed entrance porch with a coved surround accessed up limestone steps and containing an ornate door surround with classical plaque above, is a striking entrance to the villa. The bowed side elevation, open eaves, limestone string courses and limestone chamfered window reveals and surrounds all contribute to the appealing design of the house and the significance of the structure. However it is the interior plan and decoration of the villa that is of most interest. The wonderful domed stair hall located in the centre of the building contains a sweeping cantilevered staircase and is decorated with the Greek key motif. Off the west side of the axial corridor lies a library with superb barrel-vaulted ceiling, reputed to be elegantly decorated by James Talbot. Although in poor condition now, the quality of the stonework, detail of design and elegant interior make Cangort Park an important part of the architectural heritage of County Offaly.
http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=2352
William Trench of Cangort Park, Shinrone, county Offaly, born 1760, was the fourth son of Frederic Trench of Woodlawn, county Galway. He married Sarah Moore a granddaughter of Edward 5th Earl of Drogheda and they had 2 sons and 2 daughters. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation the Trenches held some land in the parish of Croom, county Limerick. In 1836 Henry Trench, the second son of William and Sarah married a Bloomfield of Redwood, county Tipperary. In the 1870s Henry Trench of Cangort Park, Roscrea, owned 4,707 acres in county Tipperary, 2,113 acres in county Offaly, 1,926 acres in county Limerick, 1,581 acres in county Galway, 704 acres in county Clare and 432 acres in county Roscommon. His nephew the Reverend William Robert Trench of Liverpool owned 817 acres in county Tipperary.
https://theirishaesthete.com/2023/07/28/cangort-park/
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