Johnstown (formerly Peterfield), Puckaun, Co Tipperary

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. 161. “(Holmes/LGI1912) A three storey late C18 block with a similar elevation to the nearby Prior Park, of five bays… probably designed by William Leeson. Pedimented and fanlighted doorcase with two engaged Tuscan columns. Built by Peter Holmes, MP; in 1837, the residence of P.S. Prendergast. Now a ruin.”

Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988. 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22401404/johnstown-tipperary-north

JOHNSTOWN, Tipperary North 

Ashlar limestone gateway, erected c. 1780, formerly leading to Johnstown House, now demolished. Comprises central vehicular arch flanked by pedestrian entrances, all with pilasters, archivolts with keystones and with paterae to spandrels of central arch. Cast-iron gates and low rubble flanking walls. Detached three-bay single-storey former gate lodge to north, built c. 1780 and now in use as shop. Hipped slate roof with rendered chimneystacks, rendered walls with moulded eaves course, and having rounded corners to east gable with wheelguard. Double one-over-one pane timber casement windows with stone sills and with timber matchboard half-door. 

Appraisal 

This finely-crafted and well-designed gateway and its lodge once served Johnstown House which lay to the north-west and is a reminder of the quality of the now-demolished country house. It forms a group of interesting structures and is a notable feature at the junction of three roads. 

Paddy Rossmore. Photographs. Edited by Robert O’Byrne. The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, 2019. 

“Petersfield, otherwise known as Johnstown Park, was built by a branch of the Holmes family in the late eighteenth century. It is unclear whether these Holmeses were related to others of the same name in County Antrim who were of Irish descent (their surname being an Anglicized version of Mac Thomais). They were certainly settled in this part of the country by the early eighteenth century since in 1728 Peter Holmes of Cullen, Co Offaly, paid £4437 for 540 acres of what would become the Petersfield estate. It was his grandson, another Peter, who served as MP in the Irish parliament for Banagher, Co Offaly, and who built the house and named it after himself. The architect is believed to have been the amateur William Leeson, best-remembered for laying out the town of Westport, Co Mayo, for John Browne, 1^st Earl of Altamont. Perhaps related to the family of the same surname who became Earls of Milltown and lived at Russborough, County Wicklow, William Leeson, lived in north County Tipperary and seems to have designed a number of houses in the area including Prior Park and Petersfield. The latter was a tall block of three storeys over raised basement and five bays, the three centre ones being closely bunched together. Only a pedimented doorcase with engaged Tuscan columns broke the otherwise-plain facade. The interior seemingly contained good neo-classical plasterwork but no known photographs of it survive. Peter Holmes and his wife Elizabeth Prittie (a sister of the first Lord Dunally) had no surviving children so the estate passed to a cousin, likewise called Peter Holmes. The family remained in ownership until 1865 when Petersfield and almost one thousand acres were sold to William Headech who seemingly moved to Ireland in the 1840s to act as secretary to the Imperial Slate Quarry at Portroe, County Tipperary. He subsequently bought the business and did so well that he was able to pay more than £13,000 for the former Holmes estate. 

His descendant remained there until the 1930s when the Land Commission divided up the property, and the house was unroofed. When Paddy photographed Petersfield it was still standing, albeit in poor condition, but has since been demolished.”