Summer Island House, County Armagh http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/search/label/County%20Armagh%20Landowners
SAMUEL COWDY, of Taughlumny, near Banbridge, County Down, was a sergeant in Cromwell’s army, from whom he received a farm of 273 acres at Taughlumny.
He married and had issue, his youngest son,
JOHN COWDY (c1770-1857), who married M Rollins, and was father of
ANTHONY COWDY (1809-92), who wedded Elizabeth, daughter of Mr Mahaffy, and had issue, an only son,
ANTHONY COWDY (1843-1908), who married Sarah Frances, daughter of Mr Jones, and was father of
EDWARD COWDY JP DL (1873-1934), of Summer Island, County Armagh, High Sheriff of County Armagh, 1920, who wedded, in 1903, Mary Jane, daughter of Robert McKean JP, of Rockwood, Benburb, County Tyrone.
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| Edward Cowdy (1873-1934) |
His eldest son,
ROBERT McKEAN COWDY JP DL, of Summer Island, High Sheriff of County Armagh, 1947, married, in 1939, Diana Vera Gordon, elder daughter of John Ralph Cope, of Drumilly, County Armagh, and had issue,
MAJOR RALPH EDWARD COPE COWDY DL (1940-2013), High Sheriff of County Armagh, 2007.
SUMMER ISLAND, near Loughgall, County Armagh, was purchased from the Verner family by Edward Cowdy in 1908.
It is a Georgian villa of two storeys and five bays; fine fanlight above the main door, with columns and pilasters.
The roof is hipped with dentils at the eaves.
The main entrance to Summer Island boasts one of the most delightful pairs of gate lodges in the Province, which were built ca 1820.
They are backed by mature lime trees which stand out in the landscape of this slightly raised strip of land in an otherwise flat area.
Shelter belts protect the southern half of the parkland, at the centre of which is the late 18th century classical house.
There is a modern ornamental garden at the house but the walled garden is not cultivated.
First published in September, 2013.
http://www.nihgt.org/resources/pdf/Register_of_Parks_Gardens_Demesnes-NOV20.pdf
SUMMER ISLAND, County Armagh (AP ARMAGH, BANBRIDGE and CRAIGAVON 03) A/043
REGISTERED GRADE A
Late Georgian parkland on gently undulating land (87acres/35ha) with a later Regency house
(Listed HB 15/01/001) at Annasamry (summer height), 2 miles (3.3km) south-east of Moy and 5.7
miles (9km) north of Armagh City. Well known for its charming pair of vernacular gothick lodges,
c.1790, which give access at Hall’s Hill from the south. The park in its present form evidently
largely dates to the late 1780s and must have been made for Thomas Clarke (d.1791), whose
family had held lands here from at least 1664. The park is depicted with its south avenue and
most of its plantations/clumps in place on a map of Annasamry dated 1794 by William Kigan for
Thomas Clarke’s son William (d. circa 1804). Summer Island (a name that first appears in the
1760s) then passed through William’s sister to the O’Donnell family and sold in 1822 to Col.
William Verner, who was responsible for re-building the present dwelling around 1825. Verner
commissioned the cartographer William Armstrong to produce a map of the demesne in 1822 and
this shows the carriage drive meandering axially though the park from the entrance, the shelter
belts, woodland blocks and clumps and also a high number of isolated parkland trees dotted
about. Many mature deciduous trees survive in today’s landscape, both in the open parkscape
and woodland. These are mainly oak and beech but also chestnut, lime and ash. The woodland
west of the house (‘The Jungle’) has a mixture of mature deciduous trees (oak mainly) and at the
gate lodges end there are screens with very impressive mature lime trees (the woodland here is
called Hunter’s Grove). As with the shelter belts and screens, the number of isolated mature
parkland trees that survives at Summer Island is unusually impressive. The walled garden, not
present in 1794, is first shown on Armstrong’s 1822 map and there pre-dates Verner’s time. No
longer cultivated, it occupies a square area (1.24 acres/0.5ha) with north-south sloping ground
and enclosing walls of stone and brick elsewhere using English Garden Bond; there are hot wall
flues to be seen in places. The west corner is curved and in the apposite corner there is a small
brick ‘necessary house’ or privy with gothick entrance. The top section of the long south-west
side of the garden has a low wall surmounted by a good Victorian railing, a feature designed to
allow views of the parkland from the walled garden (similar screens are also present at a number
of other walled garden and usually date to the 1860s). Elsewhere on this south-west wall and also
along the north-east wall of the garden, there is a narrow slip on the outside allowing woody
plants to be planted to hide the wall from view. To the rere of the house is a large
stable/farmyard and a collection of outbuildings most of which are shown on the 1822 map; the
main exception being 20th century open sheds with Belfast Rood Trusses. After Col. Verner’s
death in 1871, the property was leased by his son, William Verner, to Joseph Atkinson, Jnr., who
remained there until 1908 when it was acquired by Edward Cowdy. As mentioned above, there
are two matching lodges at the entrance (neither are in use),; these were described by JAK Dean
as ‘The prettiest pair of surviving Georgian Gothick porters’ lodges in the Province’. Both the gate
lodges and gates are listed (Listed HB 15/01/001). Private.
Irish Historic Houses 