ONE OF Northern Ireland’s best-known historic structures has collapsed just two weeks after a process to compulsorily purchase the building was completed.
The clock tower in the Co Tyrone village of Sion Mills collapsed on Monday into derelict stables days after Strabane District Council had served a dangerous structure notice on the buildings.
The clock tower and the stables and gate house were built for the Herdman family in the 1880s and yesterday Cecilia Ferguson, a member of the Herdman family, said she was deeply saddened by the collapse of the tower.
“It was just so beautiful. It was built for the Herdman mills family in the 1880s by the English architect William Unsworth. It used to strike the quarters and was fitted with the Westminster chimes.
“It was one of Northern Ireland’s landmark buildings and it’s dreadful to think that it’s now been lost,” said Mrs Ferguson, who is also a member of the Sion Mills Preservation Trust.
“My family sold the stables and gate lodge and the clock tower in 1967 and the buildings gradually fell into a state of dereliction.”
She said that on May 27th the trust received word that a compulsory purchase order had been finalised with a view to restoring the clock tower but it seemed now to be too late. “It’s just terrible that a beautiful structure such as this can come to such an end”, she said.
Meanwhile a spokeswoman for the Environmental Heritage Services said they were waiting for an engineer’s report to be completed before decided what to do with the collapsed bell tower.