A History of the House & Gardens 

The house at Oakfield demesne was completed in 1739 as the Deanery for the Cathedral in Raphoe. It remained in use as a Deanery until 1869 when it was sold by the Church authorities. It was brought by Thomas Butler Stoney who belonged to a Southern Irish family. Although the property consisted of the house and yard, with 40 acres of land, Mr Stoney, (who later became a Captain in the Donegal Militia), also acquired 100 acres of additional land and set up as a country squire.

According to repute he had twelve servants, including a coachman and a butler. In a census dated 1901, only five of those servants appeared to be actually living at Oakfield at the time.
During the long period of the Stoney Family occupation (1869 - 1930’s) Captain Stoney added to his property by buying the farm at Raphoe Demesne (including the ruins of the Bishop’s Palace), which he bought from a farmer named Hamilton who was emigrating to Australia.

In 1901 Captain Stoney sold a one-acre site from the Raphoe Demense that was to become the site for the new Rectory in Raphoe, now the Deanery, which was first occupied in 1903 by Rev. R Miller. 

 Thomas Butler Stoney married Anna Olphert on 11th June 1873. She was the daughter of Wybrants Olphert (1811-1891). Sir John Olphert of Ballyconnell House in
Falcarragh was her older brother. Captain Stoney’s family were connected by marriage to families with Army and Navy associations. One of his daughters married a young Army Captain, George, another married a Lieut. Commander in the Royal Navy, and two of his daughters assisted the Misses Sandes in running a Soldiers’ Home.

Legend has it that the Stoney daughters were not great beauties. Apparently Captain Stoney was so desperate to get them married off that he would throw grand balls and parties at Oakfield making sure that the light levels were kept very low and his daughters strategically seated in the shadows so as not to frighten away their suitors!   I have since discovered that this is very far from the truth. A direct descendant of the Stoney Family, Mr Paul Stoney very kindly let me see the original Guest book from Oakfield Park dating from the 1890's. This is full of anecdotes and poems celebrating the great beauty and charms of the Stoney Ladies. It seems
that Captain Stoney was a most generous host with constant house guests being entertained in very fine style at Oakfield. Many notes in the book refer to the grace of the ladies, the peacefulness of the gardens and the expanding nature of the departing guests waistlines!

When Captain Stoney died in 1912 the house was inherited by his son Cecil. This was the time of the Ulster Volunteer Force demonstrations and the Stoney family had a very strong friendship with Sir Edward Carson. In 1913 Carson was collected at Strabane station by the Stoney motor car to attend a giant rally at Oakfield.

After inheriting Oakfield, Cecil Stoney sold off the farm at Raphoe Demesne during the depression in 1924, later losing the outlying farms to the Irish Land Commission. He subsequently moved to England and although he retained the house at Oakfield Park and the original holding attached to it, he let the property out and for many years after, the tenants in the house were some elderly Church widows.

Cecil Stoney’s son, also called Thomas Butler Stoney, was born in 1916 and was educated at St Columba’s in Dublin. During the 1939-1945 war he had a distinguished RAF career as a pilot where he was a Group Captain. After the war he was a pioneer of the jet planes for DeHavilland and he flew the first jet from New York to London. In 1953 he was the pilot who brought the new Queen Elizabeth back to London from Tree Tops Safari Lodge in Kenya, after the death of her father King George VI. Edna Morrow, who lived in the house during the 1940’s wrote to us telling us how they would see the letters T.B.S emerge in spring Daffodils on the lake bank each year at Oakfield Park. These were planted for Thomas Butler Stoney by his gardeners. Many of the descendents of the original Stoney family now live in Canada.

In more recent times Oakfield Park has been owned by several local families including the Morrows and the Pattersons. We acquired the house in 1996 and work began on its refurbishment in 1997. We tried to restore the house to its original design, removing some layout changes that had taken place, mainly in Victorian times. Where ever possible the existing floorboards, stairs and panelling internally were retained and restored. We have even kept the small recess behind the window shutter in the Library, said to be where Captain Stoney hid his bottle of scotch. One of the fireplaces from the house, originally from Raphoe Castle, can now be seen at the Volt House, Raphoe.

The brick lined stone wall of the walled garden was in very good condition and needed only minor repairs. Originally the garden would have been worked to supply the house and all its staff with fresh vegetables and fruit. Only an old pear and plum tree remain. However we did discover a broken Victorian ‘Ram’ Pump. Some detective work lead us to an English company called Green & Carter in Somerset, who told us that they had a record of having installed the pump at Oakfield Park in 1864. They were able to repair and restore the pump which is now working again pumping water through the ponds.

Oakfield Park has many mature trees, one reputedly as old as the Battle of the Boyne. However, we were surprised to discover that despite it's name there were only two or three mature oak trees left in the grounds. It appeared that in the 1950’s or 60’s the estate was bought and all the Oak timber harvested. Sadly these trees were never replaced. We have since embarked on a major tree planting plan all over the grounds, planting mainly Irish native woodland species.

When we first worked on restoring the grounds at Oakfield we re-instated the old entrance roads and internal paths so that they complied with the original design. We’ve since been able to open up the ‘Old Coach Road’ an old lane that ran directly towards Strabane, from the lower fields.

Many of the local myths that surround Oakfield Park are about secret tunnels and passages, perhaps as escape routes or to connect the house to the castle in Raphoe. Sadly, although we would love to find one - as yet we have not. There is a very deep, brick built ice house at the back of the lake, originally storing the harvested lake ice through to the summer. We were hopeful of this providing a tunnel entrance and explored it several years ago with ladders and ropes but found nothing.

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