Survey Data
Reg No
13312022
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Worker's house
In Use As
House
Date
1840 - 1880
Coordinates
220145, 268615
Date Recorded
22/07/2005
Date Updated
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Description
Semi-detached three-bay single-storey former estate worker's house on T-shaped plan, built c. 1863, with advanced gabled bay to the west end of the main façade (south) and return to the rear (north) having pitched slate roof. Now in use as private house. Pitched slate roofs with red brick chimneystacks. Snecked rock-faced sandstone walls over limestone plinth with dressed limestone quoins to the corners. Square-headed window openings with dressed limestone block-and-start surrounds with carved detail to lintels, stone sills, and replacement windows. Pointed segmental-arch entrance opening, having dressed limestone block-and-start surround and replacement timber door. Accessed via stone step. Landscaped gardens to front, with snecked rock-faced limestone boundary wall with chamfered dressed limestone coping and wrought-iron gate. Yard to rear, with outbuildings having pitched corrugated-metal roofs, snecked stone walls, and square- and segmental-headed openings. Random rubble stone boundary wall and gate pier to adjoining house. Rear access. Located to the west of the centre of Ardagh.
Appraisal
This attractive building retains its early form and character, and is a fine example of its period. It is characteristic of Victorian estate architecture, which is relatively rare in Ireland. The juxtaposition between the red sandstone walls and the gray limestone detailing creates an attractive appearance. It dates from a specific period of rebuilding and restructuring of the village of Ardagh in the early 1860s. It was erected to designs by the architect James Rawson Carroll (1830 – 1911), who carried out various works at Ardagh for Sir Thomas Fetherston (between c. 1860 – 1865) in order to improve the village as a memorial to his uncle, Sir George Fetherston. It is one of a number of houses, of varying designs, in the village of Ardagh that collectively represent one of the most interesting collections of its type in north Leinster. The simple but well-built boundary wall, the wrought-iron gate and the complex of outbuildings complete the setting and to this composition.