Survey Data
Reg No
11822019
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Ballitore Constabulary Barrack
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Garda station/constabulary barracks
In Use As
Office
Date
1700 - 1778
Coordinates
279738, 196033
Date Recorded
29/01/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Archival Description [Demolished 2013]: Detached five-bay two-storey house, extant 1778, on an L-shaped plan; single-bay (three-bay deep) two-storey lower return (east). Occupied, 1901-20. Burnt, 1920. Renovated, ----, to accommodate alternative use. Replacement pitched fibre-cement slate roof; replacement pitched fibre-cement slate roof (east), clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks having concrete capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves with cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls bellcast over rendered plinth. Segmental-headed central door opening with concealed dressings framing replacement timber boarded double doors having overlight. Square-headed window openings with sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement uPVC casement windows. Square-headed window openings (east) with sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement uPVC casement windows. Set in redeveloped grounds with roughcast stepped boundary wall to perimeter having concrete coping.
Appraisal
Archival Appraisal [Demolished 2013]: A house representing an integral component of the domestic built heritage of Ballitore with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a somewhat featureless doorcase; and the slight diminishing of the widely spaced openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. NOTE: Occupied (1778) by Richard Shackleton (1726-92) and Elizabeth Shackleton (née Carleton) (1726-1804) and mentioned by their daughter, Mary Leadbeater (1758-1826), in her diary (1779): "My parents and their three daughters were now settled at the Retreat, a pleasant mansion. My mother delighted in her garden, which she kept in neat order. Her collection of exotics was curious and afforded much variety. She had no greenhouse, but kept those tender plants in the house, and the soft perfume of some of them was very grateful. My father...still active in body and mind, employed himself in writing, and walking about the village on visits to his neighbours" (Leadbeater 1862 I, 111). Leadbeater later recorded (1793): "Soldiers were at this time marching in order to embark for France, and some of the artillery were billeted at my mother's house. They were fine looking men" (Leadbeater 1862 I, 208). Retreat House was later adapted as a constabulary barrack but, vacated and 'the staff transferred to the Kilcullen district' (Weekly Irish Times 27th March 1920), it was attacked and burned (3rd April 1920) by a party of twenty-six volunteers at the height of the War of Independence (1919-21).