Survey Data
Reg No
11900202
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Farm house
Date
1800 - 1837
Coordinates
262448, 236471
Date Recorded
03/10/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey farmhouse, extant 1837, on a rectangular plan with three-bay two-storey side elevations. "Improved", pre-1909, producing present composition. Occupied, 1911. Sold, 2002. Now disused. Hipped slate roof on an L-shaped plan with hipped slate roof (south-west), clay ridge tiles, paired roughcast central chimney stacks having cut-limestone chamfered capping supporting yellow terracotta octagonal pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves. Lime rendered coursed rubble limestone walls with concealed flush quoins to corners. Segmental-headed central door opening with threshold, and block-and-start surround centred on fluted keystone framing replacement timber panelled double doors having fanlight. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing six-over-six timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings to rear (west) elevation with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings including lintels framing two-over-two timber sash windows. Set in unkempt grounds with reclaimed rusticated limestone ashlar piers to perimeter having "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed cornices below capping.
Appraisal
A farmhouse representing an integral component of the domestic built heritage of County Kildare with the architectural value of the composition, one rooted firmly in the contemporary Georgian fashion, suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a restrained doorcase showing a simple radial fanlight; and the somewhat disproportionate bias of solid to void in the massing compounded by the very slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a feint graduated visual impression: meanwhile, a comparison of the first (surveyed 1837; published 1839) and second (surveyed 1909; published 1910) editions of the Ordnance Survey clearly illustrates the continued development or "improvement" of the farmhouse in the nineteenth century. A period of apparent unoccupancy notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent outbuildings (extant 1909) continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained estate having historic connections with the Hill family including John Hill (----), 'Farmer' (NA 1911).