Survey Data
Reg No
11903107
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Farm house
In Use As
Farm house
Date
1820 - 1825
Coordinates
271580, 199617
Date Recorded
--/--/--
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay (two-bay deep) two-storey over basement farmhouse, built 1822, on a rectangular plan centred on single-bay single-storey pedimented projecting porch to ground floor. Hipped slate roof with ridge tiles, rendered central chimney stack having cut-granite capping supporting terracotta tapered pots, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on overhanging eaves having paired timber consoles on rendered frieze; pitched (gabled) slate roof, perforated crested terracotta ridge tiles with terracotta finial to apex, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on rendered eaves with cast-iron downpipe. Roughcast walls on cut-granite chamfered cushion course on roughcast base; rendered walls (porch) with rendered monolithic pilasters to corners supporting rendered monolithic pediment. Square-headed door openings approached by flights of four cut-granite steps with concealed dressings framing glazed timber panelled double doors. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement uPVC casement windows replacing six-over-six (ground floor) or three-over-three (first floor) timber sash windows. Set in wooded grounds with rendered, ruled and lined panelled piers to perimeter having truncated pyramidal capping supporting cast-iron double gates.
Appraisal
A farmhouse representing an integral component of the early nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of County Kildare with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on a Classically-detailed porch; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the coupled timber work embellishing a slightly oversailing roof. Having been reasonably well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: however, the introduction of replacement fittings to most of the openings has not had a beneficial impact on the character of the composition. NOTE: Skerries House was built by Joseph Lapham (1769-1845) and, according to "The Haunted Room" by Joseph Mahon of Skerries National School, 'one of the rooms on the third [sic] storey is haunted… Lappon [sic] died in this room [and] his ghost appeared after he was buried' [The Schools' Collection Volume 0781, 219]. Skerries House was later occupied by Joseph Lapham Beasley (1810-84) and was the childhood home of the talented jockeys Thomas Edward "Tommy" Beasley (1848-1905), Henry Herbert "Harry" Beasley (1852-1939) and William Wemyss "Willie" Beasley (1853-92) who, between them, 'won four Grand Nationals, finished second six times and third twice in the fourteen years between 1878 and 1891 in a unique record unequalled even by the Welsh brothers, Jack, Owen and Ivor Anthony'. Skerries House was purchased (1909) for £3,787 by James Flynn (1875-1931) under the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 (Flynn 1997, 282-95).