Survey Data
Reg No
12312013
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Bennettsbridge Police Station
Original Use
RIC barracks
In Use As
House
Date
1790 - 1810
Coordinates
255071, 149225
Date Recorded
18/05/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached six-bay two-storey Royal Irish Constabulary barracks, c.1800, on a corner site with elliptical-headed carriageway to ground floor. Converted to residential use, c.1850, and possibly subsequently subdivided as two separate three-bay two-storey houses. Extensively renovated. Now in residential use. Pitched roof with replacement artificial slate, clay ridge tiles, red brick Running bond chimney stacks, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on rendered eaves. Painted rendered wall to front (east) elevation with iron ties to first floor, and unpainted roughcast walls to remainder. Square-headed window openings (in bipartite arrangement to right ground floor) with cut-stone sills, and replacement two-over-two timber sash windows. Square-headed door openings with one having rendered surround, and tongue-and-groove timber panelled doors. Elliptical-headed carriageway with wrought iron double gates (section of stone cobbling to carriageway). Road fronted on a corner site with sections of limestone flagging to front. (ii) Remains of detached four-bay two-storey rubble stone outbuilding, c.1800, to west. Now in ruins. Pitched roof now gone with no rainwater goods surviving on square rubble stone eaves. Random rubble stone walls. Square-headed window openings with cut-stone sills, lintels, and no fittings remaining. Square-headed door openings (including one to first floor) with lintels, and no fittings remaining.
Appraisal
An attractive middle-size building of modest appearance forming a vital element of the architectural heritage of Bennettsbridge for the original or historic use as a police station as indicated on archival editions of the Ordnance Survey, thereby representing one of the earliest civic institutions in the locality. Subsequently converted to an alternative use much of the historic fabric nevertheless survives largely intact, thereby maintaining much of the integrity of the composition while the presence of an attendant outbuilding, albeit in poor repair, enhances the group and setting values of the site in the townscape.