Survey Data
Reg No
13303009
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Worker's house
In Use As
House
Date
1880 - 1920
Coordinates
209703, 279540
Date Recorded
18/09/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey former gardener's house (associated with Castle Forbes), built or remodeled c. 1900, with central single-bay gable-fronted breakfront and flat-roofed glazed porch to front elevation (northeast). Two-storey return and single-storey lean-to extension to rear (southwest). Possibly containing to fabric of an earlier structure c. 1820. Now in use as private house. Hipped slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, moulded red brick chimneystacks, cast-iron rainwater goods and timber bargeboards. Painted roughcast rendered walls over smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with bipartite four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows having painted sills. Square-headed door opening with timber and glazed door set in porch (to southwest side). Multi-paned overlights to porch. Located within its own grounds, adjacent to a secondary entrance to Castle Forbes and to the south of a walled garden (13303012). Located to the west of Newtown-Forbes.
Appraisal
This picturesque building was formally in use as a gardener’s house associated with the Castle Forbes demesne. It retains its early form, character and fabric. The central gable-fronted breakfront lends it a formal architectural character and gives it a strong presence in the landscape to the east of Newtown-Forbes. The bipartite sash windows and the multi-paned overlights to the porch give this building an Arts and Crafts/Edwardian feel, suggesting that it was constructed or remodeled during the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century. However, a building is located on this site in 1838, hinting that the present house is the remodelling of an earlier building. This fine composition forms part of an extensive group of sites associated with Castle Forbes (13303001) and is a worthy addition to the built heritage of County Longford in its own right.