Survey Data
Reg No
13401404
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1840 - 1860
Coordinates
216549, 275987
Date Recorded
18/07/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey house, built c. 1850, having two two-storey returns with hipped slate roofs, and flat-roofed addition to rear (west) having metal water tank over. Hipped natural slate roof with a central pair of ashlar/dressed limestone chimneystacks and having terracotta chimney pots. Roughcast rendered walls, now covered in ornamental vegetation/ivy. Square-headed window openings with rendered reveals, one-over-one timber sliding sash windows having painted stone sills. Central round-headed door opening to main elevation having glazed overlight over timber panelled door. Set back from road in extensive mature grounds to the east of Longford Town centre. Garden to front (east) and to the south. Cut limestone gate posts and wrought-iron gate to the north end of front elevation of house, giving access to rear. Single-storey outbuildings to the southwest of house (not investigated). Main entrance gates to the south of house comprising a pair of dressed limestone gate piers (on square-plan) and decorative wrought-iron double gates.
Appraisal
This handsome and well-proportioned house, of mid nineteenth-century appearance, retains much of its original form and structure. The building is enhanced by the retention of such features as the natural slate roof, stone sills and the finely dressed stone chimneystacks. The regular façade is enlivened by the round-headed doorway and the diminishing windows emphasise the vertical thrust of the building. The attractive wrought-iron gates to the main entrance add artistic interest, while the outbuilding to the southwest of the house, and the appealing mature grounds, add context to the setting and enhance the composition. The present house may have replaced an earlier, and much smaller, dwelling to site (Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map 1838). Williamstown House was the residence of a William Allen in 1881 (Slater’s Directory) and a John Allen in 1894 (Slater’s Directory). William Allen Esq. was in residence at Williamstown from at least 1847 (marriage record) and perhaps the house was built at this time.