Survey Data
Reg No
60260009
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Farm house
In Use As
Farm house
Date
1865 - 1870
Coordinates
319707, 224308
Date Recorded
12/02/2013
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey farmhouse, dated 1869, on a cruciform plan centred on single-bay single-storey flat-roofed advanced porch to ground floor; single-bay (single-bay deep) full-height central return (south). Occupied, 1911. Hipped slate roof on a T-shaped plan with roll moulded clay ridge tiles, paired rendered central chimney stacks having corbelled stepped stringcourses below capping supporting yellow terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on slightly overhanging timber eaves having timber consoles. Rendered, ruled and lined walls with rusticated rendered quoins to corners. Square-headed central door opening in square-headed recess with cut-granite step threshold, and nail head-detailed timber panelled surround framing timber panelled door having overlight. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing two-over-two timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): central hall retaining carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors; and carved timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set in own grounds with drag edged rock faced granite ashlar piers to perimeter having drag edged rock faced cut-granite capping supporting spear head-detailed cast-iron double gates.
Appraisal
A farmhouse representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of south County Dublin with the architectural value of the composition, one potentially retaining at its core the basis of an earlier house (extant 1837) displaying a comparable footprint on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey (published 1843), suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on an expressed porch; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the monolithic timber work embellishing the roofline. Having been reasonably well maintained, 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 limewashed outbuildings (extant 1909); and a gate lodge (see 60260010), all continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained ensemble having historic connections with John Richardson (d. 1884), 'Gentleman late of [Clay Farm] Kilgobbin County Dublin' (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1884, 701; cf. 60250010).