Survey Data
Reg No
31212069
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Presbytery/parochial/curate's house
In Use As
Office
Date
1813 - 1838
Coordinates
99736, 284518
Date Recorded
30/07/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay two-storey presbytery, extant 1838, on a rectangular plan originally three-bay two-storey. Extended, pre-1901, producing present composition. Renovated to accommodate continued alternative use. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, paired cement rendered central chimney stacks having stepped capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta octagonal pots, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on box eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls on rendered plinth. Segmental-headed central door opening with cut-limestone threshold, and drag edged dragged cut-limestone surround centred on keystone framing timber panelled door having fanlight. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement uPVC casement windows replacing six-over-six timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): central vestibule; 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. Street fronted with trefoil-detailed wrought iron railings to perimeter centred on trefoil-detailed wrought iron gate.
Appraisal
A presbytery erected as one of a near-identical pair of houses (including 31212067) representing an integral component of the built heritage of Westport with the architectural value of the composition, one rooted firmly in the contemporary Georgian fashion, suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase not only demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also showing a pretty fanlight; and the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the openings on each floor: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the continued linear development of the presbytery at the turn of the twentieth century. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: the introduction of replacement fittings to most of the openings, however, has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of a presbytery forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside the adjacent Saint Mary's Catholic Church (see 31212068) with the resulting ecclesiastical ensemble making a pleasing visual statement overlooking the canalised Westport or Carrowbeg River.