Survey Data

Reg No

15612002


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Historical, Social


Original Use

Sexton's house


Historical Use

School


Date

1700 - 1840


Coordinates

302234, 149825


Date Recorded

20/08/2007


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached five-bay single- and two-storey split-level thatched house, extant 1840, on a rectangular plan originally three-bay single-storey with single-bay two-storey flush (east) or single-bay single-storey recessed (west) end bays. Renovated, 1938, to accommodate continued private residential use. "Restored", 2000, to accommodate alternative use. Part chicken wire-covered replacement hipped water reed thatch roofs with exposed hazel lattice stretchers to decorative raised oat straw ridge having exposed scallops, repointed red brick Running bond chimney stacks having chevron- or saw tooth-detailed stepped capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta octagonal or tapered pots, and blind stretchers to eaves having blind scallops. Replacement gritdashed lime rendered battered walls; repointed rubble stone battered walls (end bays). Square-headed central door opening approached by flight of five lichen-covered cut-granite steps with concealed dressings framing timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled door. Square-headed flanking window openings with concealed dressings framing timber casement windows having lattice glazing bars. Square-headed window openings (end bays) with terracotta tiled sills, and repointed red brick block-and-start surrounds framing timber casement windows. Set in landscaped grounds with boundary wall to perimeter having moss-covered rounded coping.

Appraisal

A house representing an important component of the domestic built heritage of Ferns with the architectural value of the composition, one allegedly erected for occupation by the sexton serving at the adjacent Saint Edan's Cathedral (Ferns) (see 15612001), suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a featureless doorcase; the somewhat disproportionate bias of solid to void in the massing; and the high pitched roof showing a thatch finish "restored" by Foras Áiseanna Saothair (FÁS): meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the continued linear development of the house in the nineteenth century.