Survey Data

Reg No

15704140


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Historical, Social


Original Use

Presbytery/parochial/curate's house


Date

1875 - 1880


Coordinates

295798, 114690


Date Recorded

14/09/2007


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached three-bay two-storey parochial house, built 1877, on a rectangular plan with single-bay two-storey side elevations. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Undergoing renovation, 2007. Now disused. Replacement hipped artificial slate roof with ridge tiles, paired roughcast central chimney stacks having "Cavetto" stringcourses below capping supporting yellow terracotta octagonal pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on slightly overhanging box eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Replacement roughcast walls. Segmental-headed central door opening, replacement timber doorcase with engaged pilasters supporting beaded cornice, and concealed dressings framing replacement glazed timber double doors having fanlight. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement six-over-six timber sash windows. Set in unkempt grounds with replacement concrete block piers to perimeter having cut-granite capping.

Appraisal

A parochial house erected on a site obtained (1877) from James Howlin (d. 1894) of Ballycronigan House (see 15704848) representing an integral component of the later nineteenth-century built heritage of south County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase showing a pretty fanlight; and the slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. A period of unoccupancy notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original or replicated fabric, thus upholding much of the character of the composition. Furthermore, an adjacent stable outbuilding (extant 1903) continues to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained ensemble having historic connections with the Cleristown parish Catholic clergy including Reverend Thomas A. Roche CC (1857-1901), 'Roman Catholic Curate formerly of Glenbrien Enniscorthy and late of Cleariestown [sic] Murntown County Wexford' (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1901, 421; cf. 15704139); Reverend Daniel Redmond (----), 'Roman Catholic Priest' (NA 1901); and Reverend Patrick King (----), 'Roman Catholic Clergyman' (NA 1911).