Survey Data
Reg No
11901804
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
The Rectory
Original Use
Rectory/glebe/vicarage/curate's house
In Use As
House
Date
1805 - 1810
Coordinates
278083, 222453
Date Recorded
21/10/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey Board of First Fruits Church of Ireland glebe house, built 1808, on a cruciform plan centred on single-bay two-storey projecting breakfront; single-bay (single-bay deep) two-storey lower central return abutting single-bay (two- or three-bay deep) two-storey lower return (east). Pitched slate roof centred on hipped slate roof (breakfront); pitched slate roof (east), ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks on axis with ridge having capping supporting terracotta tapered pots, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on rendered eaves. Replacement cement rendered walls on chamfered plinth. Remodelled round-headed central door opening with two cut-limestone steps, and concealed dressings framing timber panelled door having fanlight. Round-headed window openings (ground floor) with dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement six-over-six timber sash windows having fanlights. Square-headed window openings (first floor) with dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement three-over-six timber sash windows. Set in landscaped grounds with rendered piers to perimeter having margined rock faced cut-limestone capping.
Appraisal
A glebe house erected with financial support (1808) from the Board of First Fruits (fl. 1711-1833; Papers Relating to the State of The Established Church of Ireland 1820, 222) representing an integral component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of County Kildare with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on an expressed breakfront with a restrained doorcase showing a replica hub-and-spoke fanlight; and the somewhat disproportionate bias of solid to void in the massing compounded by the diminishing in scale of the widely spaced openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. Having been well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original or replicated fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding much of the character of a glebe house having historic connections with the Kilmeage parish Church of Ireland clergy including Reverend Arthur John Preston (d. 1875) 'late of Rathernan Glebe County Kildare' (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1875, 611); Reverend George Garrett (1825-1908); and Reverend Mervyn Benjamin Archdall Byrn (1875-1960).