Survey Data
Reg No
11903616
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
Presbytery/parochial/curate's house
In Use As
Presbytery/parochial/curate's house
Date
1860 - 1900
Coordinates
280245, 197208
Date Recorded
27/11/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey rubble stone presbytery, c.1880, on an L-shaped plan retaining early fenestration with segmental-headed door opening to centre and four-bay two-storey return to rear to south. Hipped roofs with slate. Clay ridge tiles. Brick chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Rubble stone walls. Cut-granite quoins to corners. Square-headed window openings. Cut-stone sills. Rendered block-and-start surrounds to front (north) elevation. Yellow brick surrounds to return. 1/1 timber sash windows. Segmental-headed door opening to centre. Rendered block-and-start surround. Timber panelled door. Decorative fanlight. Square-headed door opening to return. Yellow brick surround. Timber panelled door. Overlight. Set back from road in own grounds. Tarmacadam drive to site. Gateway, c.1880, to north comprising pair of cast-iron polygonal piers with decorative cast-iron double gates. Pedestrian gateway, c.1880, to north comprising wrought iron railings and turn gate.
Appraisal
Crookstown Presbytery is a fine and well-maintained middle size residential building that retains much of its original character. Although essentially a symmetrical design of graceful proportions and reserved detailing, the house is provided with muted decoration that portrays the emerging confidence of the Catholic community following Emancipation. Built of rubble stone with fine cut-stone and early brick dressings, which achieves a polychromatic effect, the presbytery is dominated by the central door opening with an unusual fanlight that spans wider than the door opening below. The presbytery retains most of its original features and materials, including fenestration, two door fittings and slate roofs. Attractively set just off the side of the road in the heart of the community the presbytery, when grouped with the church (11903601/KD-36-01), is of considerable social interest, forming the religious or ecclesiastical centre of the locality. The presbytery is fronted on the side of the road by a pair of gateways, the main gateway being an example of early surviving cast-iron work, while the pedestrian gateway is a rare survival.