Survey Data
Reg No
12404214
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Farm house
In Use As
Farm house
Date
1700 - 1839
Coordinates
251898, 114041
Date Recorded
01/01/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay single-storey lobby entry thatched farmhouse with half-dormer attic, extant 1839, on a rectangular plan centred on single-bay single-storey windbreak. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Hipped water reed thatch roof with paired exposed stretchers to ridge having exposed scallops, red brick Running bond off-central chimney stack having stringcourse below capping, and blind stretchers to eaves having blind scallops. Roughcast battered walls with rendered strips to corners. Square-headed central door opening with concealed dressings framing timber boarded door. Square-headed window openings with sills, and concealed dressings framing one-over-one (ground floor) or three-over-six (half-dormer attic) timber sash windows. Set in landscaped grounds with rendered monolithic piers to perimeter supporting flat iron double gates.
Appraisal
A farmhouse identified as an important component of the vernacular heritage of south County Kilkenny by such attributes as the rectilinear lobby entry plan form centred on a characteristic windbreak; the construction in unrefined local materials displaying a battered silhouette; the somewhat disproportionate bias of solid to void in the massing compounded by the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the high pitched roof showing a replenished water reed thatch finish: meanwhile, such traits as the symmetrical frontage clearly illustrate aspirations to "gentrified architecture" (cf. 12401804). Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, thus upholding the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent "tin roofed" outbuildings (----) continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene. NOTE: Occupied (1901; 1911) by David Fielding (d. 1912), 'Farmer late of Portnascully Mooncoin County Kilkenny' (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1915, 219).