Survey Data
Reg No
13007006
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social, Technical
Original Use
Worker's house
In Use As
House
Date
1850 - 1860
Coordinates
214691, 275192
Date Recorded
02/08/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached two-bay single-storey former railway level crossing guard's house, built c. 1855, having flat-roofed lean-to porch to front and lean-to north elevation. Now in use as private house. Hipped slate roof with overhanging eaves having timber consoles and a central brick chimneystack. Painted coursed/snecked rubble limestone masonry with cut limestone quoins to the corners of the main body of the building. Elliptical-headed window openings having two-over-two timber sliding sash windows with painted limestone sills and painted brick surrounds. Square-headed opening with timber panelled door to lean-to. Set back from road, adjacent to Dublin-Sligo railway line. Located the east of Longford Town.
Appraisal
A small-scale level crossing guard's house, of modest architectural aspirations, which retains its early form and much of its original fabric. It is robustly built using snecked limestone, a building material and masonry style that was much favoured by the various railway companies operating in Ireland at the time. A great many buildings of this type were constructed in Ireland during the mid-to-late nineteenth century but few remain as intact as this example at Ardnacassagh, making it an important survival. It was originally constructed by the Midland and Great Western Railway Company to serve the Mullingar to Sligo line, which reached as far as Longford Town in 1855 and was completed in 1862. This small-scale structure is an integral of the industrial, social and economic history of the County Longford, and is a pleasant feature in the landscape to the outskirts of Longford Town.