Survey Data
Reg No
13402403
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Previous Name
Newtown Lodge
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1790 - 1830
Coordinates
226953, 263714
Date Recorded
17/08/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey house, built c. 1810, having single-bay single-storey extension/entrance porch to the centre of the rear (west) elevation. Hipped natural slate roof with cast-iron rainwater goods and a central pair of rendered chimneystacks having terracotta pots over. Pebbledashed walls over smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with cut tooled limestone sills and diminishing timber sliding sash windows, six-over-three to first floor openings and six-over-six to ground floor openings. Central segmental-headed door opening to main elevation (east) having double leaf timber battened doors with spoked fanlight over, and with cut limestone plinth blocks and cut limestone threshold. Set back from road in mature grounds to the east of Legan. Complex of outbuildings (13402407) adjacent to the north. Main entrance gateway to the south comprising a pair of cut limestone gate posts (on octagonal-plan) having a pair of decorative cast-iron gates. Pedestrian cast-iron gate located to the west side of main vehicular gates. Rubble limestone walls to site, moulded limestone gate posts to rear (west).
Appraisal
This well-proportioned house, of late-Georgian appearance, retains its early character and form. It is one of the better preserved examples of its type and date in County Longford, retain much of its early fabric including timber sliding sash windows and a natural slate roof. The symmetrical front elevation with central round/segmental-headed doorcase, diminishing window openings and the hipped slate roof with central chimneystacks lends this building a muted classical character that is a feature of many middle-sized house built in the rural Irish landscape by prosperous farmers, professionals, clergy and the minor gentry from the late-eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century. The large space between the corners of the building and the window openings suggests that this building probably dates to the very start of the nineteenth century or, perhaps, the late eighteenth century. This building represents a good example of a typical house type, and is an integral element of the built heritage of the area. It forms the centre piece of an interesting pair of related sites along with the complex of outbuildings (13402407) to the north. The good quality gateway to the south completes the setting and adds artistic and aesthetic appeal along the roadscape to the east of Legan. It location suggests that it may have had some association with the Fox family of nearby Fox Hall (west )and Newport House (southeast), now both demolished. The land at Newtown was described c. 1835 as ’The property of Mr. Fox, of Foxhall, held by deed forever’ (O’Donovan Letters).