Survey Data
Reg No
15400505
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Previous Name
Bridgefort
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1740 - 1800
Coordinates
230436, 267490
Date Recorded
16/11/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay two-storey house, built c.1770, with projecting flat-roofed glazed entrance porch to the centre of the main façade (northwest). Half-hipped natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles, raised verges and two large rendered chimneystacks with terracotta chimney pots. Roughcast rendered walls over smooth rendered plinth with quoins to raised quoins to the corners. Square-headed window openings with replacement timber casement windows. Semi-circular window opening with radial glazing bars to centre of first floor above doorcase. Square-headed doorcase behind modern porch. Set back from road in mature grounds. Located to the west of Rathowen Village adjacent to main entrance to Newpass House (15400501).
Appraisal
An interesting medium-sized house, with some unusual features, retaining its early form and character. The presence of the unusually tall and prominent chimneystacks, the tall narrow and widely spaced window openings and the rather squat appearance suggests that this house may be of considerable antiquity. The semi-circular window over the doorcase to the first floor is a noteworthy feature. The location of this house to the immediate southeast of the main entrance to Newpass House (15400503), suggesting that this structure may have had some relationship with this former demesne. It was formerly road-fronted before the roads were changed in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth-century to accommodate the construction of a new main entrance to Newpass House. This curious building is an attractive feature in the landscape to the west of Rathowen and adds to the historic nature of the locality.