Survey Data
Reg No
15701226
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Rectory/glebe/vicarage/curate's house
In Use As
Rectory/glebe/vicarage/curate's house
Date
1860 - 1885
Coordinates
318594, 155117
Date Recorded
12/11/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey Church of Ireland rectory, extant 1885, on a cruciform plan centred on single-bay single-storey gabled projecting glazed porch to ground floor; single-bay (three-bay deep) full-height central return (east). Occupied, 1911. Extended, 1920, producing present composition. Renovated, ----, to accommodate continued private residential use. Pitched slate roof on a T-shaped plan centred on pitched slate roof (east), clay ridge tiles, rendered chamfered chimney stacks on rendered chamfered bases having stringcourses below stepped capping, timber bargeboards to gables on timber purlins, and cast-iron rainwater goods on exposed timber rafters retaining cast-iron downpipes. Part creeper- or ivy-covered rendered walls. Square-headed central door opening into rectory with concealed dressings framing timber panelled door having oversailing overlight. Square-headed window openings in shallow camber-headed recesses (ground floor) with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings with terracotta hood mouldings over framing replacement uPVC casement windows replacing two-over-two timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings in camber-headed recesses (first floor) with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement uPVC casement windows replacing two-over-two timber sash windows. Set in landscaped grounds with rendered piers to perimeter having pyramidal capping supporting "Fleur-de-Lys"-detailed wrought iron double gates.
Appraisal
A rectory representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century built heritage of north County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the symmetrical frontage centred on a curious "T"-shaped doorcase, albeit one largely concealed behind an expressed porch; and 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. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: the introduction of replacement fittings to most of the openings, however, has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, an adjacent coach house-cum-stable outbuilding (extant 1904) continues to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a neat self-contained ensemble having historic connections with the Ardamine parish Church of Ireland clergy including Reverend Thomas W. Manning (Bassett 1885, 388); Reverend Henry Rennison (1854-1934) 'of Ardamine Glebe County Wexford' (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1893, 363; cf. 15700715; 15703747); Reverend Thomas Waring Kennedy (1857-1915), 'Clergyman' (NA 1901; cf. 15609015; 15619011); and Reverend Robert Robinson Tilson (1871-1920), 'Rector' (NA 1911).