Survey Data
Reg No
15702031
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Farm house
Date
1700 - 1811
Coordinates
301686, 145844
Date Recorded
13/08/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey farmhouse, extant 1811, on a rectangular plan with two-bay two-storey side elevations centred on single-bay (single-bay deep) full-height return (west). Occupied, 1911. Derelict, 1999. For sale, 2006. Undergoing "restoration", 2007. Replacement hipped slate roof on an E-shaped plan centred on pitched slate roof (west) with pressed or rolled iron ridges, rendered chimney stacks on axis with ridge having stepped capping supporting yellow terracotta tapered pots, rooflights (west), and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Replacement fine roughcast battered walls on rendered plinth. Segmental-headed central door opening approached by two steps with concealed dressings framing timber panelled door having fanlight. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing six-over-six (ground floor) or three-over-six (first floor) timber sash windows. Set in unkempt grounds.
Appraisal
A farmhouse representing an integral component of the domestic built heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one rooted firmly in the contemporary Georgian fashion, confirmed by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on a restrained doorcase showing a simple radial fanlight; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. Having been sympathetically "restored" following a prolonged period of unoccupancy in the later twentieth century, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original or replicated fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thereby upholding the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent outbuildings (extant 1904) continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained ensemble having historic connections with Thomas Rudd (d. 1854; Lewis 1837 I, 357); and Nathaniel Webster Stephens (d. 1915), 'Farmer late of Tomsallagh Ferns County Wexford' (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1915, 674).