Survey Data
Reg No
22829018
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Roanmore
Original Use
House
Date
1840 - 1845
Coordinates
259349, 111184
Date Recorded
06/02/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three- or five-bay two-storey house, built 1842, on a T-shaped plan centred on single-bay two-storey gabled projecting breakfront; four-bay two-storey side elevations. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Sold, 1947. Renovated, 1998, to accommodate alternative use. Disused, 2004. Replacement hipped slate roof on a U-shaped plan with ridge tiles, paired rendered central chimney stacks having stepped capping supporting crested terracotta tapered pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-limestone "Cavetto" cornice; pitched (gabled) slate roof (breakfront) with ridge tiles, cut-limestone "Cavetto" coping to gables on gabled kneelers with octagonal finial to apex, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-limestone "Cavetto" cornice with cast-iron downpipes. Vitrified blue brick-detailed red brick Flemish bond walls to front (east) elevation on cut-limestone cushion course on red brick Flemish bond plinth with cut-limestone flush quoins to corners; replacement rendered surface finish (remainder). Tudor-headed central door opening in square-headed recess approached by two cut-limestone steps, cut-limestone block-and-start surround having moulded reveals with hood moulding on monolithic label stops framing replacement timber boarded double doors. Pointed segmental-headed or triangular-headed window opening in tripartite arrangement (first floor), cut-limestone block-and-start surround having chamfered reveals with hood moulding framing timber casement windows behind wire mesh screen. Square-headed window openings in bipartite arrangement (remainder) with cut-limestone cruciform mullions, and cut-limestone block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals with hood mouldings framing timber casement windows behind wire mesh screens. Set in relandscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A house erected for Sir Thomas Wyse MP (1791-1862) to designs attributed to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52) representing an important component of the domestic built heritage of the outskirts of Waterford with the architectural value of the composition, one refronting an earlier house variously described as 'Manor [of] Thomas Wise Esquire' (Leet 1814, 281) or 'Roanmore House...Manor of Saint John' (Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory 1874, 1306), confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on an abbreviated tower-like breakfront; the construction in a vibrant red brick with silver-grey limestone dressings not only demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also producing a lively two-tone palette; the vitrified blue brick perpetuating the memory of the builder ("TW"); and the diminishing in scale of the bipartite openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression with those openings originally showing heraldic stained glass. NOTE: The marriage of Thomas Wyse and Princess Laetitia Christine Bonaparte (1804-71), a niece of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), was tempestuous and, following their separation, Wyse became increasingly estranged from his two sons, Napoleon Alfred Bonaparte (1822-95) and William Charles Bonaparte (1826-92), who were devoted to their mother. Wyse left Manor of Saint John to his niece, Winifred Mary Wyse (1823-1908), but the inheritance was successfully contested by Napoleon Alfred who marked the occasion by commissioning a sculptor named Carew to carve a French Imperial Eagle over the front door; Napoleon Alfred subsequently passed the property over to William Charles. Occupied (1901) by Lucien William Bonaparte Wyse (1868-1903) 'late of Manor of Saint John's Waterford' (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1904, 513); and (1911) by Sir Henry James Forde (----) whose only son, Captain Henry Rawson Forde (1895-1917), was a casualty of the First World War (1914-8).