Survey Data
Reg No
41402205
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Drum Post Office
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1820 - 1840
Coordinates
255997, 317543
Date Recorded
18/04/2012
Date Updated
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Description
Detached six-bay one-and-a-half-storey house, built c.1830, having gabled half-dormer windows with pitched slate roofs, and later inserted shopfronts to front (north) elevation. Now in use as house, post office and shop. Pitched slate roof, with rendered chimneystacks having simple, clay chimneypots. Decorative timber bargeboards, terracotta ridge tiles and finials to dormer windows, clay ridge tiles to main roof apex. Roughcast rendered walls, render quoins and plinth. Late twentieth-century letter box in front elevation. Square-headed window openings, having shouldered render surrounds and painted sills, and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows to front elevation. Square-headed window opening with three-over-three pane timber sliding sash window to east gable. Square-headed door opening to house, having recent glazed timber door. Recent shopfronts, having plate glass windows, glazed timber door, and nameplates to front. Later two-bay single-storey outbuilding attached to west gable. Street fronted, with car park to rear surrounded by recent rendered boundary wall terminating in square-plan piers.
Appraisal
The dormer windows contribute to an interesting elevation, enhanced by the patina of age due to the retention of fabric such as timber sash windows and the slate roof. The render dressings are a typical feature of buildings in Irish towns, emulating classical models and prestigious stone-fronted buildings, and creating a distinctive character and type of their own. The bargeboards and finials to the dormer windows are particularly resonant of the local style in this area. As a shop and former post office, this building is of social importance to the community of Drum village and the rural hinterland. Although asymmetrical, the elevation is nonetheless pleasing and well ordered, and makes a positive contribution to the village streetscape.