Kilfinnan House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Elegant late Victorian house in the Georgian style. Three bay house with twelve pane sliding sash windows (no horns). Hipped slate roof and plaster quoins with painted harling between.

House set back from road in a mature tree lined avenue with farmyard buildings set to one side. Harmony of the composition marred by inappropriate 1960s porch, with flat concrete roof and until recently, exposed brick sides. Main entrance door beyond also altered for the worse, with crude square framing, patterned glass and rectangular side lights. Interesting kitchen return wing which is detailed in the Georgian manner on the side facing the farmyard and incorporates a simple flat roofed porch. To the other side, the roof pitch deviates from that of the main house and is very steep. A single storey lean-to roof spans over part of the kitchen which is wider than the rooms above. A sweeping parapet wall obscures the two roofs from the rear and the whole extension suggests the influence of Voysey and the Arts and Crafts movement pre World War I. Some windows to the rear are now PVC.

The farmyard associated with the building has been recently modernised and new floors and roofs have been installed in each structure. One barn of note has nice brick trims around the openings and decorative panels of brick at regular intervals. Buildings shown on the 1830 map seem to have all been demolished.

Historical information

The house dates from 1888 when it was built by the Smith family who owned the farm. Some buildings in the location of the farmyard are shown on the 1830 map though all the present barns seem to be from later in the century. Mrs Smith lived to be 100 and her daughter Mrs McCorkell lived in the house until it was sold to Mr Joe Hall in the late 1960s. The present occupants (1997) have lived in the house for ten years.

References:
Present occupant (1997)
Griffiths Valuation of 1858
Ordnance Survey Maps 1830,1846,1909

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Neo- georgian style house with Arts and Crafts period back return, set in mature garden. Spoilt by an inappropriate front porch.