Fortwilliam House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey with attic-storey flint-dash rendered house, built c.1800. Facing north with single-storey wing to east and two-storey return/outhouse to rear, forming T-plan. Range of single and two-storey outbuildings to rear enclose square-plan farmyard. Located on the south side of Old Kilmore Road at the end of a long avenue.

Pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge tiles and cement coping to both gables. Three replacement redbrick chimneystacks with clay pots, replacement metal guttering and plastic downpipes. Flint-dash rendered walling to front elevation, rough-cast render to remaining. Square-headed window openings and tripartite timber sash windows, uPVC to other elevations.

Symmetrical three-bay two-storey flint-dash rendered front elevation with square-headed window openings having smooth render surrounds, painted masonry sills, continuous sill course and plinth course. Original tripartite timber sash windows, 4/4 flanked by 2/2, with no horns and some cylinder glass. Central elliptical-headed door opening with smooth render surround, original flat-panelled timber door with original Art Nouveau brass furniture, flanked by pair of leaded Art Nouveau sidelights and matching fanlight.

Rough-cast render east gable abutted by single-storey east wing with single window opening at attic level with uPVC window.

Three-storey rear elevation abutted by two-storey rear return, having uPVC windows to a single bay either side of return.

West gable has rough-cast render walling with a single window opening to the attic storey and uPVC window.

Return has pitched natural slate roof, hipped where it joins the rear of house, gabled to the south end with chimneystack and pair of window openings to the gable having early timber sash windows. Camber-headed window openings to first floor openings with 5/10 early timber sash windows, paired 4/4 timber sash windows to the ground floor and uPVC windows to the rooms accessed off the house. Tongue-and-groove timber doors to both sides and to carriage arch opening to west side only.

The front door opens onto cobblelock front path through front lawn opening onto the lane via iron pedestrian gate on pair of rendered piers. The east wing is attached to a rubblestone and redbrick outbuilding enclosing the north side of the yard with original timber plank doors and redbrick door and window openings. A further outbuilding of note enclosed the south side of the yard having two storeys of rubblestone and redbrick with pitched natural slate roof and segmental-headed redbrick window openings wtih timber plank doors.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement mental / plastic
Walling Flint-dash / Rough-cast render
Windows Timber sash / uPVC

Historical information

Built c.1800 the architectural style, proportions and detailing of the building can be dated to the late Georgian period. The first edition OS map from 1833 shows an oblong building on the existing site accessed by a long tree lined driveway. The Townland Valuations 1828-40 identify the owner as Thomas Hull and record the premises as a house with outbuilding valued at £27s2d By the time of the second edition OS maps of 1858, considerable development had occurred on the site with multiple outbuildings and returns to the south and east althought the house is not captioned 'Fortwilliam House' until the 1903 maps. Griffiths Valuation in 1861 values the total property at £34 5s; a considerable increase.

By 1869 the Annual Revisions valued the property at £44 and record the occupier as Frederick Laugtry who remained there until the Irwin family took up the tenancy in 1897. It was the Irwins who owned the property outright by 1909, that carried out internal alterations and modifications to the dwelling at the turn of the century, introducing modern styling’s into the ornamentation of doors and bathroom.

By the time of the revaluations 1933-57, the property was valued at £50 with the comments; “Good repair, electric light from mains, water by pumping...”

The property remains in the family name at time of survey 2010.

References – Primary sources

1. PRONI VAL/1B/347 – Townland Revisions 1828-40
2. PRONI VAL/1A/3/13 – Field Map c.1830
3. PRONI VAL/2B/3/47A – Griffiths Valuation 1861
4. PRONI VAL/2A/3/13 – Field Map 1861
5. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7A – Annual Revisions 1866-78
6. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7B – Annual Revisions 1879-93
7. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7C – Annual Revisions 1894-08
8. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7D – Annual Revisions 1909-20
9. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7E – Annual Revisions 1920-29
11. PRONI VAL/12D/3/13A – Field Map 1863-78
12. PRONI VAL/12D/3/13B – Field Map 1879-05
13. PRONI VAL/12D/3/13D – Field Map 1905-24
14. PRONI OS/6/3/13/1 – OS map 1833
15. PRONI OS/6/3/13/2 – OS map 1858
16. PRONI OS/6/3/13/3 – OS map 1903
17. PRONI OS/6/3/13/4 – OS map 1916
18. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/12E/4 – R.V.Binders Valuation 1933-57

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A three-bay two-storey with attic-storey house, built c.1800. The front elevation displays some early twentieth-century details such as flint-dash render and leaded Art Nouveau glazing to the door, while the other elevations reveal a much earlier structure. On closer inspection the interior appears to be of mid nineteenth-century in date and retains a wealth of original fabric including its stair, joinery and roof structure, which together with its range of outbuildings and idyllic setting constitute a good example of an intact farm dwelling. The building has group value with Fairmount House, (HB19/22/53), also built by the Hull family, and makes an important contribution to the heritage of the area.