gate lodge, sexton's house

Detached two-bay single-storey former gate lodge, church warden’s or sexton’s house associated with St. Mary’s Catholic church (see 40840023), built c. 1878, having single-bay single-storey porch attached to the east gable end. Now out of use. Pitched natural slate roofs with projecting rendered eaves course, grey clayware ridge tiles, central smooth rendered chimneystack, and cast-iron rooflight to the south pitch. Smooth rendered ruled-and-lined walls having raised rendered block-and-start quoins to the corners of the front elevation (north). Square-headed window openings, now blocked/boarded, having stone sills and with render hoodmouldings over. Square-headed door opening to the east elevation, and to the north elevation of porch, with replacement timber doors. Located to the north of St. Mary’s Catholic church with front elevation aligned alongside north boundary wall of site, sited adjacent to the main entrance gateway to the east. Site slopes away abruptly to the south. Located to the east of the centre of Castlefinn and to the south of the new Catholic church at Castlefinn.

This small-scale but appealing building, of mid-to-late nineteenth-century date, retains much of its early form and character despite being now sadly out of use with the window openings now boarded. It retains its original fabric including natural slate roof. It was originally built as either a sexton’s house or gate lodge associated with St. Mary’s Catholic church (see 40840023) to the south, with which it forms a pair of related structures. The hoodmouldings over the window openings to the elevation facing the street (north) help to tie this building stylistically with the church, and enliven the principal elevation of this otherwise plain structure. This building may have been built in 1878 when extensive works or rebuilding took place at the church (building not depicted on c. 1860 Griffith’s Valuation Map). This unassuming building is an interesting addition to the streetscape of Castlefinn, and is an integral element of the built heritage and the social history of the town.