Old Rectory

Attached five-bay three-storey townhouse, built 1799, on a rectangular plan centred on single-bay single-storey flat-roofed projecting porch to ground floor. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks having stringcourses below capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta octagonal pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves boards having paired timber consoles retaining cast-iron downpipe. Rendered, ruled and lined walls with rusticated rendered piers to ends; rendered walls (porch) on rendered chamfered plinth with rusticated rendered piers to corners supporting projecting cornice on blind frieze on moulded rendered stringcourse. Square-headed window opening in bipartite arrangement (porch) with rendered sill, and concealed dressings framing fixed-pane timber fittings. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing two-over-two timber sash windows. Set back from line of street with "Lotus"-detailed cast-iron railings to perimeter centred on "Lotus"-detailed cast-iron gate.

A townhouse erected by John Busteed (----) representing an important component of the domestic built heritage of Castlebar with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on a later porch; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the coupled timber work embellishing the roof. Having been well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a townhouse making a pleasing visual statement in Spencer Street. NOTE: The townhouse was sold to the Church of Ireland by the daughters of Busteed and a letter (2nd February 1847) by Reverend William Baker Stoney (1795-1874) from 'Rectory Castlebar Mayo' describes the suffering of the poor during the Great Famine (1845-9): "No language can describe the horrors of the famine here. The poor around us are in a dying state, and no efforts we can make are able to save them. Six hundred were fed yesterday at my gate, and will be to-morrow, and so on, three times a week; but I fear this will not save multitudes who are famishing, and there is no prospect of any termination of these awful sufferings" (A Sermon Preached…in Aid of the Irish Relief Funds 1847, 31). The freehold of the townhouse was purchased (1870) by the Representative Church Body (RCB) and the townhouse was subsequently occupied (1901) by Reverend William Taylor (1846-1904), 'Clerk in Holy Orders' (NA 1901); and (1911) by Reverend James Alfred Lendrum (1869-1945), 'Clergyman [and] Rector' (NA 1911).