Whitestown House

Detached three-bay two-storey farmhouse, extant 1798, on a symmetrical plan. Occupied, 1911. Renovated, 1980. Replacement pitched fibre-cement slate roof with ridge tiles, cement rendered chimney stacks having concrete capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Replacement cement rendered battered walls bellcast over rendered plinth. Square-headed central door opening with cut-granite step threshold, and cut-granite block-and-start surround centred on fluted keystone framing timber panelled door. Square-headed window openings with shallow sills, and concealed dressings framing six-over-six timber sash windows having part exposed sash boxes. Interior including (ground floor): central hall retaining timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors; and timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set in landscaped grounds with repointed cut-granite piers to perimeter having cut-granite shallow pyramidal capping.

A farmhouse representing an integral component of the eighteenth-century domestic built heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on a Gibbsian-like doorcase demonstrating good quality workmanship; the somewhat disproportionate bias of solid to void in the massing compounded by the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the centralised openings on each floor; and the high pitched roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding much of the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent limewashed outbuildings (extant 1840) continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a neat self-contained ensemble having historic connections with the Pettitt family including John Pettitt Senior (d. 1909), 'Gentleman late of Whitestown (Drinagh) Wexford County Wexford' (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1909, 488); and John Pettitt Junior (----), 'Farmer' (NA 1911).