The Presbytery in Fethard

Detached L-plan three-bay two-storey presbytery, built c.1935, with entrance porch to front with pitched slate roof, and canted bay windows with hipped slate roofs to front, slightly projecting bay to rear, with recent single-storey extension to rear entrance with lean-to roof. Sprocketed hipped slate roofs with rendered chimneystacks, cast-iron rainwater goods and timber sheeted eaves. Roughcast rendered walls to first floor, smooth rendered to ground floor with render platband and plinth. Square-headed window openings, paired to first floor front, with timber sliding sash windows having one-over-one panes and concrete sills. Square-headed door opening to west side of porch with replacement timber panelled door, overlight and sidelights. Square-headed door opening with half-glazed timber panelled door, stained glass overlight and sidelights inside porch. Yard to rear with single-storey outbuilding with pitched slate roof and rendered walls. Painted rendered walls and piers to site entrance.

This building is inspired by the symmetrical three-bay two-storey elevation of the glebe house or small country house, with its hipped roof, paired chimneystacks, central porch and vertically-oriented windows. The popularity of this form for high status buildings is so strong in South Tipperary that it was used and adapted right up until the twentieth century. The sprocketed roof, concrete sills and the bay windows are distinctive features that individualise this building and make its twentieth-century origin apparent. The retention of natural slates and the use of timber sash windows provides a textural interest that is often lacking in modern materials.