Green light for changes to historic Newpark House
PLANNING permission has been granted for changes to the historic Newpark House at Drumfin, which is a protected structure and was built in 1780.
Planning permission was sought for an external pergola to the south-east of the house and timber balcony and terrace to the south-west.
Other proposed external alterations include a new front door to the extension, the reinstatement of the corner quoins of the main house at the front and rear, a new window into an enlarged opening to the rear of the extension, a new opening with a timber door in the wall enclosure around the service yard at the front south east corner and a new flower bed to the front of the existing extension.
Internally planning was sought for three new door openings, the removal of an existing bathroom and provision of a new bathroom on the ground floor and, at first floor level, it is proposed to block two door openings and provide two new bathroom fit-outs.
The council planner Stephen Regan noted that according to the Historic Houses of Ireland website the house “is available for individual house visits, groups by arrangement, special family celebrations, meetings and receptions, as well as being available as a film location”. It was used as a location for the film ‘Jimmy’s Hall’.
He also noted that several of the farmyard buildings are also available for a limited number of exclusive local events during the summer months under the brand ‘Juniper Barn’.
The council’s Heritage Officer said that the proposals were in the main acceptable but she recommended that the proposed pergola was removed “as it detracts from the main elevation of the protected structure”.
She also recommended that the proposed new flower bed be inserted with a gap between it and the main wall of the building to ensure there was no water ingress into the wall fabric.
The planner had no objection to the internal openings proposed between the extension and the original house “to integrate more with the protected structure and make better use of the area”.
“These were once windows of the original house and were blocked up when the extension was built. Currently the connection between the main house and the extension is through one link through the centre.” He recommended the granting of planning permission subject to the omission of the pergola and a gap between the flower bed and the house. However, in relation to the pergola he said that if it were resited/scaled back with revised details regarding screening and use which does not detract from the protected structure this could be dealt with in a new application.
On the Historic Houses of Ireland website the house is described as “a charming country house”.
The description goes on: “The house, gate lodge, stable and farmyards are all contemporary, and the architect and writer Jeremy Williams observed that, ‘What strikes one is the harmony of the whole ensemble. Entrance gates and lodge, lime avenue, house, carriage-house, farm yard and partly walled demesne are all proportionate to each other and reveal the unpretentious lifestyle of a typical west of Ireland squireen, a rare survival today’”.
It also says that “the building of Newpark is traditionally attributed to Richard King Duke, JP and deputy governor of Sligo (1770-1836) but as he was only a boy of ten in 1780, his father Robert (1732-1792) is a more credible contender”.
The Duke family descends from John Duke, who came to Sligo as one of Cromwell’s adherents and was granted land at Kincreevin in 1662.
The website continues: “His great-grandson Christopher Kitchin and wife Dorothy live there today and are gradually opening up the very fine outbuildings for various activities.” The site also says that the design for the house may well have come from the prolific Waterford architect ‘Honest’ John Roberts and that the geometrical plan “is most unusual, and reminded the architectural historian Maurice Craig of a swastika, with four principal rooms of unequal size arranged around a small central hall”.
The house is one of two in Ireland known to have a so-called ‘swastika plan’, the other being Oakfield Park, Raphoe, Co. Donegal.
The house is described as of “three bays and two stories, lime rendered with a hipped roof and a pleasant tripartite entrance, with a round-headed door-case flanked by narrow rectangular sidelights”.
Newpark was re-roofed and extended in the 1870s when some of the original features were altered, and the windows were remodelled and lost their glazing bars.