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Description
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Springfield
House, located near Daingean, County Offaly (formeraly
Kings County at the time of construction) is a protected
structure and an excellent example of the class of Georgian
house described by Dr Maurice Craig in his book entitled,
'Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size'. |
Springfield House is a mid eighteenth
century seven bay two storied double pile house with pedimented
centre of 3 bays on the South front, the wide front door
being flanked by a pair of narrow windows in a typical 1760s
composition. On the north elevation is a pair of arched
openings, one of which lights the staircase, while the second
has been cut back to merely a fanlight, but probably lit
the service stair.
The house was extensively modernised
circa 1857 and all the joinery in the principal rooms date
from this time, as do the chimneys and stone coping to gables.
The western bays of the rear pile also appear to be an addition
of this date. There is a cellar under the western part of
the front pile which may originally have been a basement.
The plan of the house comprises a
central hall flanked by Drawing and Dining Rooms on the
front, with above them the Upper Hall leading to the two
principal bedrooms. To the rear is the Stair Hall, slightly
off centre with a somewhat crude wreathed and ramped staircase
with cut brackets and turned spindles. Flanking this there
is a narrow bay which probably housed the service stair
and in the corner, over the Kitchen, are two bedrooms (one
very small) served by a short corridor, and in the 19th
century addition, over what may have been a billiards room
with a considerably higher ceiling, are again two bedrooms.
There is a lean-to building outside
the kitchen housing domestic offices. There are also extensive
yards and outbuildings. The house has been largely untouched
since the 1857 renovations.
Last year Offaly County Council granted
permission for urgent remedial works, namely complete restoration
of the roof and restoration of the windows.
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