Agriculture Reference
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to fall into ruins; which indicates the roof had been lost soon after comple-
tion. The first pictorial evidence of the house dates from 1726 when Edward
Lovett Pearce was commissioned by Lord Burlington to investigate the ruin
to see if Inigo Jones had designed it. Pearce studied and drew the building
but concluded that due to its eccentricities Jones did not design it. Pearce's
illustrations of 1726 show a building in ruins; the roof, the second floor and
all decorative stonework are missing. Less than eighty years following com-
pletion, the building known as 'Strafford's folly' had become a picturesque
ruin. Pearce recorded the brick enrichments, including the decorative poly-
chromatic, carved, large span window heads of bonded blocks of red and buff
bricks, which one precious single example survives as well as a single example
of the first floor platt band level detail directly above it (Fig. 48).
Figure 48
A detail from a
drawing (1726) of
Rub'd & Gadged
brick enrichments,
Jigginstown House,
Naas, Co. Kildare,
Ireland,
c
.1635-37
(Drawing number 4,
Devonshire Collections,
Chatsworth,
Derbyshire, England).
(Courtesy: Devonshire
Collections, Chatsworth,
Reproduced by
permission of the
Chatsworth Settlement
Trustees)
Since 1971, Jigginstown House has been in the care of the National
Monuments Service of the Office of Public Works (OPW). The Office of Public
Works was founded in 1831 as a Government Department with responsibility
for large infrastructural projects funded by the Exchequer. In 1871, following
the Irish Church Act, a number of churches of antiquarian interest were trans-
ferred into the care of the OPW and the National Monument Service came into
existence. Over the years, many different types of monuments were given over
to the Department and a large portfolio of properties has been assembled. The
National Monuments Service carries out maintenance and repairs to its prop-
erties using a direct labour force under the direction of the District Senior
Architect. The direct labour force consists of qualified craftsmen such as masons,
stonecutters, bricklayers and carpenters as well as apprentices and general opera-
tives. The use of the direct labour force allows a wide range of in-house skills to
be built up as well as specialist skills. Projects range from simple maintenance
work to large, complex conservation projects such as Jigginstown House.
In 2002, a programme of conservation work was begun at Jigginstown.
The principal objective is to stabilise and consolidate the original early
