Survey Data
Reg No
30400601
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1955 - 1960
Coordinates
161665, 269945
Date Recorded
10/10/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached nine-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1956, on a rectangular plan comprising eight-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay double-height chancel (north). Pitched slate roofs, ridge tiles with Cross finial-topped bellcote to apex (north), and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast battered walls on rendered chamfered plinth. Round-headed window openings between roughcast battered buttresses with rendered surrounds having chamfered reveals framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins. Round-headed door opening to entrance (south) front with cut-limestone surround having concave reveals framing timber boarded double doors. "Wheel Window" (gable) with cut-limestone cruciform mullion, and cut-limestone surround having ogee reveals framing fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels. Full-height interior with choir gallery (south) below stained glass "Wheel Window", central aisle between timber pews, timber stations between frosted glass windows, carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary (north) with round-headed chancel arch framing Crown of Thorns-detailed altar, and moulded cornice to elliptical vaulted coffered ceiling. Set in landscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A church representing an important component of the mid twentieth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Galway with the architectural value of the composition, one erected at a cost of £31,500 towards which John Higgins donated £25,000 (The Connacht Tribune 21st July 1956), confirmed by such attributes as the rectilinear plan form, aligned along a liturgically-incorrect axis; the feint battered silhouette; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a restrained Romanesque theme; and the oversized doorcase and geometric "Wheel Window" recalling the James Rupert Edward Boyd Barrett (c.1904-76)-refronted Saint Mary's Catholic Church (1957-61), Westport, County Mayo (see 31212068).