Survey Data

Reg No

31303102


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical


Previous Name

Saint Barnabas's Catholic Church


Original Use

Church/chapel


In Use As

Church/chapel


Date

1905 - 1925


Coordinates

132923, 318343


Date Recorded

14/02/2011


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached six-bay double-height Catholic church, reconstructed 1908/23, on a cruciform plan comprising three-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay (single-bay deep) double-height transepts centred on two-bay double-height chancel to crossing (east). "Restored", 1942. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roof on a cruciform plan with clay ridge tiles, dragged cut-limestone coping to gables on "slated" kneelers with Cross finials to apexes, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on eaves boards on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Replacement cement rendered walls. Lancet window openings with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Lancet "Trinity Windows" to transepts with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Pointed-arch window opening to chancel (east) with timber Y-mullion, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Lancet window opening to entrance (west) front with cut-limestone sill, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fitting having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panel. Pointed-arch door openings to transepts with concealed dressings framing timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled double doors having overpanels. Full-height interior open into roof with carpeted central aisle between timber pews, Gothic-style timber memorial stations between stained glass windows (1995) with timber panelled confessional boxes to transepts below stained glass "Trinity Windows" (????), exposed strutted collared timber roof construction on cut-limestone corbels with wind braced ceiling on carved timber cornice, and pointed-arch chancel arch framing carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary (east) reordered, ----, with timber altar table below stained glass memorial "East Window" (ob. 1943). Set in landscaped grounds.

Appraisal

A church reconstructed in two stages to designs (1908; 1923) by Rudolph Maximilian Butler (1872-1943) of Dawson Street, Dublin (IAA), representing an interesting component of the ecclesiastical heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one evoking comparisons with the Butler-restructured Catholic Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle (1928-32), Callow (see 31306103), confirmed by such attributes as the cruciform plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a "medieval" Gothic theme with the chancel defined by a restrained Georgian Gothic "East Window"; and the high pitched roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where autostereoscopic stained glass produced (1995) by the German-born Walter Michael of Park; and the Harte [O'Harte] Memorial "East Window" (ob. 1943), all highlight the artistic potential of the composition: meanwhile, an exposed timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church making an imposing visual statement in a rural village street scene.