Survey Data
Reg No
22804002
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Previous Name
Saint Mary's Catholic Church
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1845 - 1855
Coordinates
223567, 104234
Date Recorded
16/09/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, c.1850, with single-bay double-height gabled projecting lower entrance bay to west. Reroofed and extended, 1986, comprising single-bay single-storey sacristy to east with single-bay single-storey advanced porch added to west. Pitched roofs (hipped to porch) with replacement artificial slate, 1986, clay ridge tiles, rendered gabled bellcote to apex to west (with rendered coping and cross finial), and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves. Painted roughcast walls with rendered strips to corners. Pointed-arch window openings to nave and to entrance bay with rendered sills. Fixed-pane leaded stained glass windows. Square-headed window openings to sacristy with concrete sills, and timber casement windows. Square-headed door opening to porch behind pair of cast-concrete columns with timber panelled double doors. Square-headed door opening to sacristy with timber panelled door. Full-height interior with carved timber pews, carved stations, timber panelled gallery to first floor to west, decorative altar furniture, and ogee-profiled ceiling on moulded plasterwork cornice. Set back from road in own grounds with painted rendered panelled piers having rendered pyramidal capping, wrought iron double gates, and sections of wrought iron flanking railings on painted rendered plinth. (ii) Graveyard to site with various cut-stone grave markers, c.1850 – c.1950.
Appraisal
An attractive modest-scale rural church of simple appearance, which retains most of its original form while later additions have been sympathetically planned so as not to detract from the original character of the piece. The interior space incorporates a number of features of artistic design distinction, while the grave markers to the grounds are also of some aesthetic merit. The church occupies a prominent site in the centre of Kilbrien, and contributes significantly to the quality of the landscape.