Survey Data
Reg No
15605225
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Friary
Date
1840 - 1845
Coordinates
272038, 127620
Date Recorded
21/06/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Friary complex, established 1844, including: Attached three-bay four-storey over basement friary on a rectangular plan with single-bay single-storey flat-roofed advanced porch to ground floor; six-bay full-height rear (south) elevation. Now disused. Pitched slate roof with ridge tiles, coping to gables, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered slate flagged eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes. Rendered walls with rusticated cut-granite quoins to corners. Segmental-headed door opening approached by flight of three cut-granite steps, doorcase with monolithic pilasters centred on columns supporting hood moulding framing timber panelled double doors having fanlight. Square-headed flanking window openings in bipartite arrangement with cut-granite sills, timber mullions, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings on monolithic label stops framing six-over-six timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings in bipartite arrangement with cut-granite sills, timber mullions, and moulded surrounds framing nine-over-nine or nine-over-six (top floor) timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings to rear (south) elevation with cut-granite sills, and rendered "bas-relief" surrounds framing nine-over-nine or nine-over-six timber sash windows. Set in landscaped grounds shared with Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception.
Appraisal
A friary representing an important component of the mid nineteenth-century built heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a friary forming part of a self-contained group alongside an adjoining church (see 15605224) and adjacent college (see 15605226) with the resulting ecclesiastical ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in High Hill Street.