Survey Data
Reg No
15701604
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1950 - 1960
Coordinates
306965, 150358
Date Recorded
08/07/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached seven-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1955-6; dated 1955; opened 1956, on a rectangular plan comprising six-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay double-height chancel (north). Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, lichen-spotted concrete coping to gables on rendered corbel kneelers with flat iron Cross finials to apexes, lichen-spotted concrete coping to gable (north) on rendered corbel kneelers with rendered buttressed gabled bellcote to apex framing cast-bronze bell, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls on rendered chamfered plinth with rendered, ruled and lined buttresses including rendered, ruled and lined clasping buttresses to corners having rendered "slated" coping. Pointed segmental-headed window openings with concrete sills, and rendered "bas-relief" block-and-start surrounds framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having paired stained glass margins centred on square glazing bars. Pointed segmental-headed window opening (north) with concrete sill, and rendered "bas-relief" block-and-start surround framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fitting having stained glass margins centred on square glazing bars. Pointed segmental-headed door opening to entrance (south) front in pointed arch recess with rendered surround having chamfered reveals framing diagonal timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled double doors. Pointed segmental-headed stepped "Trinity Window" (gable) with concrete sills, and rendered "bas-relief" surrounds framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having paired stained glass margins centred on square glazing bars. Interior including vestibule (south); square-headed door opening into nave with glazed timber panelled double doors; full-height interior open into roof with panelled choir gallery (south) below frosted glass "Trinity Window", carpeted "Brixon Plank" timber parquet central aisle between Maltese Cross-detailed timber pews, paired Gothic-style timber stations between frosted glass windows, exposed scissor truss timber roof construction on "Cavetto" corbels with wind braced rafters to ceiling on carved timber cornice, and carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary (north) reordered, ----, with pointed-arch chancel arch framing replacement cut-veined white marble altar table below stained glass "North Window". Set in landscaped grounds with rendered, ruled and lined piers to perimeter having roll moulded gabled capping supporting iron double gates.
Appraisal
A church erected to a design by Herbert Thomas Coleman (b. c.1908) of Ashlin And Coleman (formed 1903) of Dawson Street, Dublin (DIA), representing an important component of the mid twentieth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the compact rectilinear "barn" plan form, aligned along a liturgically-incorrect axis; and the slender profile of the openings underpinning a so-called "Modern Pointed" theme. 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 restrained interior reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where an exposed timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene.