Survey Data
Reg No
15703412
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Previous Name
Saint Mary's Catholic Church
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1800 - 1816
Coordinates
270685, 121269
Date Recorded
12/09/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, extant 1816, on a rectangular plan with single-bay two-stage tower to entrance (west) front on a square plan. Renovated, 1932, with sanctuary "improved". Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. "Restored", 2003. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles terminating in Cross finial to apex (east), rooflights, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on cement rendered slate flagged eaves. Replacement cement rendered battered walls on rendered chamfered plinth; replacement cement rendered surface finish to tower with crow stepped battlemented parapets having ball finial-topped cut-granite coping. Lancet window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass roundels. Lancet window opening to tower (first stage) with cut-granite sill, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fitting having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass roundels. Lancet openings (bell stage) with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing louvered fittings. Interior including vestibule (west) with stained glass memorial window (undated); pointed-arch door opening into nave with rendered surround framing replacement glazed timber double doors having overlight; full-height interior open into roof with pair of cut-veined white marble Gothic-style wall monuments (ob. 1861; 1906), carpeted central aisle between timber pews, paired Gothic-style timber stations between stained glass windows (undated), exposed collared timber roof construction with wind braced diagonal timber boarded ceiling on moulded plasterwork cornice, and Tudor-headed chancel arch framing cut-veined marble stepped dais to sanctuary (east) reordered, ----, with cut-veined marble panelled altar (1932). Set in relandscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A church representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of south County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one not only showing the hallmarks of a period of construction coinciding with the gradual dismantling of the Penal Laws in anticipation of the Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1829, but also curiously recalling a Board of First Fruits Church of Ireland church (cf. 15704117), suggested by such attributes as the nave-with-entrance tower plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a "medieval" Gothic theme; and the crow stepped battlements embellishing the tower as a picturesque eye-catcher in the landscape. 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 "improved" (1932) as the gift of John Shalloe of Massachusetts (Cantwell 1984 VIII, 353) where restrained wall monuments; contemporary joinery; and stained glass signed by Joshua Clarke and Sons (opened 1892) of Dublin, all highlight the artistic potential of the composition: meanwhile, an exposed timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene.