Survey Data

Reg No

15703701


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Archaeological, Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social


Original Use

Church/chapel


In Use As

Church/chapel


Date

1780 - 1790


Coordinates

297221, 126385


Date Recorded

29/08/2007


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached four-bay double-height Board of First Fruits Church of Ireland church, built 1781-5; dated 1783, on a rectangular plan comprising three-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay double-height chancel (east) with single-bay three-stage tower to entrance (west) front on a square plan. Damaged, 1798. Renovated, 1821, with interior "improved". "Restored", 2000-2. Replacement pitched slate roof retaining pitched slate roof (east) with clay ridge tiles, cut-granite coping to gables, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-granite eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes. Replacement cement rendered walls on rendered plinth with cut-granite flush quoins to corners; replacement cement rendered surface finish to tower on rendered plinth with cut-granite stringcourses including cut-granite stringcourse (bell stage) supporting obelisk-topped pinnacles centred on Irish battlemented parapets having cut-granite coping. Pointed-arch window openings with cut-granite sills, timber mullions, and cut-granite monolithic surrounds framing four-over-four timber sash windows without horns having interlocking Y-tracery glazing bars with iron mesh storm panels (east) over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Pointed-arch window opening to chancel (east) with cut-granite sill, timber Y-mullion, and concealed dressings framing iron mesh storm panel over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Pointed-arch window opening to tower (first stage) with cut-granite sill, and concealed dressings framing timber pivot fitting having square glazing bars. Rounded triangular window openings (second stage) with cut-granite sill course, and cut-granite monolithic surrounds framing fixed-pane timber fittings having V-tracery glazing bars. Lancet openings (bell stage) with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite monolithic surrounds framing louvered fittings. Interior including vestibule (west) retaining spiral staircase with timber "match stick" balusters supporting carved timber banister terminating in timber newel; square-headed door opening into nave with timber panelled double doors; full-height interior "improved", 1821, with timber panelled choir gallery (west) on cast-iron Ionic colonnette pillars, carpeted flagged central aisle between reclaimed timber pews, timber panelled wainscoting with timber dado rail, cut-white marble Classical-style wall monuments (ob. 1845; 1970) with polished brass wall plates (ob. 1918; 1931), elliptical-vaulted timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled ceiling in carved timber frame on carved timber cornice, Gothic-style timber panelled pulpit on an octagonal plan with Gothic-style timber clerk's desk, and carpeted encaustic tiled stepped dais to chancel (east) with wrought iron-detailed barley twist balusters supporting carved timber communion railing centred on Gothic-style timber memorial altar table (ob. 1918) below stained glass memorial "East Window" (1896). Set in landscaped grounds with piers to perimeter having lichen-covered cut-granite shallow pyramidal capping supporting replacement mild steel double gates.

Appraisal

A church erected with financial support from the Board of First Fruits (fl. 1711-1833) representing an important component of the later eighteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one occupying the site of a medieval church 'of which no evidence survives other than one eroded Dundry stone fragment of two attached columns' [SMR WX037-002001-], confirmed by such attributes as the standardised nave-with-entrance tower plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; the "pointed" profile of the openings underpinning a contemporary Georgian Gothic theme with the chancel defined by a restrained "East Window"; and the Irish 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 substantial quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the vaulted interior 'improved [1821] by the addition of accommodations for three families at their [own] expense' (Leslie 1936, 191) where contemporary joinery; wall monuments signed by Edward M. Richardson (1812-69) of London and Charles William Harrison (c.1835-1903) of Great Brunswick Street [Pearse Street], Dublin; the Lieutenant-Colonel Jervis-White Memorial Window (1910) supplied by An Túr Gloine (opened 1903) of Dublin to a design attributed to Alfred Ernest Child (1875-1939); and the jewel-like Hughes Memorial "East Window" (1896), all highlight the artistic potential of the composition.