Survey Data
Reg No
15704117
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Scientific, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1835 - 1840
Coordinates
287881, 114839
Date Recorded
14/09/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, built 1837; dated 1837, on a rectangular plan with single-bay three-stage tower to entrance (north) front on a square plan. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roof with roll moulded clay ridge tiles, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered cut-granite eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined battered walls; roughcast surface finish (tower) with rendered parapet having shallow coping. Lancet window openings with cut-granite sills, and rendered "bas-relief" surrounds framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Lancet window openings to gable to entrance (north) front with cut-granite sills, and rendered "bas-relief" surrounds framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having margins centred on square glazing bars. Lancet window opening (tower) with cut-granite sill, and rendered "bas-relief" surround framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fitting having margins centred on square glazing bars. Lancet blind openings (second stage) with cut-granite sills, and rendered "bas-relief" surrounds framing cruciform-detailed rendered infill. Lancet openings (bell stage) with cut-granite sills, and rendered "bas-relief" surrounds framing louvered fittings. Interior including vestibule (north) with cut-veined white marble oval wall monument (1830); pointed-arch door opening into nave; full-height interior with timber panelled choir gallery (north) on paired cast-iron diagonal pillars, carpeted central aisle between Maltese Cross-detailed timber pews, timber boarded wainscoting supporting carved timber dado rail, paired Gothic-style timber stations between stained glass windows (----), carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary (south) reordered, ----, with replacement altar table below Classical-style reredos, and quatrefoil-perforated diagonal timber boarded vaulted ceiling in timber frame on carved timber cornice on quatrefoil-perforated frieze. Set in landscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A church erected under the aegis of Reverend Peter Corish PP (d. 1873) representing an integral component of the 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 dismantling of the Penal Laws under the Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1829, but also curiously recalling a Board of First Fruits Church of Ireland church (cf. 15703412), suggested by such attributes and the nave-with-entrance tower plan form, aligned along a liturgically-incorrect axis; and the slender profile of the openings underpinning a "medieval" Gothic 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 vaulted interior reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where a wall monument commemorating Reverend Edward Murphy PP (d. 1830); contemporary joinery; vibrant stained glass; and an elaborate reredos variously attributed to 'the same hand as Blackwater [James Shipley (1850-1926)]' (Craig and Garner 1975, 30) or the Maddock Brothers of Bannow (de Vál 2004, 38; cf. 15605224; 15704606), all highlight the artistic potential of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a rural street scene.