Survey Data
Reg No
15704752
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1800 - 1840
Coordinates
301667, 111179
Date Recorded
21/09/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, extant 1840, on a rectangular plan. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. "Restored", 2008-9. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, cut-granite coping to gables on cut-granite kneelers including cut-granite coping to gable to entrance (west) front on cut-granite kneelers with cut-granite gabled bellcote to apex framing cast-bronze bell, and cast-iron rainwater goods on slate flagged eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls with rusticated quoins to corners. Lancet window openings with cut-granite sills, and rendered block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on square glazing bars. Pointed-arch window opening to chancel (east) with Y-mullion, and rendered block-and-start surround having chamfered reveals framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass roundels. Paired lancet window openings to entrance (west) front with cut-granite sills, and rendered block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass roundels. Full-height interior open into roof "restored", 2009, with perforated timber panelled wainscoting supporting carved timber dado rail, cut-limestone wall monument (ob. 1840; 1905) between pair of stained glass windows (undated), encaustic tiled aisles between pointed quatrefoil-detailed timber pews, paired Gothic-style timber stations between frosted glass windows, mosaic tiled cut-veined white marble stepped dais to sanctuary (east) reordered, ----, with quatrefoil-detailed cut-veined white marble panelled altar below stained glass "East Window" (----) in stencilled surround, and exposed strutted King post timber roof construction with wind braced stencilled ceiling in carved timber frame. Set in landscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A church representing an integral component of the early nineteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of south County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one 'supposed to stand on the site of an ancient monastery…the remains of which as well as those of a castle that immediately joined it [being] used in [its] erection' (Lewis 1837 II, 335), suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear "barn" plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a "medieval" Gothic theme with the chancel defined by a restrained "East Window"; and the bellcote embellishing the roofline 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 interior reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where an exposed King post timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a rural street scene.