Survey Data

Reg No

15704764


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Scientific, Social


Previous Name

Saint Mary's Catholic Church


Original Use

Church/chapel


In Use As

Church/chapel


Date

1825 - 1835


Coordinates

305164, 111285


Date Recorded

24/09/2007


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached four-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, dated 1830, on a rectangular plan. "Improved", 1901, producing present composition. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roof with quatrefoil-perforated crested terracotta ridge tiles, cut-granite coping to gables on cut-granite "Cavetto" kneelers including cut-granite coping to gable to entrance (west) front on cut-granite "Cavetto" kneelers with cut-granite buttressed gabled bellcote to apex framing embossed cast-bronze bell ("----"), and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron square profile downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined walls; slate hung surface finish (south) on fine roughcast base. Pointed-arch window openings with cut-granite sills, timber Y-mullions, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded glazing bars. Full-height interior with timber panelled gallery (west) on chamfered timber pillars, tessellated glazed terracotta tiled central aisle between timber pews, mosaic tiled cut-veined white marble stepped dais to sanctuary (east) reordered, ----, with quatrefoil-detailed cut-veined white marble altar below pedimented reredos, and moulded plasterwork cornice to compartmentalised ceiling centred on filigree ventilation roses. Set in landscaped grounds with roughcast piers to perimeter having chamfered capping supporting wrought iron double gates.

Appraisal

A church erected under the aegis of Reverend James Kavanagh PP (d. 1867) representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of south County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one showing the hallmarks of a period of construction coinciding with the dismantling of the Penal Laws under the Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1829, confirmed by such attributes as the compact rectilinear "barn" plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; the "pointed" profile of the openings underpinning a contemporary Georgian Gothic theme; and the handsome bellcote embellishing the roofline as a picturesque eye-catcher in the landscape: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the continued development or "improvement" of the church at the turn of the twentieth century with those works attributed to Joseph Kelly Freeman (b. 1865) of Eccles Street, Dublin (de Vál 2004, 35). 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 reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where polished brass wall monuments signed by William Sawier (d. 1909) of Anglesea Street, Dublin; contemporary joinery; and plasterwork refinements, all highlight the artistic potential of a church forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside an adjoining parochial house (see 15704765) with the resulting ecclesiastical ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene.