Survey Data
Reg No
12400301
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1840 - 1850
Coordinates
229306, 171508
Date Recorded
19/10/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1845, on a cruciform plan comprising three-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay (single-bay deep) double-height transepts centred on single-bay double-height shallow chancel to crossing (north). Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, lichen-spotted cut-limestone coping to gables, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined walls on rendered plinth; rendered, ruled and lined surface finish to entrance (west) front with cut-limestone diagonal obelisk pinnacle-topped stepped buttresses framing Cross finial-topped cut-limestone bellcote. Pointed-arch window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels. Pointed-arch window openings (transepts) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass roundels. Pointed-arch window openings (north) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels. Pointed-arch window opening to entrance (south) front with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sill, and concealed dressings with hood moulding on label stops framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fitting having leaded stained glass panel. Tudor-headed door openings (transepts) with concealed dressings framing timber boarded double doors. Full-height interior with vinyl central aisle between timber pews, paired Gothic-style timber stations between stained glass memorial windows (----), quatrefoil-detailed timber panelled galleries to transepts on timber pillars, carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary to crossing (north) reordered, ----, with Gothic-style memorial high altar (----), and moulded plasterwork cornice to vaulted ceiling centred on moulded plasterwork roundels. Set in landscaped grounds with cast-iron panelled piers to perimeter having gabled capping supporting wrought iron double gates.
Appraisal
A church representing an important component of the mid nineteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Kilkenny with the architectural value of the composition, one recalling the earlier Catholic Church of Saint Kieran and Saint Michael (1831) in Johnstown (see 12302002) and Catholic Church of the Assumption (1832) in Urlingford (see 12304011), confirmed by such attributes as the cruciform plan form, aligned along a liturgically-incorrect axis; the slender "pointed" profile of the openings underpinning a stolid Georgian Gothic theme; 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 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 contemporary joinery; stained glass; and a "flèche"-topped high altar, all highlight the artistic potential of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene.