Survey Data
Reg No
15702663
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Saint Malachi's Catholic Church
Original Use
Presbytery/parochial/curate's house
In Use As
Presbytery/parochial/curate's house
Date
1855 - 1860
Coordinates
303639, 133117
Date Recorded
08/01/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached three-bay two-storey parochial house, built 1859, on a T-shaped plan centred on single-bay single-storey flat-roofed projecting glazed porch to ground floor. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Renovated, 1986. Hipped slate roof with lichen-covered clay ridge tiles, paired red brick Running bond central chimney stacks having chevron- or saw tooth-detailed stringcourses below capping supporting yellow terracotta octagonal pots, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on slightly overhanging rendered slate flagged eaves. Rendered walls on rendered chamfered plinth. Segmental-headed central door opening into parochial house, doorcase with engaged Ionic columns supporting iron-covered shallow cornice on blind frieze on entablature, and moulded rendered surround framing replacement glazed uPVC door having fanlight. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and rendered "bas-relief" block-and-start surrounds centred on keystones framing replacement uPVC casement windows replacing two-over-two (ground floor) or six-over-six (first floor) timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): central hall retaining carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors; and carved timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled shutters. Set in landscaped grounds shared with Catholic Church of the Assumption and Saint Malachy.
Appraisal
A parochial house erected for Reverend Edmond Doyle PP (d. 1893) representing an important component of the mid nineteenth-century built heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase showing a simplified "peacock tail" fanlight; and the very slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression with the principal "apartment" or reception room defined by a polygonal bay window. 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: however, the introduction of replacement fittings to most of the openings has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of a parochial house forming part of a part of a self-contained group alongside the adjoining Catholic Church of the Assumption and Saint Malachy (see 15702662) with the resulting ecclesiastical ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene. NOTE: Occupied (1901) by Reverend James O'Brien (----), 'Parish Priest [and] Canon' (NA 1901; Private Dwelling; First Class; 5 Windows; Reverend James O'Brien, proprietor); Reverend John Walsh (1858-1922), 'Clergyman' (NA 1911).