Survey Data
Reg No
15704603
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1825 - 1830
Coordinates
286771, 112323
Date Recorded
18/09/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, built 1829; dated 1829, on a rectangular plan with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch to entrance (west) front. "Improved", 1893. "Refurbished", 1978, with sanctuary reordered. Replacement pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, cut-granite bellcote to apex to entrance (west) front framing embossed cast-bronze bell ("----"), and embedded rainwater goods in concrete eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined wall to entrance (west) front with rusticated cut-granite quoins to corners; roughcast surface finish (remainder) bellcast over rendered plinth with rusticated cut-granite quoins to corners. Lancet window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Lancet window openings to entrance (west) front with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite surrounds having chamfered reveals with hood mouldings over on double beaded label stops framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Interior including vestibule (west) with Maltese Cross-detailed cut-veined white marble font on an octagonal plan on polished pink marble pedestal; square-headed door opening into nave with replacement glazed timber double doors; full-height interior with cut-white marble wall monument (ob. 1842), carpeted central aisle between Maltese Cross-detailed timber pews, pair of Gothic-style wall monuments (ob. 1862; 1874), Classical-style timber stations (1898) between stained glass windows (undated), and carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary (east) reordered, 1978, with Gothic-style timber altar below Classical-style reredos. Set in landscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A church 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, suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear "barn" plan form, aligned along a slightly skewed liturgically-correct axis; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a "medieval" Gothic theme; and the restrained bellcote embellishing the roofline as a picturesque eye-catcher in the landscape: meanwhile, aspects of the composition illustrate the continued development or "improvement" of the church under the aegis of Reverend John Kehoe OSA (d. 1915; The People 22nd July 1893). 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 (1978) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where contemporary joinery; wall monuments commemorating Reverend John Ennis OSA (d. 1862) and Reverend John Austin Colfer OSA (d. 1874); vibrant stained glass; and a Classical reredos recalling Saint Peter's Catholic Church (1837), Ballymitty (see 15704117), all highlight the artistic potential of a church forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside an adjacent convent (see 15706404) with the resulting ecclesiastical ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan setting.