Survey Data
Reg No
15702514
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Scientific, Social, Technical
Previous Name
Saint Carthage's Catholic Church
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1855 - 1860
Coordinates
288767, 137443
Date Recorded
21/08/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, built 1856-9; dated 1859, on a rectangular plan with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch to entrance (north) front. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. "Restored", 1998. Pitched slate roofs including pitched (gabled) slate roof (porch); clay ridge tiles, cut-granite coping to gables on trefoil-detailed gabled "Cavetto" kneelers including cut-granite coping to gable to entrance (north) front on trefoil-detailed gabled "Cavetto" kneelers with granite ashlar buttressed gabled bellcote to apex framing cast-bronze bell, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on slate flagged eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Tuck pointed coursed or snecked rubble stone walls with benchmark-inscribed cut-granite flush quoins to corners; rendered, ruled and lined surface finish (south). Cusped lancet window openings with cut-granite block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having lattice glazing bars. Pointed-arch window opening to chancel (south), cut-granite surround having chamfered reveals framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass margins centred on stained glass roundels. Pair of cusped lancet window openings to entrance (north) front with cut-granite block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals framing fixed-pane fittings having lattice glazing bars. Pointed-arch window opening (porch) with cut-granite block-and-start surround having chamfered reveals framing fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass roundels. Pointed-arch opposing door openings to "cheeks" with cut-granite block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals framing timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled doors. Interior including vestibule (north) with stained glass window (----); pointed-arch door opening into nave with glazed timber panelled double doors having overlight; full-height interior open into roof "restored", 1998, with carpeted central aisle between replacement timber pews, grouped timber stations between frosted glass windows, carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary (south) reordered, ----, with pierced trefoil-detailed altar below stained glass "South Window" in mosaic tiled surround, and exposed scissor truss timber roof construction on cut-granite beaded corbels with wind braced rafters to ceiling. Set in landscaped grounds with granite ashlar piers to perimeter having cut-granite shallow pyramidal capping supporting "Fleur-de-Lys"-detailed wrought iron double gates.
Appraisal
A church erected under the aegis of Reverend Francis Prendergast PP (1782-1860), and with financial support from Sir Robert Shapland Carew (1787-1856) or Sir Robert Shapland Carew (1818-81) of Castleboro House (Lacy 1863, 480), representing an important component of the mid nineteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one recalling the contemporary Saint David's Catholic Church (1856), Davidstown (see 15702542), suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear "barn" plan form, aligned along a liturgically-incorrect axis; the construction in a deep blue- and ochre-coloured fieldstone offset by silver-grey granite dressings not only demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also producing a pleasing palette; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a "medieval" Gothic theme with the chancel defined by a cusped "South Window"; and the handsome 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 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 a much modified high altar; a restrained "South Window"; and mosaic work, all highlight the artistic potential of the composition: meanwhile, an exposed timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a rural street scene.