Survey Data
Reg No
11815002
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1820 - 1825
Coordinates
294238, 223061
Date Recorded
19/06/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay double-height Gothic-style Catholic church, built 1821, on a corner site with lancet-arch openings. Renovated, c.1900, with single-bay three-storey entrance tower added to south-west on a square plan having single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch to south-west, corner pinnacles to parapet and single-bay single-storey sacristy projection added to north-east. Renovated and extended, c.1980, with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch added to north-west and single-bay single-storey lean-to projecting bay added to south-east to sacristy projection. Gable-ended roofs (gabled to original porch behind parapet). Replacement artificial slate, c.1980. Concrete ridge tiles. Cut-stone coping to gable to original porch. Cross finial to gable to original porch and to north-east. Iron rainwater goods. Roof to tower not visible behind parapet (possibly flat-roof). Rendered walls. Painted. Cut-stone dressings including quoins to corners. Cut-stone dressings to tower including stringcourses to each stage, courses to parapet and elongated pinnacles to corners. Lancet-arch openings. Cut-stone chamfered surrounds with hood mouldings over. Fixed-pane timber traceried windows with leaded stained glass glazing. Profiled opening to first stage to tower in cut-stone panel having hood moulding over. Lancet-arch opening to third stage with cut-stone chamfered surround having hood moulding over. Louvered timber panel. Pointed-arch door opening. Cut-stone surround. Hood moulding over. Timber panelled double doors. Interior reordered, c.1980. Set back from road in own grounds on a corner site. Tarmacadam grounds to site. Attached six-bay double-height building, c.1980, to north-west with square-headed open internal porch to elevations to north-east and to north-west, and single-bay double-height flat-roofed lower linking bay to south-east. Refenestrated, c.1995. In use as community centre. Gable-ended roof with artificial slate. Concrete ridge tiles. Iron rainwater goods. Flat-roof to linking bay. Bitumen felt. Rendered walls. Painted. Square-headed openings. Replacement uPVC casement windows, c.1995. Square-headed door openings in open internal porches. Timber panelled double doors.
Appraisal
Saint Brigid’s Catholic Church is a fine and well-maintained stout structure of simple appearance that resembles, in plan and elevation, the Board of First Fruit-style Church of Ireland churches – the simplicity and original scale of the church is typical of the churches built before Catholic Emancipation (1829). The nave relies on the careful arrangement of lancet-arch openings for rhythmic effect. In contrast, the later tower is somewhat more ornamental, decorated with cut-stone dressings and topped by a simple parapet with eye-catching slender corner pinnacles. The tower adds incident to the skyline and serves to emphasise the church’s prominence in the centre of the village. The church is of considerable social significance, being the religious or ecclesiastical centre for the Catholic population in the locality. Although altered and extended in the late twentieth century (the interior was re-ordered following the Second Vatican Council), the church retains some important early features and materials, including the fenestration, and the decorative cut-stone dressings highlight the high quality of stone masonry practised in the locality - the stained glass fenestration to the interior is of some artistic merit. The adjoining later community hall, which is of little architectural merit despite efforts to replicate the nave of the church in a pared-down Modernist style, does not serve the original building well and is the most prominent feature from the main road which passes to the north.