Survey Data
Reg No
12325025
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Bell tower/stand
In Use As
Bell tower/stand
Date
1795 - 1800
Coordinates
246238, 121736
Date Recorded
05/07/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding belfry, built 1798, on a square plan originally forming part of larger composition with remainder of church dismantled, post-1903. Limestone ashlar walls on painted rendered buttressed base having cut-stone date stone/plaque, and battlemented parapet supporting round-headed buttressed bellcote (with round-headed aperture having cast-iron bell, carved stringcourse to spring of arch, and ball finial to apex). Set back from road. (ii) Graveyard to site with various cut-stone markers, post-1798-present. (iii) Gateway, post-1798, to north comprising pair of tooled limestone ashlar piers with cut-limestone stepped capping, and wrought iron double gates.
Appraisal
An elegant belfry forming an appealing landmark in the outskirts of Piltown while surviving of particular importance as evidence of a long-standing ecclesiastical presence on site: one which predated Catholic Emancipation (1829) by a considerable period of time, thereby indicating the religious tolerance in the locality in the late eighteenth century. An attendant graveyard containing a number of markers of design distinction contributes significantly to the group and setting values of the site.