Reg No
12401502
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1825 - 1835
Coordinates
260472, 160485
Date Recorded
26/10/2004
Date Updated
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Detached six-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1830, on a cruciform plan comprising four-bay double-height nave with single-bay two-stage engaged tower to north-west on a circular plan, single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch to east, single-bay double-height transept to west, single-bay (two-bay deep) double height transept to east, and single-bay double-height chancel to south having single-bay single-storey lean-to flanking bays. Extensively renovated, post-1973. Pitched slate roofs on a cruciform plan (octagonal roof to tower; gabled to porch; lean-to to flanking bays) with clay ridge tiles, cut-limestone gabled bellcote to gable to transept to south on unpainted rendered tapered breast (with round-headed aperture on cut-limestone stringcourse having cast-iron bell, and cut-limestone coping having cross finial to apex), cut-limestone chamfered coping to gable to porch having cross finial to apex, rendered bargeboards to gables, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves. Unpainted replacement rendered walls, post-1973, with slight batter to tower having cut-limestone stringcourse. Pointed-arch window openings with cut-limestone sills, and fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels (Y-mullion to chancel forming bipartite pointed-arch arrangement with fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels). Square-headed door openings (including to tower) with tongue-and-groove timber panelled doors. Full-height interior reordered, post-1973, with timber pews, carved timber Gothic-style stations, and replacement tongue-and-groove timber panelled altar fittings, post-1973. Set back from road in own grounds with unpainted rendered boundary wall to perimeter of site having cut-limestone coping supporting wrought iron railings, limestone ashlar piers having profiled cut-limestone capping, wrought iron double gates, wrought iron flanking pedestrian gates, and limestone ashlar outer piers having profiled cut-limestone capping. (ii) Graveyard to site with various cut-stone markers, post-1830-present.
A well-appointed church the scale of which indicates the emerging confidence of the local Catholic community following Emancipation in 1829 but the reserved external decorative treatment of which suggests the limited funds available during the construction. Despite a comprehensive renovation programme following the Second Vatican Council (1963-5) the church continues to present an early aspect with substantial quantities of the historic fabric surviving in place: however, the decorative or enriched interior scheme commented upon by Maurice Craig and William Garner has been superceded by a replacement scheme of little inherent aesthetic distinction. Making a strong visual statement in a prominent position in the centre of Castlewarren an attendant graveyard containing markers of artistic distinction significantly enhances the group and setting values of the composition.