Survey Data
Reg No
15704823
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Previous Name
Saint Rhanus's Catholic Church
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1830 - 1840
Coordinates
312268, 111256
Date Recorded
24/09/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1832-6, on a rectangular plan originally three-bay double-height single-cell with single-bay single-storey "chapels" centred on three-bay single-storey flat-roofed side aisle (north). Extended, 1918-9, producing present composition. "Restored", 1961. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roof with roll moulded clay ridge tiles, cut-granite coping to gables on cut-granite beaded kneelers including cut-granite coping to gable to entrance (east) front on cut-granite beaded kneelers with buttressed gabled bellcote to apex framing embossed cast-bronze bell ("1918"), and remains of cast-iron rainwater goods on exposed timber rafters retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes. Rendered walls on rendered plinth. Pointed-arch window openings with cut-granite Y-mullions, and concealed dressings framing fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass roundels. Pointed-arch window opening to gable to entrance (east) front with cut-granite Y-mullion, and concealed dressings framing fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass roundels. Full-height interior open into roof with choir gallery (west) on a horse shoe-shaped plan on chamfered timber post, tessellated vinyl tiled central aisle between timber pews, Gothic-style timber stations between stained glass memorial windows (----), carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary (west) reordered, ----, with replacement altar table below Classical-style reredos, and exposed collared "A-frame" timber roof construction with wind braced rafters to timber boarded ceiling. Set back from line of road in relandscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A church erected under the aegis of Reverend Walter Rowe PP (1793-1846) representing an integral component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of south County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one originally 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 an inverted liturgically-correct axis; the "pointed" profile of the openings underpinning a contemporary Georgian Gothic theme; and the handsome bellcote embellishing the roofline as a picturesque eye-catcher in the landscape: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the continued development or "improvement" of the church under the aegis of Reverend John Quigley PP (1865-1927). Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the galleried interior reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where contemporary joinery; restrained stained glass; and an elaborate reredos attributed to the Devereux Brothers of Greenmount (de Vál 2004, 95), all highlight the artistic potential of the composition: meanwhile, an exposed timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside an adjacent presbytery with the resulting ecclesiastical ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village setting presently (2007) undergoing extensive "suburban" development.