Survey Data
Reg No
31301014
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1930 - 1935
Coordinates
78525, 335044
Date Recorded
17/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached nine-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, dated 1932; extant 1943. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roof with ridge tiles, "Cavetto" or stepped coping to gables on roll moulded gabled "Cyma Recta" or "Cyma Reversa" corbel kneelers with Celtic Cross finials to apexes, and cast-iron rainwater goods on paired thumbnail beaded consoles retaining cast-iron downpipes. Rendered walls on rendered chamfered plinth with rendered stepped buttresses including rendered clasping stepped buttresses to corners having rendered coping. Lancet window openings with concrete sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over on thumbnail beaded label stops framing fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass "lozenges". Lancet "Trinity Window" to chancel (east) with concrete sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over on thumbnail beaded label stops framing iron mesh panels over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels. Pointed-arch door opening to entrance (west) front with three concrete steps, and concealed dressings having chamfered reveals with hood moulding over on thumbnail beaded label stops framing timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled double doors. Lancet flanking window openings with concrete sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over on thumbnail beaded label stops framing fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on square leaded glazing bars. Lancet "Trinity Window" to gable with concrete sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over on thumbnail beaded label stops framing fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass "lozenges". Pointed-arch opposing door openings (west), concealed dressings having chamfered reveals with hood mouldings over on thumbnail beaded label stops framing timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled double doors. Interior including vestibule (west) with encaustic tiled floor; square-headed door opening into nave with timber panelled double doors having overlight; full-height interior open into roof with quatrefoil-detailed timber panelled choir gallery (west) below stained glass memorial "Trinity Window" (undated), tiled central aisle between cruciform-detailed timber pews, Gothic-style timber stations between stained glass memorial windows (undated), exposed pointed-arch braced collared timber roof construction on thumbnail beaded corbels with wind braced timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled ceiling in carved timber frame on "Cavetto" cornice, and pointed-arch chancel arch framing encaustic tiled cut-veined white marble stepped dais to sanctuary (east) reordered, ----, with inlaid altar below stained glass "Trinity Window" (undated). Set in relandscaped grounds including priest's burial plot with cut-limestone Celtic High Cross-style marker, ob. 1937.
Appraisal
A church erected under the aegis of Reverend Patrick Howley PP (d. 1937) representing an important component of the early twentieth-century ecclesiastical heritage of Contae Mhaigh Eo [north County Mayo] with the architectural value of the composition, one evoking favourable comparisons with the contemporary Saint Paul's Catholic Church (1936), Gleann na Muaidhe [Glenamoy] (see 31301201), confirmed by such attributes as the rectilinear "barn" plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; and the slender profile of the openings underpinning a staid "medieval" Gothic theme with the chancel defined by an elegant "Trinity Window". 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 interior reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where a jewel-like "East Window" attributable to Earley Studios Limited (closed 1975) of Dublin highlights the artistic potential of the composition: meanwhile, an exposed timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church making an imposing visual statement in a low-lying setting.