Survey Data
Reg No
40401609
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1810 - 1815
Coordinates
245874, 315832
Date Recorded
06/06/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding Church of Ireland church, built 1812-14, with three-bay nave having three-stage bell tower to west with entrance in south elevation, chancel to east added c.1860, single-bay single-storey vestry to the north-east and boiler room lean-to to rear of tower. Pitched slate roof with eaves corbel course, dressed stone barge copings abd cast-iron rainwater goods. Tower roof not seen behind stepped parapet. Steeply pitched slate roof to chancel. Roughly coursed limestone rubble walls, with dressed quoins to chancel. Stepped ashlar limestone battlements to tower on a stepped string course with corner pinnacles. Pointed belfry opening to upper stage with hood mouldings and timber louvres. Middle stage delimited by string courses with glazed roundels to three faces with brick dressings. Multiple-paned window to west of tower with cusped timber head and thin glazing bars. Pointed arch twin-light windows to south of nave with stepped surrounds, sills and hood moulding of dressed limestone with brick surround to outer order, windows to north of nave with stepped brick surrounds without hood mouldings. East window to chancel with stone tracery in Decorated style, composed of cuspless rose window over three-light cusped lancet composition, stone surround encloses raised blocks under each light. Twelve-over-twelve pane sliding sash window with cusped timber head in east wall of vestry. Pointed arched door with hood moulding on head corbels, timber door with blind graduated lancet motif. Interior with high-backed bench seats, wainscoted side walls and oil wall lamps. Open timber roof with king posts trusses of c.1860. Splayed embrasures to nave windows with moulded arches on colonettes and capitals. Wall monument by Kirk dated 1831. Chancel arch with continuous moulded surround and hood moulding, wagon-vaulted timber ceiling to chancel. Stained glass to east window dated 1954 depicting Parable of the Sower. Set back from the road within a churchyard, with rubble stone walls, square-profile piers and pair of double-leaf gates.
Appraisal
A fine rural Church of Ireland church, possibly designed by James E Rogers, built with a grant of £2,600 from the Board of First Fruits, probably replacing an earlier church, and including additions of high quality from later periods. Head corbels around the entrance door appear to be relict features of the earlier church and add to the antiquity and historical interest of the building. The church is distinguished by sharply cut pinnacles and stepped battlements, possibly added in the 1830s. The east window of c.1860 is a good example of the style employed in that period by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the blind lower panels being an unusual feature. The window is glazed with a stained-glass depiction of the Parable of the Sower by Catherine O’Brien (1881-1963) which is of considerable artistic interest. Along with wall monuments of good quality, the interior includes tall-backed bench seats of c.1860, pulpit, reader’s desk and hymn board from 1917, all indicators of continuous worship and care of the fabric. The church and its historic churchyard are part of a wider context comprising a former school, parochial hall and glebe, which together form an interesting architectural and social ensemble.