St. Catherine's Church

Built c. 1775, Mill Road.
Photo and Description taken from www.buildingsofireland.ie
Detached four-bay double-height single-cell Board of First Fruits Church of Ireland church, c.1775, with single-bay single-storey lean-to vestry to south-east, and single-bay three-stage entrance tower to west on a square plan. Subsequently in commercial use. Now disused.

Pitched slate roof (continuing into lean-to to vestry) with clay ridge tiles, cut-stone coping to gables, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Roof to tower not visible behind parapet. Unpainted rendered walls to nave. Random rubble stone walls to tower with lime mortar, and unpainted rendered parapet having gabled detailing, rendered coping, and rendered corner pinnacles with gabled detailing. Lancet window openings in pointed-arch recesses with stone sills, timber mullions forming bipartite arrangement, and 8/8 timber sash windows having tracery over. Round-headed window openings to tower (some blind) with stone sills, rubble stone voussoirs, and louvered timber panel fittings. Pointed-arch door opening to tower with cut-stone hood moulding over, timber panelled door, and overpanel. Full-height interior with furnishings removed retaining plasterwork detailing to window openings (including guilloche motif and portrait stops), and plaster ceiling having decorative roses. Set back from road in own grounds. (ii) Gateway, c.1775, to south comprising pair of cut-stone panelled piers with quatrefoil panels, moulded capping, decorative wrought iron double gates with spear-head finials, and sections of wrought iron flanking railings on coursed cut-stone boundary wall.

Appraisal: A well-proportioned middle-size church, the plan and elevation of which identifies a standard design promoted by the Board of First Fruits (fl. c.1711 - 1833). Although having later served an alternative use, and now being without use, much of the original form and massing remains intact, together with a range of important salient features and materials, both to the exterior and to the interior, which significantly enhance the historic quality of the composition. The remains of fine plasterwork dressings to the interior contribute to the artistic design quality of the church, and are indicative of high quality craftsmanship. The church is of particular significance in the locality as a reminder of the once-thriving Church of Ireland community in Tallow, having been planted in the region by the Earl of Cork (n. d.) in the early seventeenth century. The church remains an important element of the townscape, the elegant tower punctuating the skyline, while the gateway and boundary wall to the site enhance the streetscape value of Mill Road.