Church

The National Monuments Service's description

This is the fortified parish church of St Mary's, Bannow, within a rectangular graveyard (dims 58.7m E-W; 60.5m N-S) defined by masonry walls (H 1.4-1.6m). It was probably founded before AD 1200 by monks from Canterbury, but it was transferred to Tintern abbey (WX045-027001-) in 1245, and Tintern still held 120 acres and the rectory at its Suppression in 1538 (Hore 1901-11, vol. 2, 76, 80). According to a Visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 the church was impropriate to Tintern, John Harris was the vicar, and the church and chancel were in repair (ibid. vol. 6, 269).
The church is situated on the summit of a broad hill. It consists of a nave (ext. dims 21.15m E- W; 10.3m N-S; int. dims 18.93m E-W; 8.1m N-S) and chancel (ext. dims 9.8m E-W; 7.9m N-S; int. dims 8.74m E-W; 5.88m N-S) surviving complete (H of S nave wall, c. 6.2m), except for the top of the W gable, which had a bell-cote before it collapsed c. 1830 (Tuomey 1850, 201). The top of the S nave wall was conserved in 2020 without reconstructing the crenellations (McLoughlin 2020). There are opposing doorways a little W of the centre of nave walls, that on the N with a secondary vaulted porch (ext. dims 4.3m E-W; 3.75m N-S), now blocked and converted into a mausoleum, with no dressed stonework. The S doorway (Wth 1.15m) has been altered with the insertion of a concrete lintel and the addition of an external masonry architrave, but the round arch of its embrasure is original. The remains of a porch with an E-facing doorway, survived in to the nineteenth century (ibid. 200). The W window (Wth 1.6m) is destroyed, and the only other windows towards the E end of the long walls are obscured by concrete or ivy. The nave was fortified about the end of the fourteenth century with crenellations and wall-walks, while eight pairs of large beam-holes in the N and S walls from this period supported the roof, and perhaps an upper room (Corlett and Kirwan 2016, 280-2, 289-90).
A round chancel arch (Wth 3.45m; H 3.85m) of dressed voussoirs leads to the chancel, and there may have been a rood screen on the nave side, evident as corbels on the W face of the chancel-arch wall (ibid. 272-3). The pointed E window (Wth 1.7m; H c. 4m) is now partly blocked, with the remains of tracery from a three or four-light window and a hood-moulding. This window was inserted in a larger embrasure, and suffered frost damage in the winter of 2011-12. The reveals are of the original Dundry, and one stone has a mason’s mark (ibid. 269-73). There are two blocked windows in the S chancel wall, the western with two cusped ogee-headed lights, but the other is damaged and blocked. Both windows are inserted, as is probably the case with the blocked and obscured window towards the E end of the N wall. The restoration of a nineteenth century tomb, from which the burials had been removed to another graveyard in 1909, allowed an archaeological investigation (E004824) of the inner face of the S chancel wall which has a footing (H 0.5m) 0.9m below the present ground level (McLoughlin 2019). The remains of what might be a dais at the E end of the church was also present.
There is a granite bullaun stone (dims 0.58m x 0.57m; H 0.31m) with a single basin (diam. 0.3m; D 0.16m) inside the S nave doorway, and two graveslabs and a sarcophagus are at the SE angle of the nave. One of the graveslabs (Wth 0.45-0.86m; L 2.24m; T 0.19m) has a civilian male and a female head carved proud and an inscription commemorating Joanes Colfer and Anne (?) Lusgin or Siggin with a floriated cross, but the inscription might not be original (Hunt 1974, vol. 1. 236-7). The other graveslab (Wth 0.46-0.75m; L 2.04m; T 0.1m) has an incised cross with trefoil terminals and may have provided the cover for the sarcophagus. This is made of sandstone and has similar dimensions (Wth 0.45-0.74m; L 2.04m; H 0.49m), with a single drain-hole (Bradley 1988, 79). Inside the NE angle of the chancel is a third graveslab (Wth 0.39-0.69m; L 2.03m; T 0.13m) with a cross carved in relief that has trefoil terminals.
The highly decorated Romanesque font from this church is now in the Roman Catholic church at Carrick-on-Bannow (WX046-011----) (Corlett 2012). It is complete (H 0.87m) and was probably made from Dundry stone but is now painted white. It has a rectangular base (dims 0.6m x 0.61m; H 0.26m), a plain circular stem (diam. 0.48m), and the rectangular basin (dims 0.62m x 0.59m; H 0.4m) has banded decoration that is similar on two sides, but different on the other two, and shows Anglo-Saxon influence. The site of Bannow castle (WX045-045002-) is c. 70m SE of the church and the site of Lady's Well (WX045-046----) is c. 190m to the E. (Hore 1904, vol. 4, 437-63; Leask 1960, vol. 2, 146; Butler 1985, 34-5)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revision: 25 January 2017

References

Corlett, C. and Kirwan, S. 2016 ‘The medieval parish church at Bannow' in I. Doyle and B. Browne (eds) Medieval Wexford: Essays in memory of Billy Colfer, 262-91. Dublin, Four Courts Press

McLoughlin, C. 2019 Report on excavation of the Boyse Tomb, St. Mary’s Church, Bannow, Co. Wexford. Licence: E004824. Unpublished report, Stafford McLoughlin: Archaeology/Heritage/Conservation

McLoughlin, C. 2020 Report on conservation of the top of the south wall at St. Mary’s Church, Bannow, Co. Wexford. E004824. Unpublished report, Stafford McLoughlin: Archaeology/Heritage/Conservation

Tuomy, J. C. 1850 The Bay and Town of Bannow. No. II Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 1, No. 2, 194-210.

Butler, T.C. 1985 A parish and its people. Wellingtonbridge. Privately published.

Bradley, J. 1988 Anglo-Norman Sacrophagi in Ireland. In G.M. Niocaill and P.F. Wallace (eds), Keimelia: studies in medieval history and archaeology in memory of Tom Delaney, 74-94. Galway University Press.

Hore, P.H. 1900-1911 (Reprint 1979) History of the town and county of Wexford, 6 vols. Dublin. Published by arrangement with W.A. Hennessy Esq.

Hunt, J. 1974 Irish medieval figure sculpture 1200-1600, 2 vols. Dublin. Irish University Press.

Leask, H.G. 1960 (Reprint 1967 and 1990) Irish churches and monastic buildings, vol. II. Gothic architecture to A.D. 1400. Dundalk. Dundalgan Press.

Corlett, C. 2012 Two Romanesque fonts in Wexford. Archaeology Ireland 26 (4), 17-19.