Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at the S tip of a slight N-S spur. The parish church of Mayglass is within a rectangular graveyard (max. dims c. 80m E-W; c. 35m N-S) defined by an earthen bank and hedge, except at the E end of the S side where there is a masonry wall, and the perimeter is removed at NE where the graveyard is extended. The name of the parish means a green plain – Magh glas. References date at least from 1312 when Mayglass is attached to the deanery of Ferns (Hore 1925, 30). In 1397 William de St. John was rector and in 1569 Sir Thomas Stafford was vicar when there was an enquiry into the rights of the Dean of Ferns at Mayglass. This revealed that when Laurence Neville, Dean of Ferns, succeeded to the see in 1479 he compensated his rival, Sir Henry Roche, with the Deanery of Ferns and the manor and court (or castle) at Mayglass, where Dean Roche lived out his days, and ‘there (to) this day hys monument remaynith in the Church paynted upon a tabell, “Sir Henry Roche Dean of Fernys”.’ (Hore 1900-11, vol. 6, 236). According to a visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 Jacob Stafford was the vicar, and the church and chancel were in repair (ibid. vol. 6, 267). Synnott writing c. 1680 lists the church of St. Fintan at Mayglass (Hore 1921, 58).
This is a nave and chancel church (ext. L 25.6m), of which only the E gable (L 6.8m) of the chancel, the rebuilt W gable (L 7.88m) and portions of the S nave wall survive. The base of the nave walls and the plain Romanesque doorway of two orders (Wth 0.95; present H 1.5m) towards the W end of the S nave wall are the earliest features. The doorway was repaired in 1914 (Anon. 1921). The upper part of the stepped W gable with its double bellcote at the apex and the two-light ogee-headed window with hollow spandrels is rebuilt with smaller stones than the base of the gable. The chancel is probably a structure of the 15th century as the pointed E widow (Wth 1.47m; H 2.45m), composed entirely of Dundry stone, has the stumps of an elaborate interlace that is robbed. The site of St Fintan's Well (WX047-014----), where the pattern was held on 17th February (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 290), is c. 130m to the S. Archaeological testing (98E0531) c. 130m to the NE in Haggard townland produced no related material (Nelis 1998, 2000).

See the attached view from the Down Survey parish map (N at bottom) reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland (Ms 725).

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 upload/revision: 15 October, 2013

References

Anon. 1921 Member's Column: Old Mayglass, The Past, vol. 2, 148-9.

Nelis, D. 1998 Report on archaeological testing at Haggardstown, Co. Wexford. Licence: 98E0531. Unpublished report. Archaeological Development Services.

Nelis, D. 2000 Haggardstown. Zone of archaeological potential. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1998: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 216, No. 669, Bray. Wordwell.

Hore, H. F. 1862 An account of the barony of Forth, in the county of Wexford, writtten at the close of the seventeenth century. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 7, 53-84.

Hore, P. H. 1925 The barony of Forth. Part 3. The Past, vol. 3, 9-40.

Hore, P.H. 1921 The barony of Forth, Part 2. The Past 2, 38-99.