St. Comgall's C.o.I Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Cruciform Church ecclesiastically aligned with tower to W-end set within churchyard to the E side of High Street.

Pitched artificial slate roof with advanced eaves course supporting half-round plastic rainwater goods.

Principal elevation faces W. Walls are roughcast with sandstone dressings to openings and a sandstone platband to base. It is abutted to centre by tower (see later). The exposed right and left section are blank.

The majority of the walls are blank, with the exception (1) the N and S gables of each transept (2) the E gable of the nave and (3) the S elevation of the nave; all of which contain one window. All windows are set within a lancet opening and contain a pair of timber cusped-headed panes with Gothic quatrefoil in spandrel; that to E gable of nave contains three cusped panes with three Gothic quatrefoils in spandrels. The end gables of each transept and nave are identical with a platband at eaves level and a small ventilation hole with metal louvres to apex.

The E face of the left (N) transept is abutted by a vestry and later addition - both are detailed as church. Vestry has a hipped natural slate roof with a window (as before but smaller) to W face. Its N face is abutted by addition; its E face has a t+g sheeted door set to right and modern casement window with concrete cill to left.

The tower is three-staged, square-in-section gradually tapering to a crenellated parapet. Walls are as church with sandstone platband between each stage. The S face of Stage 1 has a semicircular-headed opening with stained timber door with decorative hinges. Its W face has two semicircular-headed fixed windows, aligned above each other. The lower window has three horizontal panes, that above is a 3x3 timber window with tracery head. Set between each is a plaque reading “Nathl Clarke: inc Robinson/ ChWs/ AD1814”. The upper half of stage 2 stands free from the church and all sides but the W face are blank which has a circular window with four segmental panes. Stage 3 has a semicircular headed opening to each facecontaining a pair of timber louvred lancets. This stage is surmounted by four crenellated pinnacles to each corner.

Churchyard contains a number of 19thC stone memorials.

Historical information

This church dates from 1821, being a rebuild of one dating from 1648 which was accidentally burned in 1819. The 1814 plaque on the tower suggests that this section is earlier. According to Rowan, new seats were installed in 1889. It is shown on the 1834 and 1857 OS 6” maps, and cited as St Comgall’s Church on the 1907 edition.

Primary sources:
1. Ordnance Survey Memoir, Galloon Parish, Co Fermanagh (1835).
2. OS 6” map, 1st edition (1834), Co Fermanagh sheet 40 (PRONI OS 6/4/40/1).
3. OS 6” map, 2nd edition (1857), Co Fermanagh sheet 40 (PRONI OS 6/4/40/2).
4. OS 6” map, 3rd edition (1907), Co Fermanagh sheet 40 (PRONI OS 6/4/40/3).
5. Datestone.

Secondary sources:
A. Rowan, Buildings of North-West Ulster, p.437 (Harmondsworth).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

An early 19thC Cruciform church ecclesiastically aligned with tower to W-end. It is set within churchyard with many 19thC stone memorials and a burial vault containing members of the Earls of Crom. Internally the church retains much of its original fabric with interesting plasterwork supposedly carried out by craftsman rebuilding Crom Castle c1840.