Cooneen Old Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

'Georgian vernacular' single-storey T-plan Roman Catholic Church, built c.1795, but possibly extended to create the T shape c.1810, with a small porch and vestry added post 1857, and several minor extensions of the 1950s. Deconsecrated c.1942, the building was used as a dance hall for some decades before being abandoned c.1985. Set in a rural location, it is located to the north of a road junction, with the ground immediately surrounding the building overgrown, and a tarmac-covered car park to south. To the west side of the car park is a single-storey school house of c.1840s, renovated c.2000 for use as a community centre.

The building is T-plan with the upright of the T to the north. To the gable of this northern portion is a small gabled porch, whilst, to the centre of the south face of the horizontal section, there is a hipped-roof projection, formerly the vestry. To the west gable of the same section there is a 1950s porch lean-to, (with small concrete block addition of c.1970s), and set within the eastern intersection of the two main sections is a smaller lean-to of similar date, with another to the east side of the vestry.

The walls are finished in lime based roughcast, with cut sandstone eaves courses which cross onto the gables. Some of the roughcast has fallen away to reveal rubble construction with squared stone quoins. The 1950's additions are largely cement rendered. The roof of the main T-shaped section is gabled and slated, with clay ridge tiles and stone parapets to the gables (two of which have cross finials). A significant central portion of the roof has collapsed. The vestry has a hipped roof covered as before, with a rendered chimneystack to the south side. The lean-to roofs are slated, except for that to the lean-to in the east intersection, which has a corrugated metal covering.

The original main entrance is to the west side of the north porch, where there is a doorway with shallow pointed arch head, sheeted timber double door and overlight. The other doorways, to the vestry and western porch, are flat arch, with a plain sheeted timber door to that to the vestry. The window openings to the main body of the building are Georgian ratio with shallow pointed arch heads to those to the northern section and elliptical heads to those to the south (only one of which can now be seen in its entirety). All of these have stone cills and are filled with timber sash frames with multiple Georgian panes (12/10). The window openings to the projections are smaller with flat arch heads and the remains of various types of frames, sash and metal casement. One of the window openings to the west face of the northern portion has been lengthened to create a doorway.

Historical information

In his 1921 “Parishes of Clogher” (vol.II), Rev. James E. McKenna states that, according to local tradition, this former chapel was ‘built by parish priest Rev. Thomas Rafferty (1795-1814)’, on a site ‘secured from a woman named Baxter (nee Maguire)’.

In part, this information appears to be correct. Firstly, a building marked ‘Chappel’ is shown in position on an 1804 Brooke estate map of part of the townland of Cooneen. Secondly, much of the land in this area of Cooneen was in the hands of various individuals named Baxter -undoubtedly related- from at least the 1780s onwards. A Robert and a John Baxter ‘of Cooneen’ are mentioned in a lease of May 1787, a Patrick Baxter in one of April 1800, and a series of leases of December 1803 confirmed James, Sarah, Robert, John and Patrick Baxter in their holdings in the area. Whether it was actually a ‘woman named Baxter’ who was responsible for the handing over of the land is uncertain, however. On the aforementioned 1804 map, the building is shown lying within a small plot of one rood ten perches which seems, on the face of it, to have originally belonged to a larger area of just over 15 acres in the hands of John Baxter. Perhaps the ‘woman named Baxter’ was his wife? Whatever the truth, it is clear that the chapel was in place by February 1804 at least, and as the tradition suggests, may have been built in 1795 or shortly after.

The 1804 map shows the chapel as a gabled structure set on an east-west axis, with a small house and outbuilding, (which presumably belonged to John Baxter), along the roadside to the west; however, the road to the immediate west of the chapel grounds had not yet been cut. By 1834 the present road layout had been established and the chapel is shown much as today. The first valuation of August of the following year records that the structure was perceived as being relatively old at that point, (at least 25-30 years), and had a slate roof and un-rendered stone walls. It measured 58½ft x 25½ x 14½ with an ‘addition’ (i.e. the portion to the north) of 25½ x 25½ x 14½. The ‘chapel yard’ is noted as amounting to 297 x 130½, whilst, to the north-west along the new road, there was a single-storey thatched public house run by a Mrs Jane Baxter. Oddly, the chapel is not mentioned in the contemporary OS Memoirs or Lewis’s ‘Topographical Dictionary’.

On the revised OS map of 1857, the ‘addition’ at the rear of the building is shown considerably shorter than it appears on the previous map, or as it is today. This must have been an oversight on the part of the cartographer, for the dimensions listed in the second valuation of August of 1860 same year are as they were in 1835, and as they are today, (minus the vestry and porch extensions etc.). By this stage small National School had been built within the chapel grounds. By 1860, the grounds themselves were being leased directly from the Brooke estate, and the ‘thatched building formerly a roadside public house to the north-west had become a private dwelling.

The post-1864 annual valuation returns do not document any changes to the building, so it is difficult to say when the vestry to the south and the porch to the north were added (churches, being exempt from rates were of little interest to the valuers). The surviving internal detailing such as the turned balusters and newel post, the machined roof timbers and the horizontal glazing bars to the window of the vestry, (which although Regency in appearance tend to be late 19th century in more modest structures), all suggest work was carried out to the building c.1880-c.1900. In or around May 1899, a ‘dastardly outrage’ was committed ‘in connection’ with the chapel. The nature of this is not certain, but one wonders whether it occasioned repairs to the building, perhaps even the replacement of the roof?*

The parish acquired the freehold of the site sometime between 1929 and 1935 [there is a gap in the valuations during these years]. In 1942 a new larger Romanesque Style church, designed by J.L. Donnelly, was built next to the crossroads a short distance to the west, next to the parochial house; itself built in 1898 to a design by the then Parish priest, Canon McKenna. In 1949-50 the local curate, Fr. George McCarron had the now deconsecrated chapel converted to a dancehall. Several alterations were made to the building including the erection of a stage at the east end of what was the nave, the building of a wall enclosing the stairs and gallery, and the addition of the small lean-to to the west gable. It is probable that the other minor extensions were added around this time also. The building was abandoned c.1985.

References- Primary Sources
1 PRONI D.998/1/11 Brooke Papers Map of Cooneen surveyed by James Leonard, Sept. 1753
2 PRONI D.998/26/148, 150, 22-226 Brooke Papers Various leases relating to Cooneen TD,
1787-1803. [Of these leases the most relevant is that granted to John Baxter in December 1803
‘of 15 acres 1 rood in Cooneen’ which appears to correspond to the land to the west of the
chapel.]
3 PRONI D.998/1/111 Brooke Papers ‘A map of part of Cooneen…by Francis Elliott’, Febraury
1804
4 PRONI D.998/1/187 Brooke Papers ‘Map of Cooneen…survyed by A. Coar’, c.1821
5 PRONI VAL/1A/4/24, 29 OS maps, Co Fermanagh sheets 24, 29, with valuation
references,
1834/35(-36)
6 PRONI VAL/1B/428A First valuation, Aghalurcher parish, August 1836
7 PRONI VAL/2A/4/24, 29A OS maps, Co Fermanagh sheets 24, 29, with valuation references,
1857(-60)
8 PRONI VAL/2B/4/19A Second valuation, Aghalurcher parish, August 1860
9 PRONI VAL/12B/28/20A Annual valuation revision book, Grogey ED, 1864-80
10 PRONI VAL/12B/28/20B Annual valuation revision book, Grogey ED, 1881
11 PRONI VAL/12B/28/20C Annual valuation revision book, Grogey ED, 1882-98
12 BELB ‘The Impartial Reporter’, 1 August 1898 [*This ‘outrage’ appears to have been reported
in Enniskillen newspaper ‘The Impartial Reporter’, however the 1899 editions of the paper are
not kept at the BELB newspaper library. A photocopy of a letter written to the paper after the
incident is on the EHS file- see below.]
13 PRONI VAL/12B/28/20D Annual valuation revision book, Grogey ED, 1899-1914
14 PRONI VAL/12B/28/20E Annual valuation revision book, Grogey ED, 1915-23(-29)
15 PRONI VAL/3A/4/24A OS map, Co Fermanagh sheet 24 with valuation references, 1932(-38)
16 PRONI VAL/3B/5/8 General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Lisnaskea RD, 1935
17 PRONI VAL/3C/5/10 General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Lisnaskea RD, 1936-57
18 EHS OS map, sheet 214-13, 1990

Secondary sources
1 Rev. James E. McKenna, ‘Parishes of Clogher, Vol.II’, (Enniskillen, 1921), p.157
2 A.J. Rowan, ‘Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (London, 1979), p.219
3 EHS HB12/04/080, 081, 089 First Survey notes- Cooneen old chapel (1979), St. Joseph’s RC
Church, Cooneen (c.1992)
4 EHS HB13LQ039 File relating to Cooneen old church

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Surviving 18th century RC chapels / churches are relatively few, and those retaining their original form are even fewer. In the decades following Emancipation, the growth in wealth and confidence amongst catholic congregations meant that many were either replaced entirely, or altered and extended, their simple vernacular Georgian lines lost under gothic additions and embellishments. This building is a scarce example of a late 1700's chapel which evaded the hand of such mid to later Victorian improvements. It retains its unfussy pre 1830s form, devoid of any decoration, save for several c.1890s cross finials to some of the gables, and fits seamlessly into its rural surroundings. The fact that a neighbouring mid 19th century National school has survived is a bonus, adding group value.