Boho Parish Church, Carrickbed Road, Boho, Co Fermanagh

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Freestanding rendered Church of Ireland hall-and-tower type church, built c.1780, set in a churchyard and located on the east side of Carrickbeg Road, Boho. Original vestry to NW, extended and refurbished c.2012.

Pitched natural slate roofs throughout, raised with deep overhanging painted timber box eaves having rendered soffits; ghost marks of original roof level evident in render to north gable and east elevation; plastic profiled gutters with cast-iron downpipes to main body of church and plastic downpipes to vestry. The belfry roof is concealed by a simple parapet with simple stone coping and string course to upper stage, and pointed stone corner finials. Walling is roughcast rendered over limestone rubble, set on raised foundation plinth diminishing towards north end; there is a pronounced batter to north gable and belfry. Windows openings to nave are semi-circular headed with plain reveals and concrete cills, square-headed window to vestry, both having leaded lattice windows with coloured glass panes; small stained glass insets to north window; belfry openings are rectangular and have timber louvres.

Nave is abutted to south-west gable by square-based two-stage belfry tower, and is otherwise blank. Entrance located to north-west cheek of tower, comprising a medieval pointed arched moulded stone door surround, obscured by plaster incised to resemble stone, and set on plinth blocks. The door is oak timber sheeted, ledged and braced, with woodgrained finish and simple ironmongery. The tower has diminutive rectangular louvred openings to upper stage, and is otherwise blank.

North-west elevation is abutted by the vestry and is otherwise blank; small lean-to shed abuts to north. Vestry comprises original rectangular proportion extended to north-west. Entrance to south-west comprises a uPVC door beneath a gablet; original iron sub-floor ventilation grille to lower right side; the north-west side is lit by a uPVC window, original coloured glass leaded lattice window to north-east.

North-east gable has a window with stained glass inserts, and a diminutive segmental arched opening to apex having timber louvres; original iron ventilation grille at sub-floor level. The render has a distinct break where the roof level has been raised.
South-east elevation has three equally-spaced windows.

The church is set on a sloping wedge-shaped site on high ground overlooking the surrounding countryside and Lough Erne to east. There is a churchyard with nineteenth and twentieth-century memorial monuments to south-east, planted with yew trees and bounded by mature tree boundaries to north-east and south. The road to west is elevated above the site, which is bounded by a rubble stone wall, rendered to the road elevation, and having a stile of three steps to right of a pedestrian entrance, which comprises a pair of replacement cast-iron gates supported on slender stop-chamfered octagonal stone piers with ball finials. Steps down to church and perimeter pathways are poured concrete. There is a second gated entrance at the narrow south-west end of the site, comprising a pair of steel gates on roughcast rendered piers with First World War memorial plaque dated 2012. A monopitched rubble stone-faced store, dated 2011, is built against the inner face of the boundary wall near south-west gate.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Roughcast render
Windows: Leaded lattice lancets
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Boho Parish Church was built in 1777, predating the first edition OS map (1835). It appears on this map in its current simple rectangular form within an area bounded by trees closely matching that which still survives today. The site remains unchanged on the later maps except that by the third edition (1900), the enclosure around the church is marked as “graveyard”. The church was built in 1777 with £200 given by the Board of First Fruits and was later repaired with £157 10s given by their successors, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in 1830 (Lewis). The building is thought to incorporate a medieval doorcase from the pre-reformation church on the site of Sacred Heart Church (HB12/10/029), which is individually scheduled (FER210:058) but, if extant, it is hidden beneath layers of plaster. The earlier church is thought to still have been in existence in 1603 when it was recorded in the Inquisition. Lewis described the new parish church as “plain” and noted that the glebe comprised 142 acres, but that there was not glebe house. This must have been built shortly after his visit, for the OS Memoirs record that in 1834-35 the rector was the Rev. Mr Porteous and that “the church is in good repair and a small glebe house built by the present rector situated near the church” (Day). In the late 1830s, the Townland Valuation gave the length and breadth of the church as 46 feet long, 26 feet wide and 15 feet high. It notes a “Belfry House”, presumably the tower, as being “just roofed”. The OS second edition (1862) shows the rectory just north of the church, with land surrounding the church plot and occupied by the Rev. Mark Whitaker. Whitaker remained the rector until his death in 1898, at which time his wife is then recorded as lessor of the rectory plot and the large plot of land to the east. The church was valued at £6 in Griffiths Valuation (1862) and only increased to £7 5s in 1903 after the creation of the graveyard. In 2012 the church was extended with a kitchen and toilets. The layout of the church, with the holy table against the east wall, and ministration from the north, follows Calvinist practice, although it is likely that the pulpit was once centrally positioned in front of the holy table. The online church history notes that the vestry was extended in 2012.

References:
Primary
references:
PRONI OS/6/4/21/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map (1834)
PRONI OS/6/4/21/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (1857)
PRONI OS/6/4/21/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (1905-06)
PRONI VAL/1/B/422 – Townland Valuation Field Book (1830s)
PRONI VAL/2B/4/15 – Griffith’s Valuation Field Book (c.1860)

Secondary references:
Rowan, A., “The Buildings of Ireland: Northwest Ulster” (Yale UP, 1979)
Lewis, S: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)
Crooks, Canon D.W.T. & Moore, Dean T.R. (eds.), “Clergy of Clogher” (Ulster Historical Foundation/ The Diocesan Council, 2006)
Information on file from HED

Online References:
http://www.devenishandbohoparish.org.uk/church-history/boho-parish/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Boho Parish Church is a simple hall-and-tower type rural parish church of 1777, highly representative of early Board of First Fruits typology, and characterised by diminutive proportions and simple detailing. It comprises a simple nave with three-stage belfry tower and a small vestry outshot which has been extended in recent years. The church is notable for the west entrance doorcase, comprising a simple pointed arch on plinth blocks, which is thought to have late medieval origins and to have been relocated from the nearby pre-Reformation church which once stood on the site of the Sacred Heart RC Chapel, located a short distance to north. The church has been subject to various unsympathetic refurbishments including the raising of the roof and loss of original ceiling, and the liturgical arrangement, although not thought to be original, is somewhat unusual in a former Established church, conforming to Calvinist principles. The church is enhanced by its highly picturesque rural churchyard setting with some original boundary features, set on high ground over Lough Ross. It is also of social and historical interest, reflecting over two hundred years of worship linked to an older tradition of Christian heritage in the area that can be reliably traced back to at least the fifteenth century.

General comments

Listing Query ref: HB12/LQ124