Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB13/01/026

Address :
Holy Family RC Church 156 Screeby Rd, Fivemiletown Co, Tyrone BT75 0TP

Townland:
SYUNSHIN

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
20/06/2023 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Store

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
195/10NW

IG Ref:
H4807 5113

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

SETTING & EXTERIOR DESCRIPTION Rendered stone Roman Catholic church, single cell, sited approximately 3.7miles NE of Fivemiletown and 5.5 miles west of Clogher, Co Tyrone at the roadside to the immediate south of number 158 Screeby Road and close to the junction with Aghintain Road,. The church is orientated approximately NE-SW with the main entrance to NE and sacristy return to NW. A small metal clad store is located on the NW corner. A graveyard is set to the SE and partly to the SW. North East elevation. The principle elevation faces Northeast onto the Screeby Road and is plain, without openings bar the entrance door opening which consists of a single entrance light and modest sized opening containing a 2 leaf timber-panelled door set. The rubble stone wall has a sand-cement render finish consisting of a 40mm deep base plinth, raised corner pilasters and a raised entrance surround. With the exception of the plain base plinth, there is ashlar detailing where the verticals are not truly vertical but set in alternate bands at 60 degrees and 120 degrees to the normal. The access from the road is marked by pair of thin wrought iron gateposts with alternating hoop pattern gates. This is flanked on either side by a late 20th century concrete post and wire fence. The short distance to the main entrance is approached over plain grass, without a pathway. Southeast elevation. The Southeast elevation overlooks the main body of the graveyard. This four bay elevation has Gothic style lancet window openings set in a low relief render surround above a stone cill. Each window has a central y-shaped mullion dividing it into two lancet shaped side-lights leaving a diamond-shaped gap at the top. This spandrel is infilled with an irregular shaped 4 pane light. Each of the lancet side-lights are seven over six. The upper section has three irregular panes within the arch and four rectilinear panes beneath and the bottom section is hopper opening light with six regular panes. The main body of the wall has a smooth sand cement render finish with the same plinth, raised window surrounds and ashlar stone detailing as the other elevations. South West elevation. The South West elevation is punctuated by a single large opening - a tri-partite stain-glass altar window. Set above head height, it has three tall and narrow lancet windows set within a unified stone surround (now painted). The flat-faced stone surround is deeply recessed. The central lancet arch rises higher than the flanking lancets and its outer mullions merge with the inner mullions of the flanking lancets. The south west elevation shares the same render features as the other elevations. Northwest elevation. The Northwest elevation has two bays each with a lancet window similar to those in the southeast elevation. A sacristy extension has been inserted between these windows. It is single storey, with a slate roof that tucks beneath the eaves of the main roof, and an opening with a single timber panel door on the NE elevation and a rectilinear window opening with raised flat surround on the SW elevation that is boarded up. A yellow brick chimney is centred on the NE gable. Roof Bangor Blue slate with a modest roof eaves overhang and clipped verge at the gables. An angled ridge tile with a metal Celtic cross mounted on the SW gable and a more substantial cast stone cross at the NE gable. Roof: natural Welsh slate Walling Rubble stone walls with sand cement render finish Window: Timber, multi-paned, single-glazed RWG: cast iron

Architects

Historical Information

A building of rectangular plan captioned ‘R.C. Chapel’ is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834. Its orientation on the map is marginally different than today, but this is a not uncommon occurrence on the first edition maps and should not be taken as a definite indication of a subsequent rebuild. A house on the site of the present dwelling to the immediate north is also shown. In the first valuation of this townland (Syunshin, Clogher Parish) of June 1835, the chapel is recorded as a ‘not new’ slated structure measuring 55ft x 27 x 10½ (to the eaves), dimensions which appear similar, but not identical to the present. The contemporary OS Memoirs provide relatively little detail, merely referring to the chapel in the ‘manor of Aughintain’ (of which Syunshin is a part) being able to accommodate ‘500 persons.’ Confusingly, another Memoir entry mentions ‘a Roman Catholic chapel situated in Aghintain townland…a plain whitewashed building 50 feet long and 25 feet broad’ which held ‘900 persons’ and was built in 1805 at a cost of £400 ‘which was defrayed by the congregation.’ There never appears to have been a church / chapel in Aghintain townland itself, so it is likely that this is actually a reference to this site. The fact that Samuel Lewis’s also mentions a chapel at ‘Aghentine’ in his 1837 ‘Topographical Dictionary….’would appear to support this; but that said, it is difficult to explain the wide discrepancy in the capacity of the building quoted in the Memoirs. Later sources add further confusion to the church’s beginnings. A December 1878 newspaper obituary of a local man, Hugh McCaffrey senior, states that as a young man he assisted at ‘the opening of a commodious chapel at Aughentain in the year 1816’., whilst Rev. J.E. McKenna’s 1920 ‘The Diocese of Clogher Parochial Records’ refers to it being built ‘by the Rev. Patrick Bellew…between the years 1820 and 1825.’ A more recent article (see ref 11) adds that Rev Philip MacMahon, Parish Priest of Clogher, left ‘£63 for a chapel in Clogher or £26-14-0 for one in Aughintaine’ in his will of May 1795. The revised OS map of 1852 depicts a building like that of 1834 with the house to the north and a small schoolhouse – ‘Syunshin National School’ – to the north-east on the opposite side of the road. Neither the second valuation of c.1858 nor any of the later valuation books supply details of religious structures, so we cannot trace any alterations to the building with any certainty, or indeed if it was ever rebuilt. The present wall height is taller than that quoted in the 1835 valuation and relatively large size of the windows and their timber sash frames look c.1840s suggesting, perhaps that the present structure could be of this date, or that the openings were merely enlarged around this time. The vestry projection to the north seems to be a later 19th century addition, as it is shown for the first time on the 1906 OS map, whilst the main roof structure looks to be of the same date or the early 1900s. It is possible that work to the building was undertaken in the mid-1870s, for Rev. McKenna mentions that a bell was added by Rev. Andrew McGeough sometime between 1874 and 1877. There is evidence for work having been carried out again in 1908, for in July of that year the ‘Tyrone Constitution’ reported that ‘Aughentaine Roman Catholic chapel is at present undergoing a process of renovation at the hands of competent workmen.’ Further renovation is said to have taken place in the 1930s; it may have been at this point that the bell (which appears to have been still present in 1920) was removed. The church appears to have remained in regular use until c.2000 but was closed some time before and has only witnessed occasional use for weddings etc. since then The dwelling-house to the north of the church is not recorded in the first valuation, suggesting it was a building of modest proportions and probably single-storey. In the c.1858 valuation it is recorded as occupied by Samuel Irwin, who remained there until c.1881, after which James Culbertson is listed as the occupant until at least 1929. Map evidence suggest the present house is of the mid-1930s. The former schoolhouse on the opposite side of the road is of 1886 and replaced the school shown on the 1852 OS map, which stood further to the north. The latter was converted to a house when the new school opened but was demolished c.1930. References – Primary sources 1 OS Memoirs, Clogher parish – 1833-35 [See ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland’ Vol.5 (QUB, 1990] 2 OS maps 6inch County series, Tyrone sheet 58 – 1834, 1852, 1906, 1937 3 PRONI VAL1B/61A-K First valuation, Clogher parish – 1835 4 Lewis, Samuel, ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’, (1837) 5 PRONI VAL2B/6/2A Second valuation, Clogher parish – c.1858 6 PRONI VAL12B/36/1A-F Annual valuation revision books, Aghintain ED – 1860-1929 7 ‘The People’s Advocate and Monaghan, Fermanagh and Tyrone News’, p.5 – 7 December 1878 8 ‘Tyrone Constitution’, p.3 – 24 July 1908 Secondary sources 9 McKenna, J.E., ‘The Diocese of Clogher Parochial Records’, (Fermanagh Herald, Enniskillen, 1920), pp.176-77 10 Rowan, Alistair, ‘North West Ulster’, (Penguin, 1979), p.298 11 O Mordha, Pilip, “Some MacMahon wills from Clogher Diocese” in ‘Clogher Record’, 1991, Vol 14 No.1, pp.27-36 12 Information from Katrina Sharkey – November 2021 [On HED file.]

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Single-storey RC church whose simple rectangular plan and steeply-pitched gabled roof simple form is very much in the style of an early Christian-era Irish church. The building is believed to be of c.1805, but evidence suggests that the roof may have been replaced (and wall height raised slightly) c.1906. The walls are finished in cement render and the windows are pointed arch and largely with Georgian style glazing, whilst the internal detailing appears to be largely early 1900s.

General Comments

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Date of Survey

16 March 2022