St. Mary's Church, Gowran

Roughly S of centre of the medieval town of Gowran. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 400), Theobald fitz Walter, before his death in 1206, ‘granted a charter of incorporation to his free burgesses of Balligaueran [Gowran]. Possibly it was he, too, who appropriated the Rectory, or moiety of the Rectory, of Gowran to the Knights Templars, of the Priory of Kilmainham, who are found in possession of same as early as the year 1254’. According to Gwynn and Hadcock (1988, 329), the Knights Templars had a dispute over the advowson [church benefice] of the chapel of ‘Ballygaveran’ in 1253. In 1312 there was another dispute over, ‘the advowson of the moiety [e.g. a half portion of the church benefice] of the Church of the Blessed Mary of Ballygowrane’, between Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick and the Dean and Chapter of St Canice’s cathedral, Kilkenny, it was agreed that the later would support, ‘four priests to celebrate Masses in the said Church of the Blessed Mary’ for Edmund Butler and his descendants in perpetuity (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 408-09). According to Carrigan (ibid., 409) the collegiate residence for these priests is indicated as “Colledge” on a 1710 map of Gowran and, ‘adjoined the old churchyard of Gowran, on the east, where its foundations are still traceable’. When Edmund Butler died in London in 1321, his body was brought back to Ireland and buried in Gowran church. In 1337 his son James, the 1st Earl of Ormond was also buried in this church, as was the 3rd Earl, also James, in 1404. In 1501 (based on order of Ormond Deeds) the portreeve (mayor) and ‘commons’ of Ballygrowran sent a request to the Earl of Ormond that, 'it wolde pleas youe to send to your chirche of Balygauerane sum ornaments at your pleasir wher with the dywne service in the same mey be augmented unto thonour of god and a perpetual memory of your lordship and of your full noble antecessers thryn buried’ (Curtis 1937, vol. 4, 347 (Appendum 3, 56)). In the Royal Visitation Book of 1615 it was noted that four priests were living together in their collage (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 410).

The church originally consisted of an aisled nave and chancel separated by a crossing tower. Stalley (1971, 75-80) noted the similarity between the design and execution of Gowran church with St Canice’s Cathedral and St Mary’s church in Thomastown, suggesting that they were built c. 1260 by the same master mason, whom he coined the ‘Gowran master’. He notes other mid-13th century parallels between the main doorway at Gowran, in the N aisle of the nave, with those at Graiguenamanagh and St Canice’s Cathedral (Stalley 1987, 65).

The chancel, together with a side chapel and turret, were demolished in 1827 to make way for a C of I church, probably designed by William Robertson (Dolan 2000, vol. 3, 112). In 1872 this church was largely rebuilt by Thomas Henry Wyatt (ibid.). Grose (1791, vol. 1, pl. 46, 47) has a drawing and plan of the church before it was altered. In this the chancel, which is roofed, is lit by three three-light windows in the S wall and one at the E end of the N wall, and by a large five-light window in the E gable. A small single-storey roofless building with S gable is shown projecting from the S wall of the chancel and another building is shown in plan projected from the N wall. A mural stair at the W end of this latter building suggests it was at least two-storeys high.

The surviving remains consist of the crossing tower and the aisled nave. The crossing tower was probably heightened in the 15th century. During the rebuilding works of 1872 the vaulting underneath the tower was removed, ‘apparently with the view of giving the same elevation as the choir roof to the portion of the belfry which will form part of the church’ (Dolan 2000, vol. 3, 113). The original arch of the crossing tower is visible in the W face of the W wall of the tower, where it has been blocked up and a 13th-century doorway inserted, into which a modern pointed doorway, accessed via a metal stair, has been inserted. In 1910-11 the Office of Public Works repaired a bad crack in the S face of the tower and stabilised the W gable of the church (OPW report). In 1935 the church was, ‘thoroughly repaired’ and part of the W wall was underpinned (ibid.). At some point in the 19th century a large buttress was built up against the S end of the W face of the W wall of the tower.

The nave arcade originally consisted of four arches on the N and S, the S arcade is illustrated in Grose’s (1791, vol. 1, pl. 46) but has since collapsed, leaving only the N arcade upstanding. Its piers are quatrefoil in plan with chamfered arches springing from plain horizontally-moulded capitals. There are four quatrefoil clerestorey windows in the N wall within segmental-pointed rear-arches, similar to those at St Canice’s Cathedral and Bective Abbey, Co. Meath (Stalley 1987, 110). The two central clerestorey windows are blocked up. The arcade wall is topped with stepped battlements. The W gable of the nave is lit by a graded three-light window with trefoil-pointed heads. The rear-arches are moulded and there are hood-mouldings within and without. Internally there are banded shafts surmounted by foliage capitals with carved heads forming the stops. Above this window there is a six-lobed occulus and above that, illuminating the roof space, is a flat-headed single-light window within a pointed embrasure .

The aisles are lit by twin-lights at each end. These are trefoil pointed with a quatrefoil above. The eastern examples have inner frames consisting of a central pillar bearing moulded, trefoil-headed arches with a quatrefoil in the central spandrel. It is embellished with many foliage cusps and the subsidiary arches have dog-tooth ornamentation (Stalley 1971, 80).

At the E end of the S aisle there is a double piscina, the central pillar of the double trefoil-headed arch is missing, as is the lower stone of the quatrefoil in the central spandrel. Also in the S aisle cinquefoil arches span tomb recesses in the S wall. To the W of the S aisle is the mortuary chapel erected by the Kealy family in the 17th century and contains a wall monument (KK020-060038-) to Piers Kealy and his wife, dated 1648. Grose’s (1791, vol. 1, pl. 46) illustration shows this chapel as a roofless ruin, the E gable of which is built against a two-storey square tower. According to Drennan (1965, 60) the N aisle was divided into four compartments to buttress the N wall of the nave against threatened collapse. In the easternmost compartment a wall monument (KK020-060033-) to James Kealy and his two wives, dated 1626, has been built up against the E wall.

The C of I church went out of use c. 1970, at which time the medieval font was moved to the C of I church at Old Leighlin, Co. Carlow (ibid., 114). The former C of I church has since been renovated to house and display an ogham stone (KK020-060007-) many of the graveslabs (KK020-060008-; KK020-060034- to KK020-060037-; KK020-060039- to KK020-060040-; KK020-060042-; KK020-060044- to KK020-060050-; KK020-060052- to KK020-060058-; KK020-060067- to KK020-060068-) and effigial tombs (KK020-060009-; KK020-060032-; KK020-060043-; KK020-060051-; KK020-060062- to KK020-060066-) from the medieval parish church. Some of these are in the nave and other are in the mortuary chapel S of the nave.

(National Monument No. 214)