St. Mary's Church, New Ross

Situated on a rise on a W-facing slope within the town of New Ross. The parish church of St Mary's, is within a rectangular graveyard (dims. c. 140m ENE-WSW; c. 55-75m NNW-SSE) defined by masonry walls. It was founded early in the 13th century by William Marshall or perhaps his wife Isabel, and was served by Augustinian canons of St. John’s. Kilkenny. It is thought that it might have become the diocesan centre under Bishop Patrick Barrett (1400-1415) (Gwynne and Hadcock 1970, 101) when the bishop built a castle in Mountgarrett (WX029-011----). According to a Visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 it was impropriate to Kilkenny, William Campyon was the vicar, and the church and chancel were in repair (Hore 1900-11, vol. 6, 270). Leigh describes St Mary’s as having a tower and steeple in 1684 (Hore, H. F. 1858-9, 452), which fell in 1763 (Hore 1900-11, vol. 1, 93). The nave was completely rebuilt with a new W tower and steeple by 1813 (Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 532) and it now occupies most of the area of the original nave and the S aisle. The chancel of the new church was placed in the crossing of the original transept. The church continues in use as a Church of Ireland church, but the N and S transepts and the original chancel survive roofless as a National Monument. It is thought that the chancel is the earliest part (Leask 1940, vol. 2, 85), followed by the S transept, but both of these could be closely contemporary.

The chancel (int. dims. 17.6m E-W; 7.7m N-S) has three lancet windows in the E gable, two lancets towards the W end of the N wall and a group of three lancets at the W end of the S wall. There are two smaller lancets at the E end of the S wall over the sedilia. All the windows in the chancel are dressed in Dundry, internally and externally. The inner arches of the embrasures have attached columns with collars. Internally there is a string-course at the base of the eastern windows. There is a round-arched doorway in Dundry in the S wall and a pointed doorway was inserted in the N wall. There is a partially recessed and partially protruding wall monument in the N wall with a trefoil decorated arch dressed with dog-tooth ornament.

The N transept (int. dims. 12.9m N-S; 7.6m E-W) survives complete and includes the blocked pointed arch connecting with the destroyed N aisle of the nave. There are three lancets in the N wall dressed in Dundry and granite. There are two lancets in the W wall where a doorway has been inserted. There are four lancets in the E wall, which has external buttresses. There is an incised drawing of a ship on the W wall of the N transept (Brady and Corlett 2007, 332, Fig. 14).

The S transept (int. dims. 15.7m N-S; 7.5m E-W) survives complete, with two side-chapels on the E wall connecting under pointed arches with the transept. Two large arches also connected with an aisle on the W side, which has otherwise disappeared, but the arch connecting with the S aisle of the nave is blocked. The side-chapels and the W aisle are lighted with two small lancets in single embrasures, but the S wall of the transept has three lancets. All the dressed stonework is in a green feldspar stone, except the tops of the window embrasues which is in Dundry.

A newel stairs in the S transept leads down to an E-W barrel vault with wicker-centring that occupies an area beneath the S end of the transept and its W aisle. This was converted into a 19th mausoleum of the Tyndall family when a doorway with a granite surround was inserted in the S wall. A passage leads from this vault to an inner E-W barrel vault with wicker-centring, which is empty apart from some spoil. The foundations of the pillar separating the W aisle of the S transept from the transept itself is carried into the masonry block between the two vaults. The transepts and the chancel contain over forty pieces of medieval funerary art pre-dating 1700 AD, which is probably the largest collection of this material in the country (O’Mahony 1987).

This is a National Monument in state guardianship: No. 443.