St. Werburgh's Church

[Paul Clerkin]

In light of that rendering of St. Anne's (which I hadn't seen before), the choice of materials for the facade is a tad unfortunate

[publicrealm]

I was lucky enough to find the church open about a week ago - was shocked by the ruinous state of the interior walls - incredible moulds growing in profusion.

It seems unlikely that any maintenance is being carried out - presumably lack of funds is the issue? If so it may not happen for some time and in the meantime things will get worse.

I am a town planner with some spare time on my hands (gosh!) - a competent trowel wielder but not fit to be let loose on such an important building without a minder (I think I could probably get some free conservation advice though).

Are there any others in the forum who have a bit of time and some qualifications and would be prepared to put in odd days to try and keep the rot at bay? If we had a group it might be worth offering to help?

(I have no idea who owns the building or whether they would be interested or appalled by the idea of voluntary help):D

[Supersaint]

Hi folks, sorry to bump a year plus old thread.

Does anyone have any interior shots of Saint Weburgh's?

I've just completed a (bloody tough!) 5,000 word+ project on St. Werburgh's Church, which took me everywhere from S.C Hughes to Gilbert, and the RCB to the NLI. Through the incredible and thankfully surviving Proctors accounts and Vestry books, not to mention the archives of the House of Commons, Dublin Fire Brigade and more besides. (see this gem, of the two early fire engines in the church, the origins of the term 'parish pump politics' of course)



Sadly, St. Werburgh's is undergoing very extensive renovation, to the point visiting it is for the time being unpermitted. I've visited it already over the course of this but it was essentially a scaffold site! These images of the current preservation efforts are of course a part of the story of the church too. I noted images were uploaded in this thread, though they're no longer on the server. If anyone has images I'll credit them accordingly.

St. Werburgh's is a beautiful and fascinating church with an incredible story. I wasn't deterred from choosing it as a church of choice by its present state, though I must admit to being shocked at the lack of images of the church in the public domain.You know things are bad when even informatique on Flickr has nothing! It's tragic a building with links to everyone from Thomas de Burgh to Lord Edward Fizgerald should have ever fallen into such condition.

I run the Dublin culture site Come Here to Me which frenquently dabbles in social history and archiseek has proven a great resource over the year. I'm a long term lurker and first time poster

Thanks,
Donal
donal.ofalluin.2009@nuim.ie / http://www.comeheretome.wordpress.com


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On a sidenote,some of you may enjoy this. Over the course of the summer I spent some time working as a historical tour guide in our beautiful city. On numerous occasions, I was told by tourists as we stood in the yard of Dublin Castle that their bus tour of the city had told them that Saint Werburgh's never had a spire, owing to lack of finances! Incredinle.