The work of E. W. Pugin
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Arles Church in Co. Laois, Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, is a Pugin and Ashlin Church of 1865. Note the similarity with Kilanerin.
Pugin built 5 or 6 churches in Wexford – follow this link http://www.wexfordweb.com/pugin.htm
My old school St Peters (you may have read about it in the Ferns Report!) has a really charming Pugin Chapel – the altar is especially lovely although I believe the church layout was significantly reordered in the ’60s..
RE # 22
The Wexford churches mentioned are all outstandingly beautiful. They are, however, due to E.W. Pugin’s more famous father, A.W.N. Pugin. E.W., as far as I know, was responsible for two churches in Wexford: Kilanerin and Our Lady’s Island, as well as the chapel in Edermine.
The wife of A.W.N. Pugin’s English patron, the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, was a native of Wexford. Her uncle, John Hyacinth Talbot, was the first Catholic MP for the area after emencipation. Shrewsbury’s Wexford connections, the Talbots, explains why Pugin received so many commissions in the area. E.W. inherited the accumulated goodwill!
Here are pictures of the church on Our Lady’s Island, due to E.W. Pugin and G.C. Ashlin, built in 1863-64, and consecrated in 1881. See the link http://www.ourladysisland.com for more information.Re #17
I want to come back to the second question MT put to me, as to whether E.W. Pugin designed any churches outside Britain and Ireland.
The answer is yes. His best-known work is the basilica in Dadizele, a place of pilgrimage east of Courtrai in Belgium. The present church is a reconstruction of Pugin’s basilica, which was sadly destroyed during the First World War. Pugin’s basilica had a higher spire and fine iron cresting on the roof, somwhat similar to Cobh’s.Chris Brooks describes it as follows: “stone vaulted and late thirteenth-century, it is nevertheless polychromatically red, black and buff, with an amazing crossing tower that finishes in a zigzag patterned spire containing giant statues”. See his The Gothic Revival, London, Phaidon, 1999, p. 367.
As to its significance, Brooks places Dadizele along with Cobh, Barton-on-Irwell and Gorton, as among E.W. Pugin’s finest achievements: “Not only astonishing, the Dadizele design is instructive too – certainly high Victorian, but with a decorative intricacy and fidelity to medieval detail characteristic of the younger Pugin, as in C
E.W. Pugin also worked in Belgium with the country’s most well-known revivalist, Jean-Baptiste B
Béthune carried out his work in Maredsous beginning in 1872. It is very much influenced by the Gothic style prevalent in High Victorian England.
Below are pictures of Maredsous and of Abbot Marmion.E. W. Pugin is responsible for three cathedrals: one in Ireland (Cobh) and two in England (Shrewsbury and Northampton).
Regarding Northampton, the cathedral website there (http://www.northamptoncathedral.org) has this to say:
“There is evidence of Christianity in Northampton area as far back as mid-Saxon times and possibly earlier.
Subsequent to the Norman invasion it became a favoured residence of the Kings of England.
After the reformation it was not until the early part of the nineteenth century that there became a renewed interest in the Catholic faith.
In 1829 the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed, and in 1850 the Catholic hierarchy was restored with the country being divided into dioceses, each with a Bishop.
In 1821 a priest was installed in a house in Northampton town centre, and two years later Father William Foley was installed by Bishop Milner to establish a regular mission in the town.
His first base was a small house using one room as a chapel, but it wasn’t long before he had the finance to purchase a piece of land on which the current Cathedral stands.
Originally part of St Andrew’s Priory a century earlier, it was the place where Thomas Becket escaped.
The Chapel, dedicated to St Andrew, was opened on 25th October 1825, the feast of St Crispin.
By 1840 the congregation was outgrowing the chapel, and the newly resident Bishop Waring commissioned Pugin to design a collegiate chapel. Within no time this to was outgrown by the numbers wishing to worship. Bishop Amhurst asked Pugin’s son to extend the building to become a Cathedral. The extension, the current nave, was opened in 1864 and dedicated to Our Lady Immaculate and St Thomas of Canterbury.
The building remained pretty much unchanged until 1955 when Bishop Leo decided to pull down St Andrew’s Chapel and extended the west end of the Church. The last changes were in 1988 when the land adjoining the Barrack Road was converted to a car park.”Shrewsbury Cathedral was commissioned by the 17th Earl of Shrewsbury and completed in 1856. It is dedicated to Our Lady Help of Christians and St Peter of Alcantara.
Here are some pictures:After our brief foray into Belgium and England, let us return for a moment to Pugin’s work in Ireland. Pugin, with his partner Ashlin, was involved in improving Fermoy Parish Church. Saint Patrick’s Church in Fermoy was built in the early 1800s. The original church was quite small and was extended in 1843 when Father Timothy Murphy was parish priest. The architects Pugin and Ashlin designed further extensions in 1867 which gave the church its modern appearance. The external appearance is largely due to Pugin and Ashlin who were called in to add the asymmetrical tower and spire, and supplied buttresses to stress the verticality of the facade. The interior is by the Pain brothers.
Fr Timothy Murphy was Bishop of Cloyne from 1849 to 1856, and was the man most responsible for Fermoy’s stunning ecclesiastical skyline on the south side of the Blackwater, with Presentation Convent, Loreto Convent, St Colman’s College and St Patrick’s Church.The Irish Builder, the indispensable source for historical information on 19th c. churches in Ireland, has the following to say about Fermoy church:
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH,
FERMOY, CO. CORK.
OUR illustration of this church shows the improvement and additions effected under the superintendence and from the designs of Messrs. Pugin and Ashlin. The church stands on one of the Fermoy hills, and can be seen from every portion of the town. The chief difficulty presented to the architects was the great width of the nave and the flat lines of the roof (the roof remains untouched), and this has been overcome by breaking up the west front with buttresses, &c., as will be seen by reference to the lithograph. The architects deemed it better to place the tower and spire at the transept, as a roadway opens immediately opposite, thereby giving a full view of it from the town. A handsome railing, with gates, &c., surrounds the entire site.
This church is the cathedral of the diocese, and these alterations have been carried out with the
sanction and assistance of the Bishop, the Right Rev. Dr. Keane, by Mr. Newstead, builder, Fermoy.
When all the works are completed the total expenditure will be aboutNice to see the picture of the famous Abbot of Maredsous, Dom Columba Marmion. Born in Dublin and ordained for the archdiocese, he was curate in Dundrum before he joined the Benedictines. Beatified recently.
Regarded as Dublin’s finest Victorian church, SS Augustine and John (John’s Lane Church) in the Liberties area was designed by E.W. Pugin and executed by his partner George Ashlin for the Augustinian fathers. It was built between 1862 and 1895. It has the tallest spire in Dublin (231 ft), and occupies a prominent position on high ground overlooking the Liffey valley. It has a striking polychromatic appearance, being built in granite with red sandstone dressings.
The eminent Gothic revivalist Ruskin is said to have praised it, describing it as a “poem in stone”.
Statues of the apostles in the niches of the spire are by James Pearse, father of Padraig and Willie, who were executed after the 1916 Easter rising.
There is some good stained glass from the Harry Clarke studios.Richard Morrison in the Times has drawn attention to some very disturbing news concerning Stanbrook Abbey in the Malverns, Worcestershire (Stanbrook is another outstanding E.W. Pugin achievement).
It appears that the Abbess, believing the cost of restoration prohibitive, has decided to put the Abbey on the market with an asking price of £6 million. There seems to be resistance in the community, however.
There is also a dispute going on with English Heritage as to whether Stanbrook should be a Grade II or a Grade II* building (II* would guarantee greater protection).
Read the story at this link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1069-1988371,00.htmlAnother fine Dublin church by the firm of E.W. Pugin and G.C. Ashlin is St Kevin’s in Harrington Street.
For a picture, here is a link:
I have already posted some information about All Saints Church, Barton-upon-Irwell, on the “reordering and destruction” thread. Here is some more information from English heritage on this great E.W. Pugin church, which is on the Grade I heritage list.
Roman Catholic church. 1867-8. By E. W. Pugin. Rock-faced stone with slate roof. Nave, aisles, west bell turret, apsidal chancel with north chapel. Gothic Revival. 8-bay nave and aisles with weathered plinth, weathered buttresses and gabled porch. Each bay has a 2-light plate tracery aisle window with hoodmoulds and sill band and 2-light Geometrical tracery clerestory windows with continuous hoodmould. Steep roof with coped gables and pierced ridge tiles. West rose window above arcade of pointed lights and arched doorway all flanked by bold weathered and gableted buttresses. 4-bay polygonal chancel with 2-light plate tracery windows in each bay below a series of coped gables. Grotesque gargoyles. The 3 x 1 bay side chapel has a steep hipped roof and similar gables above each bay which interrupt a parapet with pierced quatrefoils. Interior: arcade arches, piers and chancel arches all in banded pink and yellow stone. Well carved foliage capitals. Lofty scissor-braced roof structure springing from angel corbels. Rib-vaulted chancel lavishly gilded. Elaborately carved stone altar and reredos. Good wall paintings, one showing E. W. Pugin with a plan of the church. Timber pews. Stained glass. A notably complete and unspoiled example of E. W. Pugin’s work, said to be his best.
I don’t know if All Saints’ is E. W. Pugin’s best work – I am inclined to think it is St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh – but it certainly ranks well up there with Dadizele Basilica and Gorton Monastery. But readers of this posting may have different opinions on this.
Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find a photo of the interior, but here is another photograph of the exterior:
Incidentally, E.W. Pugin was also responsible for the very fine adjoining presbytery. Here is an English Heritage description:
URMSTON REDCLYFFE ROAD SJ 79 NE (SJ 7697 SE) (west side) 2/34 All Saints’ Presbytery (formerly lists as Church of All Saints) – GV II Presbytery. c.1867-8. By. E.W. Pugin. Rock-faced stone with slate roof. 3-bay 2-storey plan with gabled wing to left and porch in bay 2. Gothic Revival. Projecting plinth. Continuous first floor band and sill band. Moulded arch to recessed porch with inscribed plaque above. Canted bay window to left and 3-light mullion and transom window to right. 2-light mullioned first floor windows and a gabled oriel sash window in bay 3. Coped gable to right. Prominent ridge chimney stacks. Similar bay, oriel and mullion windows to sides and rear. A C20 addition which is not of special interest links the presbytery to the church at the rear. Included for group value.
All credit is due to English Heritage for their interest in and contribution to the restoration of All Saints’ Church and Presbytery, and for their appreciation of one of the great works of one of the finest architects of the Gothic Revival.
A little notice from the Irish Builder re: St. Brigid’s, crosshaven, Co. Cork, E.W. Pugin’s last Irish commission:
NEW R. C. CHURCH, CROSSHAVEN,
COUNTY CORK.
THE foundation stone of a new church was laid on the 22nd ult. at Crosshaven, Co. Cork, by the Bishop, the Most Rev. William Delany, D.D.
The new church, which is being built from designs by Mr. E. Welby Pugin, will stand due east and west, occupying a commanding site on the brow of the hill, directly facing the entrance to the Carrigaline river. In plan the building will consist of a nave and aisles, terminated at the east end by the chancel and side chapels. Over the side arches of the nave, which will be supported by columns of polished Cork reel marble, will run a clerestory of simple but effective design. The sacristy will be on the south side of the church, near to the chancel, and at the southwest angle of the building a baptistry will be provided. The roofs will be of exposed timber work, having the ceiling spaces pannelled. The church, as laid out, is 92 feet long, by 45 feet wide in the clear, and the height, from floor to ridge pole, will be 55 feet. Ex-ternally the building will be finished with limestone facing and Bath stone dressing to the doors and windows. An outside porch is provided at the western or principal entrance, and a lofty tower or spire (the lower storey of which serves as a second entrance porch) stands about mid-way in the length of the north elevation. In the centre of the lower part of the east or chancel gable, just above where the foundation has been laid, will be a niche containing a statue of Saint Brigid, the patron saint of the parish, and to whom the new church is to be dedicated. Above this niche, in the upper portion of the same gable, and filling up the space over the high altar, when viewed from the interior, there will be a large and very handsome rose window. Other rose windows of smaller size and varied in design, will also be introduced in the gable of the aisles. The style of the architecture is Victorian Gothic, and the work is being carried out under the personal superintendence of Mr. Collingridge Barnett, the Irish representative of Mr. Welby Pugin.
Mr. Rd. Evans, of Cork: is the contractor.
[Taken from Irish Builder, Vol. XI, 1869, p.205]I came across a nice drawing of Sts Peter and Paul in Cork, published in the Illustrated London News before the altar and sanctuary were installed.
On the Mallow-Fermoy road in Co. Cork is another Pugin & Ashlin gem, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ballyhooly. I gather that the interior has fallen victim to an “enlightened” member of the clergy who introduced it to what he took to be the spirit of Vatican II.
Ballyhooly Catholic Church
The Right Rev. William Keane, Bishop of Cloyne, laid the foundation stone of the Catholic church in Ballyhooly on 29 August 1867. George C. Ashlin and E. W. Pugin designed the church which is in the pointed style of architecture. It is built mainly from limestone with courses of sandstone. It was dedicated in 1870 and named the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first parish priest in the new church was the Very Rev. Canon Philip Burton.
The Irish Builder has this to say:NEW ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AT
BALLYHOOLEY, CO. CORK.
This church, of which we give an illustration, is to be erected on a suitable site near Mallow, Co. Cork, for the Rev. Mr. Burton. The architects have been obliged to adopt a simple and severe, and we think effective, treatment of their design, as the funds at their disposal have been so limited-only £1,500 being allowed for the expenditure, exclusive of fittings, &c. The church is 84 feet long internally, and is divided into bays of 12 feet. The roof is constructed of framed, curved principals, and is boarded on back of rafters with diagonally laid sheeting.. The church is boarded under benches with tiled passages, &c. The sanctuary is to be tiled with encaustic tiling. An organ gallery terminates the western end of the nave, beneath which a convenient porch is arranged. The architects are Messrs. Pugin and Ashlin, of Dublin. The contractor has not yet been declared. [Taken from Irish Builder, Vol. IX, 1867, p.120]The drawing attached is taken from the Irish Builder, Vol.9, 15 May 1867, p.121.
Still in the Cork area: the convent of Mercy in Skibbereen, also due to Pugin and Ashlin.
Catherine McCauley founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831 in Dublin to care for the poor and the sick and to educate poor children. By 1837 the sisters established a house in Cork. Nuns from the order first came to Skibbereen in 1860 when four sisters from Kinsale opened a school in the town. They remained in Skibbereen until July 2003 when the convent and school were closed and the remaining sisters joined other houses of the order in Cork. Skibbereen Town Council gave the sisters a civic reception in 2003 to mark their contribution to education in Skibbereen for 143 years. The well-known architects Ashlin and Pugin designed the Convent of Mercy.. In January 2004 the property was sold for €1.5 million
From the Irish Builder:
CONVENT CHAPEL, SKIBBEREEN
THIS chapel, just erected by Mr. W. Murphy, Bantry, has been dedicated. It is in connection with the existing convent, which is situated on an elevation at eastern entrance to the town of Skibbereen, and presents a striking object to the traveller entering by that direction. The style adopted is the Early Decorated. The building contains a lower floor, the nun’s choir, and the sacristy; while on upper floor is the infirmary for the members of the community. On the north side is a small cloister, terminating in a turret, which contains a stairs by which the nuns can reach the organ floor without passing through the chapel. The building is lighted by a circular window in the west gable (illustrated in IRISH BUILDER, No. 184), and eight windows with traceried heads in side walls. The wall over the altar is pierced by a five-light window filled with stained glass, by Messrs. Earley and Powells, representing SS. Patrick, Peter and Paul, and the Divine Redeemer. The roof has arched principals, and is sheeted with timber, stained and varnished. In the side wall next convent are three arches supported on marble columns, the spaces between which are filled with wrought-iron work. Externally the church is faced with Bath stone. The cost of the entire was
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