Pettigoe Church of Ireland Church

This fine and well-detailed Church of Ireland church retains its early form and architectural character. Its integrity is enhanced by the retention of much of its early fabric including cast-iron quarry glazed windows and early timber panelled doors. This building is distinguished by the extensive crisp cut stone detailing throughout, particularly by the elaborate cut stone doorcases with roll mouldings, the austere surrounds to the windows openings, the ashlar pilaster panels and the corbelled eaves course. The round-headed window openings and the corbelled eaves course lend this building a subdued Romanesque/Neo-Norman character to the exterior. This notable building was constructed to designs by the architect William Farrell (d. 1851), who is also credited with the designs for the rebuilding of St. Anne's Church of Ireland church at Ballyshannon (see 40852016) in 1841, a building that closely resembles the detailing of this church in Pettigoe (having ashlar pilaster strips between bays). Farrell was architect with responsibility for the ecclesiastical province of Armagh with the Board of First Fruits from 1823, and later he was architect with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1833 - 43. This church at Ballyshannon is similar in form and appearance to the Church of Ireland church at Pettigoe (40850022), a building that Farrell designed in 1838. The projecting porch and the side vestibules to the north may be a later addition, added c. 1870 (not depicted on the Griffith’s Valuation map of the town of c. 1860). The stained glass window to the chancel gable, depicting the Four Evangelists, was added in 1968 to designs by Shrigley and Hunt of Lancaster. It commemorates Barton family of nearby Waterfoot House in County Fermanagh (Barton family grave to the west side of graveyard – see 40850023). The present church replaced an earlier hall-type Church of Ireland church on the same site (Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map c. 1836). This building was described by Lewis (1837) as ‘a small, old, and dilapidated structure, towards the rebuilding of which Mrs. Leslie (the proprietor of the estate), the rector, and the Protestant parishioners have contributed a large sum’. The gate piers, having stepped-plan with ball finials over, are of mid eighteenth-century appearance and may have originally served the previous edifice. The noted writer and philanthropist the Revd. Philip Skelton (1707 – 1787) was rector at this former church from 1750 until 1759, adding some additional historic merit to this site. The church is surrounded by a graveyard containing memorials, both upstanding and recumbent, that add considerably to the context of this site. The good-quality wrought-iron gates, the rendered boundary wall with simple wrought-iron railings over, and the rubble stone boundary walls to the side and rear boundaries complete the setting.