Description
"The church is a simple long rectangle, lacking any apparent division into nave and chancel...Its most noticeable features are: the fine windows in the east gable wall, three in number, and the group of eleven evenly spaced in the north wall of the choir. These narrow windows are as is usual fairly widely splayed inwards and present to the interior with their rear arches a continuous arcade. The Nenagh group is remarkable in being made up of eleven windows (the eastern one is built up). Six, seven, eight or nine are the most unusual numbers found. Each of the Nenagh lights is a little less than 2 feet in width."
Leask, H. G. (1938). The Franciscan Friary, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
Style
The Abbey was built around 1250 during the anglo-norman period (12th – 16th). This period introduced the Gothic style of architecture although very few buildings were built in Ireland using Gothic techniques with most buildings ,like the abbey, only having elements, such as doors and windows, in the Gothic style. Gothic architecture is characterised by lightness with walls, doors and windows being thinner and taller than Romanesque buildings and arches of are pointed rather than rounded and his is particularly evident in the windows and doors at the abbey.
Walls
Buildings from around this time were mainly made using whatever materials were availably locally. Limestone, since it is found in abundance in most parts of the country, was the main type of stone used for almost every friary built around this time.
Limestone and sandstone were often used in combination. The early Normans favoured sandstone for dressings because they were more familiar with it. In the Abbey you will find sandstone dressings for the piers, jambs, and arches while limestone is used for the main walls. The wall are random rubble built walls. Random rubble stone was very widely used in churches, castles, monasteries,town defences and boundary walls. Among the main advantages of random rubble was that it could accommodate a greater variety of stone sizes. |
Windows
The crowning glory of the abbey would have been its east gable, which would have included the largest and most elaborate windows in the whole building. The abbey has three lancet windows with piers of solid masonry in between, which are deeply splayed.
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch, usually in groups of three or five. In the south wall at Nenagh there is only one window. It is in the sanctuary, is tall and pointed, had two lights, and has an eastern jamb which splays widely inwards and a western one which splays only slightly. The rest of the light for the choir and sanctuary came from the east window and from the record number of eleven tall, narrow, pointed, single-light windows, splaying inwards on the north wall. Along with the eleven windows of the choir, had four or five smaller ones in the nave. We find a small gable light over the east lancet windows above the level of the roof-slates but below that of the ridge-piece. This was constructed for ventilation and also for entry between the inner and outer roofs to allow for repairs should they arise. |
Doorways
The main entrance of the abbey is, as in the case of many friaries, a large door in the middle of the western gable wall. The original West doorway was remodelled around the fifteenth century by the insertion of a limestone arch and orders.
In some of the old Franciscan churches there was a passage or ambulatory called the walking space right across the church between nave and choir and providing a communication between the cloisters, church, and outside world. There are, or were, doors in the north and south walls of the church and opposite each other. In the abbey, midways down the church there seems to have been a corresponding pair of doorways for this purpose but are now built up. There is a small door in the south wall towards the east side which leads to the sacristy. The door has very noticeably sandstone dressings and is just short of 5 foot in height. |
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Layout
There is no evidence of division between the choir and the nave which is unusual and also there is no example of a cruciform church at the abbey. It was simple long and rectangular. The friars found they could more cheaply and conveniently serve their needs and those of the people with a long narrow building. As the abbey was divided into a section for the public and a section for the community, the church built by the friars was extremely long in proportion to its width.
The abbeys width being just less than a fifth of its length.
26 feet wide
138 feet long
It is also notable that the abbey had neither aisles nor transepts.
It is usually the case that the sacristy and domestic buildings of friaries were to the north. However, although the sacristy no longer stands at the abbey, architectural evidence points to its having been south of the choir. The reason, however, is that at the abbey, the domestic buildings also lay to the south of the church.
The abbeys width being just less than a fifth of its length.
26 feet wide
138 feet long
It is also notable that the abbey had neither aisles nor transepts.
It is usually the case that the sacristy and domestic buildings of friaries were to the north. However, although the sacristy no longer stands at the abbey, architectural evidence points to its having been south of the choir. The reason, however, is that at the abbey, the domestic buildings also lay to the south of the church.
Orientation
The abbey sits on the East/West axis as is tradition with religious buildings with thee the main entrance to the west and the altar to the east. This is so that the congregation faces the direction of the coming of Christ. Because it is also the direction of the rising sun, the architectural features of the east end often focus on enhancing interior illumination by the sun through the elaborate lancet windows in the abbey.
I would imagine that the abbey was a cold dark place as there was only one window facing south and the eleven lancet windows facing north at the choir would have been wasted. It seems to me that the friars building it were more concerned about orientating the building to suit their religious traditions than optimising their solar gain.
I would imagine that the abbey was a cold dark place as there was only one window facing south and the eleven lancet windows facing north at the choir would have been wasted. It seems to me that the friars building it were more concerned about orientating the building to suit their religious traditions than optimising their solar gain.
Putlog holes
There are an number of putlog holes found at in the walls of the abbey which were used to secure the horizontal timbers of scaffolding during construction. On completion of the wall,the timbers were generally sawn off flush with the wall surface.Over a long period of time, and particularly in ruined structures,the timber pieces left behind rotted away leaving holes in the wall. These holes should never be filled in as they are an important archaeological record of the construction of the building and, in some cases, may even contain surviving remnants of the original timbers,providing an opportunity for dating using dendrochronology.
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