St. Johnstown Church — St. Johnstown

On flat ground on a valley floor with hills rising to the NE-E-S. The church is located in the NW quadrant of the graveyard (TS062-055001-). The field enclosing the graveyard to the N-E-S is under tillage. There is a farmyard to the W. St. Johnstown tower house (TS062-060001-) is located 110m to the SW. The church is mentioned in the Civil Survey (1654-6) (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 173) as 'lying & being in St. Johns Towne'. A nave (int. dims. 10.85m E-W; 5.7m N-S) and chancel (int. dims. 6.85m E-W; N-S not obtainable) church which is aligned NE-SW, but for convenience is described on an E-W orientation. The church is composed of limestone rubble, roughly coursed and is heavily overgrown with ivy. The chancel is in a very poor state of preservation, only the lower courses of the E (H 0.75m; Wth 2m) and S wall (H 0.9m) remain, obscured by rubble. The W wall appears to have tumbled outward and forms a mound (H 0.8m; Wth 2.9m) of rubble outside the presumed original line of the wall. The inner face of the lower course of the E gable is visible but the external face is covered by rubble. The foundation course of the S wall of the chancel is visible near the nave, though elsewhere it obscured by rubble. The dividing wall (H c. 4.5m) between the nave and chancel appears to have had a high pointed chancel arch which has now gone though the voussoirs and cut stone are gone the shape of the arch (Wth 2.9m; H 3.5m) is still visible in the surviving masonry. There is a lot of rubble at the base of the arch within the nave. The W gable (wall T 1m) is well preserved, though ivy covered. There is an offset on the inner face of the W gable 2.3m above the internal ground level. In the upper portion of the W gable there is a window which is obscured by ivy, it is described as 'apparently a quadrangular [flat-headed] window' in the OS letters (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 161 (460)). The S wall of the nave is largely destroyed but is preserved at the E end (wall T 0.9m) where it meets the dividing wall and at the W end (L 1.7m; H 1.4m) where it meets the W gable. The N wall (T 0.9m; H 1.8m) is quite well preserved though a length (L 2.4m) towards the E half of the wall has collapsed into a mound of rubble. There are headstones within the nave and chancel. The earliest legible is in the nave and dates to 1758. There are three headstones up against the inner face of the W gable, all are ivy covered. Within the graveyard three architectural fragments were identified. One immediately S of the E end of the nave appears to be part of a door surround (H 0.185m; 0.62m x 0.36m), it has a double chamfer and on one side of the chamfer (Wth 0.1m and 0.075m) there is a pyramidal projection (Max Wth 0.9m; projects out 0.08m) which may be the base of a stoup, though it is only 0.03m from the chamfered edge. SW of the W gable, beside the graveyard wall there is the base of a door surround (H 0.56m; 0.33m x 0.3m) consisting of a double chamfer (Wth 0.09m and 0.08m) with a runout stop. S of the W gable and re-used as a grave-marker there is a base of a jamb (H above ground 0.6m; 0.24m x 0.19m) embedded, upside down, in the ground. It has a single chamfer (Wth 0.08m) with a diagonal stop. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 16 July 2012