Saint Thomas's Church (Knappagh)

Detached two-bay two-storey Ecclesiastical Commissioners' Church of Ireland rectory, built 1852, on a rectangular plan. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Vacated, 1959. Hipped slate roof with clay ridge tiles centred on cement rendered chimney stack having shallow stringcourse below capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on creeper- or ivy-covered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Part creeper- or ivy-covered fine roughcast walls. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing six-over-six (ground floor) or six-over-three (first floor) timber sash windows having part exposed sash boxes. Set in landscaped grounds.

A rectory erected with financial support from The Society for Irish Church Missions (The Banner of The Truth in Ireland 1855 V, 166-7) representing an important component of the mid nineteenth-century built heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one attributed to Joseph Welland (1798-1860), Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (appointed 1843; Builder 13th March 1852, 172), confirmed by such attributes as the rectilinear plan form; and the slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a rectory forming part of a self-contained group alongside the adjacent Saint Thomas's Church (Knappagh) (see 31308807) with the resulting ecclesiastical ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene.