What is recorded here

You can still see Apollonia, St Francis and St James carved beside the dead couple, their chiselled faces watching the porch where the tomb was carried from another church. The man wears heavy Gothic armour while the woman holds a rosette belt above her pleated gown, presenting both pride and tenderness. Whatever Purcell household fell into that stone around 1500, it stopped arguing and became a room where the living may still visit them.

In the porch of St Werburgh's church (DU018-020090----) is the Purcell double tomb (1500-1520) originally in the church of St. Mary del Dam and moved to St. Werburgh's in the late 16th-early 17th century. The male is shown in full plate armour of late Gothic type while the female is dressed in a pleated gown, girdled at the waist by a belt decorated with rosettes. There are three side panels; the E end portrays an archbishop, an enthroned madonna and child on abbess and an ecclesiastic; the N panel portrays Appolonia, Holy Trinity; St. John the Baptist, St. John and St. Paul with four unidentified figures and the W panel shows an archbishop, St. Francis, a damaged recess, St. James and St. Peter (Hunt 1974, 142-4). Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Date of upload: 19 November 2012

Effigial tomb, late 15th to early 16th century. It is significant as a Purcell double tomb, reflecting the funerary art and social status of the Purcell family in medieval Ireland.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.