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Architectural & Building Conservation

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Architectural heritage

The northern part of the county has good farmland and was heavily settled by English planters in both the Tudor and Cromwellian periods. In consequence of this, and of the presence of Lough Derg, there are a large number of big 18th and 19th century houses. Many of these have been described in the available literature.

The architecture of the towns, and the vernacular building tradition of the countryside is only now being recorded. The national Inventory of Architectural heritage has published a book on the county's architecture, and maintains a website with further information on built heritage http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/highlights.jsp?county=TN and on historic gardens http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/cgi-bin/viewcounty.cgi?county=27

Until the mid 20th century the predominant building materials were earth and local stone, although some brick works operated in the county from the early eighteenth century. This use of local stone helps give local character to the towns, although it is often visible only on larger public buildings and structures such as bridges. In Roscrea the local stone is a golden sandstone, used from the 12th century on, as demonstrated by the monastic remains and the castle. In Nenagh a dark grey limestone that has a tendency to scale was used. The Nenagh limestone tends to be porous, and when not rendered was sometimes hung with slate, also from local quarries. The most frequent construction material for middle sized buildings in the past was coursed or random rubble stone, sometimes with brick or cut stone reinforcements over windows and doors, rendered with lime or cement, either smooth or rough-dashed. The late 20th century fashion for removing dashing and exposing rubble stone walls is not appropriate (see below).

The churches are of particular interest. The building of Roman Catholic churches was made easier after the relaxation of restrictions on the length of leases in 1778 and 1782. Communities where individuals had limited means were often prepared to band together to build a public place of worship. The churches they built are interesting expressions of their period, influenced by the local vernacular tradition, the surviving medieval ecclesiastical buildings and by liturgical requirements rather than by professional architectural theory ¹. The benefits of the legal changes did not apply to churches with a bell or a steeple, these restrictions were generally observed at first, but gradually challenged after the second decade of the nineteenth century, and some of the early churches have bell-cotes. However, it is still not unusual for Catholic churches to have a bell housed in a campanile separate from the church building.

Many of the early Catholic churches have an almost modern appearance in their simplicity. The typical plan of the pre-famine period is a simple 'barn' with a cruciform ground plan and a T-shaped interior space. This would have accommodated a large number of people at ground level. The other part of the building, completing the cross, now serves as sacristy and storage space, but in the early years was often the Parish priest's home. In the period before the Synod of Thurles in 1850, it was usual for the Blessed Sacrament to be kept by the priest, not in the church. Church buildings had a greater range of community functions than in later times, and were used for meetings, schools and other purposes.

The interiors also are quite plain. In most cases galleries were added later in the buildings' history as money became available. The history of the church at Toor exemplifies the relationship between the building and the community it serves.

The churches of the largest Protestant denomination, the Anglican Church of Ireland are very different. It became the established church in Ireland after the reformation, and remained so until disestablishment in 1871. Consequently, its churches tend to be sited on ancient church sites. However, in this county none of the ancient buildings remain in use, though one end of the early Christian church building survives adjacent to the 19th c church in Lorrha, the gable of the 12th c church survives at Roscrea, and some funerary monuments remain in the graveyard at Thurles. Most of the extant examples were built in the first three decades on the 19th century with money from the Board of First Fruits, set up to enable a programme of church building throughout the country. There were a number of frequently used plans by architects including Nash and Pain, usually in a simple gothic, with a long narrow nave and a square tower at the west end. It is possible to see examples of these in different locations in the coun ty.

Demographic change has seen a decline in the numbers of the Church of Ireland congregations, and churches have been closing down for over a century, Many of them have been demolished, others are semi derelict, others still standing but unused.

Few churches of other denominations survive in the county. The Presbyterian church in Nenagh, built in 1906, closed before 1940 and is now used as the motor tax office. John Wesley visited North Tipperary and the county was a stronghold of Irish Methodism. There are still active Methodist congregations in the area, although their original Nenagh church is now a store, as is the old Quaker Meeting House in Roscrea.

The main threat to smaller houses in the past was neglect and dereliction, and many shells of houses may still be seen around the county, often beside the new building that supplanted them. Now, with an increased appreciation of the value of older buildings, they are less likely to be demolished, but are sometimes seriously damaged by inappropriate renovations. The three worst practices being applied to older structures are the removal of old windows, often original 18th or 19th century features and their replacement with uPVC, aluminium or plastic; the removal of original slate and its replacement with tiles or imitation slate; the removal of render.

The last is a particular problem. The building stone in North Tipperary is either limestone or sandstone, depending on the area of the county. It was very unusual in the past for cut or dressed stone to be used except on large public buildings, and most stone buildings are of coursed or random rubble, sometimes with brick or cut stone around the windows and doors. This was always intended by its builders to be coated with render. Until the middle of the nineteenth century this would always have been lime-based, either a smooth lime-plaster, or, often, a rough dashing with a coarse temper similar to that used in 20th century pebble dashing. After the invention of Portland cement by Aspdin in 1824 it became the dominant render used in Irish buildings, often used to provide decorative details around door and window cases. Hard, rigid cement renders can sometimes cause problems if they crack, admitting moisture, and trapping it inside the rendered wall. Lime plasters, in contrast, are sufficiently flexible to move with the building over time, and allow the exchange of moisture, permitting buildings to breathe.

The problem of preventing the exchange of air in old buildings is exacerbated by the replacement of wooden windows with close fitting uPVC. Ventilation in old houses is often dependent on a balance between windows and open fireplaces. If both of these are removed, serious problems with condensation and damp may result.

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