RCB Library Notes01 Dec 10

St Werburgh's Church: Faith, Fabric and Future - A seminar organised by the Irish Landmark Trust

 St Werburgh’s Church:
Faith, Fabric and Future
A seminar organised by the Irish Landmark Trust

A recent seminar organised by the Irish Landmark Trust has focused on the unique church of St Werburgh, its diverse history and architectural development in inner-city Dublin. Funded by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, with support from the Office of Public Works and Dublin City Council, the day-long seminar included a passionate plea by the vicar, Archdeacon David Pierpoint, that public commitment would be secured to restore and improve this most unique of buildings and strategically- important place of worship.

 
John Cahill (Senior Conservation Architect at the OPW), Paul Arnold of Paul Arnold Architects (conservation architects for the current phase of restoration at St Werburgh’s), Dr Eddie McParland, (Irish Landmark Trust), Dr Susan Hood (RCB Library), and Eric Parry (Parry Architects London) who was responsible for the magnificent restoration of St Martin in the Fields church and social outreach complex in central London.

Today, St Werburgh's is one of only two of the original medieval parishes of the area clustered around Christ Church cathedral continuing as a place of worship. Whilst the other, St Audeon’s, retains many of its medieval features, by contrast St Werburgh’s reflects the optimism and stability of the mid-18th century that gave rise to its re-building. As a Georgian gem, it remains a most important part of the city’s fabric. With records spanning from the 13th century to the present, St Werburgh’s is one of the best documented of Dublin’s city churches. Most of these records have been extensively catalogued and are available for public consultation in the RCB Library, Dublin (the repository for Church of Ireland records) and the full catalogue list is available here.

Their relevance goes far beyond the Church of Ireland and enables important aspects of Dublin’s social history during a long period to be reconstructed. One of the presentations given at the seminar was by Dr Susan Hood, archivist at the RCB Library, which provided contextual overview of the parish using some of these sources to explore its origins; historical geography, population and people, including clergy, and the parish’s experiences in more recent times. The text of the presentation is available here, with a slide show of the illustrations including some of the sources available here (PowerPoint slideshow, 6Mb).  If you do not have a PowerPoint viewer, you may download the presentation as a PDF  by clicking here (3Mb).

At the seminar, Archdeacon Pierpoint made an unexpected presentation of a small additional collection of papers which have recently come to light in parish custody, to the RCB Library. These relate to properties once owned by the parish, and will augment the already large quantity of deeds and leases in the collection. The new items include a lease for a property on the south side of St Stephen’s Green and another on Blind Quay, as well as various properties once within the parish which have not survived the ravages of time: Cuckoo Lane and Hoey’s Court. From medieval times, the parish of St Werburgh acquired such properties to provide it with a source of income, but unfortunately these leases and revenues revenues have long since expired.

Faith, Fabric and Future was attended by over 70 participants including architects, conservationists and historians, the dean of Christ Church cathedral, the Very Revd Dermot Dunne, the curate of St Werburgh’s, the Revd David McDonnell, and several parishioners.