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Grange
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At Grange stands the ruins of possibly the original "Cill
Mhor". It dates from around 1412. It is a fine example
of a medieval church built on a grange of Tintern Abbey
and was owned by the Cistercians. A grange was a type
of outfarm where lay-brothers or workers lived. They returned
at weekends to Tintern Abbey for prayers.
This is the old church of St Patrick. Three of its walls
are still standing, the western gable having disappeared
in the 18th century. About three hundred metres east of
the ruins is the ruins of St Patrick's Well.
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Around Grange church is an old graveyard with its stone wall
built at the beginning of this century. There was a cluster
of houses around this graveyard. There are also the ruins of
a building where the monks and lay-brothers lived.
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Part of a headstone in the wall
of the old monastery chapel. Note the date - 1646. |
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Tomhaggard
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Around 1244, the monks of Tintern
Abbey acquired Tomhaggard parish along with Kilmore and
Kilturk (Grange). A Charter of the
Convenant of Tintern of the year 1245, gave the rent of
church lands in "Thamasre" to Geoffrey de St John,
Bishop of Ferns, who succeeded to the Diocese in 1243. The
St Johns were still in possession of Tomhaggard in the 14th
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This 13th century church is one of the best examples of Norman
ecclesiastical architecture remaining in this country. It contains
a window of great beauty, which is, fortunately, in a fine state
of preservation.
Both the church and the nearby holy well were dedicated to
St Anne. It was one of forty-six churches in the Baronies of
Forth and Bargy destroyed by Cromwell's soldiers in 1649. It
was sometime after this that the small stone thatched house
was erected for the people of the parish by the lord of Tomhaggard
Manor, Devereux.
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