ARDCOLME, a parish

ARDCOLME, a parish, in the barony of SHELMALIER, county of WEXFORD, and province of LEINSTER, 2 ½ miles (N. E. by N.) from Wexford; containing 790 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the north side of Wexford harbour, and on the road leading from Wexford, by way of Oulart, to Dublin: it comprises 2070 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and contains a small part of the village of Castlebridge and the island of Beg Erin in Wexford harbour, on which are the remains of a very ancient church. The living is an impropriate curacy, in the diocese of Ferns, to which the rectories of St. Margaret and Artramont, the vicarages of Tickillen and Kilpatrick, and the impropriate cures of Ardcavan, Ballyvalloo, Skreen, and St. Nicholas were united by act of council in 1764, and formed the union of Ardcolme, which is in the patronage of the Bishop; but by an act of council in 1829, the parish of Kilpatrick and eight townlands, constituting the greater portion of the adjoining parish of Tickillen, were separated from this union and erected into a distinct benefice: the rectory of Ardcolme is impropriate in the Earl of Portsmouth. The tithes amount to £125. 16. 9., of which £71. 4. 10. is payable to the impropriator, and £54. 11. 11. to the incumbent; and the gross tithes of the benefice payable to the incumbent amount to £676. 5. 7.

The parochial church is situated in the village of Castlebridge, and was erected in 1764 on the site of an ancient castle, which, with an acre of land, was given for that purpose by the Bishop; the expense was defrayed partly by subscription and partly by the parishioners, aided by a gift of £150 from the late Board of First Fruits; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £310 for its repair. It is a neat plain edifice surrounded by some fine old elm trees, and contains a neat tablet to Lieut.-Col. Jones Watson, who was killed in the disturbances of 1798, and interred in the churchyard at Carrick; and another to Edward Turner, Esq., who, with others, fell a victim to popular fury on the bridge at Wexford, on the 20th of June in the same year. The glebe-house is a neat and substantial building, towards the erection of which the same Board gave £100, in 1806: there are three glebes in the present union, comprising together about 71 acres, of which 32 are in this parish.

In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Castlebridge, where the chapel is situated. The parochial school was established under the auspices of the incumbent, the Rev. J. W. Stokes, who pays the master £20 per annum; and the school-house, a neat building lately erected at his expense, will accommodate from 50 to 60 children. The ruins of the old church still remain, situated about a mile from the present church.