St Andrew's Church of Ireland

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An early 19th century church in a Gothic Revival style, consisting of a nave and chancel, with a projecting porch at the west end, built of roughly coursed blackstone rubble with sandstone dressings. It stands on an open site in a very rural area set back from the public road within its own grounds, presenting a side elevation to the road front.

Walling is of coursed blackstone rubble with sandstone dressings and a projecting sandstone plinth. Roofing is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. Rainwater goods are of cast iron.

The main entrance faces west, in the porch in the centre of the symmetrical west gable. The main west gable has corner clasping buttresses of sandstone in regular courses rising through two stages, marked by moulded cornices, to large octagonal pinnacles decorated with gablets. The gable has a small ocular window near the apex and its raking form is surmounted by a stone bellcote which contains a bell and is topped by a spirelet.

The porch is of similar walling to the west gable, but with a crenellated parapet. There are clasping buttresses at the two front corners of similar design to the main gable but shorter, rising to similar pinnacles. The main entrance contains a Gothic arched two-leaf ledged timber door, a modern replacement for the original single-leaf door, set in a gothic arched opening with hood mould. The long portion of the long-and-short surrounds to the right hand side of the doorway has been replaced by new stonework. There are two cast iron bootscrapers mounted on the doorstep. The sides of the porch each contain a small rectangular timber small-paned window set in a continuous chamfered surround surmounted by a Tudor drip moulding. There is a cast iron downpipe of rectangular section to the south side.

The south elevation of the nave contains three windows. There is a clasping buttress to each extremity. Windows are tall two-light and cusped headed, glazed with lead cams and set in Gothic arched openings with long-and-short surrounds. Below each window is a small square ventilation hole in a plain surround. The east gable of the nave is surmounted by a short chimney.

Extending to the left of the nave is a chancel with a steeper pitched roof. Most of the south wall of the chancel is covered by a lean-to vestry, of similar materials except for sandstone quoins to the extremities. Its roof pitch is also shallower than that of the chancel, and corresponds to that of the nave. The south wall of the vestry contains a rectangular ledged timber door set in a chamfered block surround with a shouldered head. It is approached by a flight of three new concrete paved steps. The east side of the vestry has a pair of coupled gothic headed windows with lozenge pattern metal glazing set in block surrounds below a two-centred blackstone relieving arch. Below it is a basement doorway of rectangular form with a relieving arch, approached by steps, the well enclosed by metal post and wire railings.

The east gable of the chancel has sandstone quoins to extremities. The gable is surmounted by a stone finial of fleur-de-lys profile, and contains a three-light stained glass window which has chamfered block surrounds and plain gothic arched sandstone heads set in simple Gothic blackstone arches.

The south side of the chancel contains a single Gothic lancet of stained glass. The south side of the nave is similar to the north side.

SETTING:
The church is approached by a gravel driveway which extends around the church as a path. The grounds are laid out with smooth lawns and rougher grassed areas, which contain 19th and 20th century memorials and some mature trees. The front boundary is comprised of rough rubble stone walls which contain the main gateway of roughly dressed sandstone square piers hung with iron gates, recessed in concave screen walls of snecked sandstone rubble terminating in short piers. There is a small original flat iron gate of simple design well to the right of the main gateway leading to a path up to the front door of the church, and an original spiky iron rod gate well to the right of that, leading into the graveyard. Within the grounds, where the driveway bifurcates, is a wrought iron lamp standard of unusual three-legged design of uncertain date but presumably of the 19th century.

Historical information

Built in 1829, at a cost of £1200, on ground granted by Lord Beresford, Primate of Ireland. The site was conveyed on 23 December 1828 and the building consecrated on 19 November 1829. The chancel and vestry are later additions of the mid-to-late Victorian period, but architect is unknown (darwings in RCB). This work also involved new pulpit and sittings. An additional portion of churchyard was consecrated in 1880.

The church was built to replace a previous church erected in 1622 on a different site along the shore of Lough Neagh.

The main entrance gateway was erected as a memorial to Rev Garnett who died in 1914.

The interior of the porch and its doorway connecting with the nave was refurbished in 2006.

References - Primary Sources
1. OS Map of 1833-4.
2. RCB Library. Unsigned and undated drawings. Portfolio 2A.

Secondary Sources
1. S. Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), Vol 1, p 59.
2. J.B. Leslie, Armagh Clergy and Parishes (Dundalk, 1911), pp 107-124.
3. A.J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North-West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979), pp 218-219.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

An early 19th century church, consisting of a nave and chancel, with a projecting porch at the west end, built of roughly coursed blackstone rubble with sandstone dressings. This is a stone-built 19th century church in Gothic Revival style, with a plan form typical of its type and period, and a degree of later interior ornamentation appropriate to its style. It is built on an historic site and the link to Lord Beresford, Primate of Ireland in the early 1800s, is of interest, as are the developments of the plan. The modern alterations to the interior of the west porch and the west end of the nave detract from its integrity as a Gothic Revival building. However, it stands as an attractive and rare example of its type, enjoying a pleasant rural setting and forming part of an interesting group with the former 19th century rectory next to it and the former 19th century school, now church hall, on the other side of the road along from it.