Christ Church (C of I)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Simple but finely detailed hall church and tower, to which have been added transepts and a chancel. Orientated N-S with the tower (main entrance) at the north end. All other orientations will be liturgical from this point onwards.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue clay ridges. Cast iron ogee gutters with matching downpipes. All stonework is ashlar granite, now strap pointed.

The tower is in three stages and has two-stage buttresses (with battered base) set diagonally on each corner. At ground level the first stage has an entrance door on west and south cheeks. The door on west face of tower is modern stained mahogany, eight panelled, with side panels and glazed plastic overlight. Set in a three-order Tudor arch with label mould. In wall above this doorway is a square recessed plaque containing a bas relief of a seated abbot (St. Colman) flanked by yew trees. The second stage of this face of the tower has a glazed opening within a moulded octagonal architrave. The third stage contains a Gothic arched bell-vent with a chamfered surround. It contains a timber frame with two Gothic panels at bottom and three ones at top, all with trefoil cusped heads and louvred. At the top is a frieze course in the form of mock machicolations (wide shallow arches springing from moulded brackets) which echo the bell-vents below. It stops to each end when it meets the corner buttresses. A moulded cornice above the frieze also meets the buttresses between each of which is a crow-stepped embattled parapet. The buttresses terminate in tall masonry pinnacles.

The left cheek of the tower (north) has, to first stage, two painted timber lancets with trefoil cusped heads, between which is a small cusped spandrel light. This window is set within a Tudor Gothic arched opening with chamfered jambs and label mould. The second stage has a glazed octagonal panel as west face. The third stage and above are detailed as the other faces on these levels.

The right cheek of the tower (south) has, at first stage, a pair of doors detailed as those on west face, but smaller and without side panels. It has chamfered jambs and label mould. Directly above are two rectangular slit lights with no dressings. The second stage has a clock face set within an octagonal moulded architrave. The third stage and above are detailed as the other faces on these levels.

The rear elevation of the tower is exposed above the nave roof from third stage upwards. This stage and that above are detailed as the other faces on these levels.

The exposed section of the nave gable has, at each end, a two stage diagonal buttress (with battered base). These terminate in stepped roof verge copings and are surmounted by masonry pinnacles. The stepped verging is carried up along the base of the east face of the tower. The verging has a projecting cornice mould with hollow soffit and below it is a raking projecting frieze cornice supported by a concave dog-tooth mould

Turning to the north face of the nave, the north transept and vestry extension abut at left. On the exposed section of the nave wall at right there are two rectangular windows. Each is divided into two lights by a chamfered stone mullion. To the head is a label mould with hollow chamfered soffit. The cills are splayed and have a second projecting cill set at an angle so that the arris lies forward. Set into the lights are painted timber frames each sub-divided by a mullion and transom; the head of each upper light is cusped.

The heads of these windows fit up against the soffit of a projecting frieze cornice. This course is supported by a bold convex dogtooth mould. At eaves there is a projecting cornice mould with hollow soffit.

The north transept is gabled and coped in granite. Its roof cat-slides over a vestry extension on its right cheek. Its walls have a chamfered base course. Its exposed gable is abutted at ground floor by a single storey glazed post-war link to a separate choir school. In wall over is a single Gothic opening with tracery dividing it into three main lights with cusped sub-lights over. It has a shallow hood mould and splayed cill.

The right cheek of the transept is abutted by a narrow monopitched vestry. It has a rectangular window on its front (north) wall which is instepped slightly from the transept gable. There is also a door at basement level accessed by concrete steps (with metal railing around). A similar window and sheeted timber door are on its right cheek. This face abuts the left jamb of the left window in the exposed nave wall.

The left cheek of the transept is abutted by the organ room. This has a pitched natural slate roof and parapet verge. The base of the wall is raised and chamfered. This structure has single simple rectangular windows - one in the exposed gable, the other on its left cheek. Where the latter meets the chancel is a partially obscured buttress.

The chancel is slightly narrower than nave and where they meet is the original east gable of the church, which is raised and coped. The chancel has a hipped natural slate roof and seven cants, each of which has a curvilinear Gothic window divided into two principal lights with sub-lights over. Between each cheek is a two-stage buttress. There is an identical buttress at each end of the chancel (that at right is partly obscured by the organ room).

The south elevation of the church is as the north but without the vestry and organ room extensions to the transept. Moreover, the transept has a battered (three-course) base to each of its three exposed faces. Set in the frieze course is a modern polished granite plaque reading ‘AEDIFICATUM ANNO DOMINI 1815’. To each side is a recessed quatrefoil panel. The limestone original was removed due to erosion and lies in yard at back of choir school.

The choir school is a plain post-war two-storey building, linked to the north transept by a flat felt-roof link with glazed side walls. It has a pyramidal artificial slate roof (surmounted by a decorative metal weathervane), deep overhanging eaves, cement rendered walls, and modern paired casement windows with transoms over.

Along the street is the gate screen. This contains a pair of wrought iron carriage gates with wrought iron spearheads and matching dogbars, hung from plain ashlar granite piers (with raised bases and shallow pyramidal copings). To each side is a gently curving concave screen of matching railings set on a granite plinth, all apparently contemporary with main church.

In the graveyard to the (geographical) north are a number of monuments, including several tall Celtic crosses. The most elaborate of these, in a niche along the south perimeter of the yard, is that to General Francis Rawdon Chesney (HB 16/03/007C). A second Celtic cross is to the third Earl of Kilmorey (1842-1915). Another interesting memorial is a marble cross-topped anchor bedded in rocks to John Martin (c.1898).

The Sexton's Lodge (HB16/03/007B) sits in the south-east corner of the church grounds.

Historical information

Building commenced in 1815 and was completed to a design by Mr O’Farrell in 1818 at a cost of £7000 (partly defrayed by Lord Kilmorey). Described in the 1830s Ordnance Survey Memoir for Kilkeel Parish as "a very good church, but rather large for the congregation". The 1834 town map shows the nave, tower and north transept. In 1886 the south transept was completed by Mr Thomas Grills, a local building contractor, at a cost of £720. A stained glass memorial window was erected to commemorate Rev. J Forbes Close. The pulpit was a gift of the Kilmoreys in 1903. The choir rooms were added in 1969 by Anthony Lucy.

Sources:
1. A. Day 'Ordnance Survey Memoir of Ireland, County Down , South Down Kilkeel Parish.' Vol3.
2. G.H. Bassett, Co. Down: guide and directory, (1886) p.155.
3. HMBB survey card dated 12 May 1970.
4. Ms Lydia Annett, church historian.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
E. Spatial Organisation
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Attractive church with detailing of quality and later additions in sympathy with the original, in a prominent location near the centre of the town. This building, gates and screen are all of special merit.