St Colman's RC Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid 19thC Neo-classical style church aligned roughly N-S, set in churchyard on W side of Shinn School Road.

Pitched natural slate roof with overhanging eaves. Front (S) gable has a pediment parapet with moulded skews with stone cross finial.

Walls are lined rendered with similar basecourse to left elevation only. Façade is temple fronted with chamfered dressed granite basecourse, and two plat-bands; one between ground and clerestorey level, and the other at eaves level. Four advanced pilasters with moulded heads divide the façade into three bays (central one wider) and support the second plat-band. Gable apex has a central pedimented panel which reads “A.M.D.G”.

Ground floor has a semicircular headed doorway to centre served by two granite steps. Doorway contains a pair of timber doors. Each door has two elongated panels with round-heads. Over is a Y-tracery fanlight with leaded and coloured glass with floral details. Over entrance door is a square inset panel which reads “A.D.1834”. The left and right bays each have a segmental-headed window with granite cill at ground floor. Windows are four-paned; the top panes having depressed Gothic heads. All are glazed as the fanlight. All windows are as this unless otherwise stated. At first floor (clerestorey) each bay has a similarly detailed six paned window with a semicircular head.

Left elevation has three segmental-headed recesses to ground floor. Over are three Clerestorey windows, as those to façade but with much lower cill levels.

Rear elevation is blank and abutted by a single storey sacristy. It has a gabled natural slate roof with chimney on gable and modern flue pipe runs up gable end. Sacristy is detailed as church. Walls are cement dashed and painted with an 8/8 segmental headed sliding sash window on end gable. The left cheek (E) is abutted by a single storey porch (see later). The right cheek (W) has a window as end gable and is abutted to left end by a flat roof plant room. Plant room has a flat concrete roof; smooth rendered walls with two modern doors on its S face.

Porch has a hipped natural slate roof with lined rendered walls. The E face has three small modern semicircular headed windows with concrete cills. Modern door on N elevation.

The right elevation has four segmental-headed recesses to ground floor (the second from the left has painted granite blocks to base, possibly a former door). Over are four clerestorey windows as those to left elevation.

Setting:

The churchyard contains many 19thC memorials, mostly in granite, some with Celtic crosses. Front gates on the S boundary are supported on octagonal granite blockwork piers with moulded coping. Gates are wrought iron with spear headed dog bars and main bars. Flanking gate piers is a lower rendered screen wall, which is terminated with square in section granite piers with copings. To the NW of the churchyard is a free standing bell tower with bolted angled iron. Bell is inscribed “St Colman’s/ A.M.D.G./ In loving memory of my deceased relative/ Margaret O’Hare/ Corcreehy/ January 1923”.

Historical information

Datestone states 1834 as erection year. It is unlikely that the decorative stucco work dates from then, as other local churches of similar date are very plain. Building is shown and captioned ‘RC chapel’ on the 1834 OS map. Described in the 1836 Valuation book as measuring 80ft x 38ft x 27ft. Noted in the Ordnance Survey Memoir of the same year as: “a plain granite building 80ft long and 40 broad. Floor on the inside is not boarded nor are there any pews or seats in it. 1000 persons could be accommodated at present and it is intended to erect a gallery which will make accommodation equal to 1500 persons. The chapel was built in 1834 and has cost already £700 and is expected that it will take £300 more to finish it. The money was and is to be raised by subscription. It would have taken a much greater sum to complete the building but for a plan the priest adopted which was to compel the people to give their time and the use of their carts to bring the building materials to the building gratis”.

The graveyard is shown on the 1859 map. HMBB first survey slide shows the exterior of the building unpainted.

Primary Sources:
1. ‘1834’ datestone on front gable.
2. 1st edition OS map County Down sheet 41 (1834).
3. First Valuation, 1836 (PRONI VAL 1B/389, p.173).
4. Ordnance Survey Memoir, Newry parish, 1836.
5. 2nd edition OS map County Down sheet 41 (1859).
6. HMBB first survey card dated November 1972.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This prominent, classically-fronted church sits in a mature churchyard and has developed from an early Roman Catholic chapel of unusual form. The interior has been modernised but retains some features of interest.