Former Sexton’s House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached symmetrical two-bay single-storey with attic former sexton’s house, built c.1860, road-fronted and located opposite All Saint’s Parish Church, Tullylish (HB17/02/021A). Rectangular on plan with extension to north.

Pitched natural slate roof with simple central chimneystack; cast iron / upvc gutters to overhanging eaves on exposed rafter tails. Walling is ruled and lined painted render with stepped quoins and contrasting plinth. Gothic openings, with hood moulding to principal elevation; projecting painted masonry cills. Replacement timber Y-tracery casements and replacement hardwood door over granite threshold.

Principal elevation faces west and is three openings wide. Extended to left by mono-pitch extension, blank to west.

North gable is abutted by a monopitched roof extension. Central attic window detailed as previous; extension partially conceals an oval plaque beneath cill level reading “The Reverend Tho’ Beatty / Vicar / John Nicholson Esq’ and / Mr Archibald McDowell / Church Warden / Anno D…” (remainder concealed).

Rear elevation is blank.

South gable (unpainted) has a window to each floor; abutted by boundary wall to extreme left.

Setting:

Directly adjacent to a rural road and facing the church opposite. To rear is the churchyard, accessed by a pair of wrought iron gates on circular piers, rubble stone visible in places beneath pebble dash; rubble stone boundary wall with soldier coping abuts kitchen extension. To south is a small gravelled garden, accessed from road by a steel gate.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron / uPVC

Historical information

The building was constructed in 1861/2 as a sexton’s house to Tullylish Parish Church. The new church was built as a replacement for an earlier building of the late seventeenth century. However, the site may be older still and monastic settlement in the area is thought to date back to the early Christian period in Ireland.

The building is first shown on the third edition OS map of c.1900 opposite ‘All Saints Church’ in a setting along the river Bann which is dotted with bleach greens, mills and the substantial dwelling houses of linen merchants. The tower of the former church and the ruined nave are captioned nearby. The new church is first listed in Griffith’s Valuation of 1856-64 at a valuation of £50 and the ‘sexton’s house’ is separately valued at £2. No further significant changes are made in valuation records. The house bears a plaque referring to Rev Thomas Beatty who was vicar of the parish from 1813 to 1829, (Clergy of Down and Dromore) and therefore originates from an earlier structure, most probably relating to the enlargement of the church building in 1827.

Tullylish parish can trace back its origins to the siting of an early monastery, enclosed by a rath-like structure, to the east of the present church in the 6th or 7th century. (Campbell) However, the parish does not appear in documentary sources until the 1422 and 1546 valuations. The early parish church appears to have been destroyed in the 1641 rebellion and was ruinous in 1657 but was rebuilt in 1698 on the same site. (Clergy of Down and Dromore) In 1827 the church was enlarged and a ‘square pinnacled’ tower built with the aid of a loan of £800 from the Board of First Fruits. (Lewis) OS Memoirs of 1834 record that the church ‘is a very old building, lately enlarged at the expense of the parish by an advance by the Board of First Fruits. It can accommodate 600 and is generally very full’.
A new church was deemed necessary to serve the flourishing town of Gilford, (although Gilford’s own parish church was built shortly afterwards in 1869) and the linen bleaching and manufacturing communities of Lawrencetown. The old church was found to be ‘so small as not to hold the one-half of those anxious to attend religious service therein’ and the local landowner A J R Stewart approached the Ecclesiastical Commissioners who agreed to erect a church at a cost of £4,000, provided a sum of £925 was subscribed. Mr Stewart was himself the most significant subscriber and also donated the land on which the new church was to be built. (Belfast Newsletter)

The site of the new church, by architects Welland & Gillespie, was deemed ‘very picturesque, being distant from the busy hum and bustle of the other adjoining manufacturing town of Gilford, in rather a secluded spot over the banks of a pretty large river which rolls its torrents of water along in a deep ravine several feet beneath the level occupied by the ‘house of prayer’...The entire scene is one of the most beautiful that could, perhaps, be found connected with any church in a rural district.’ (Belfast Newsletter)

The building is currently in use as a dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 Third Edition OS Map (c1900)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/350 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48A Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. Belfast Newsletter 31st October 1862
9. Belfast Newsletter 28th June, 1890

Secondary Sources
1. Campbell, P “Parish of Tullylish” in Dromore Diocesan Historical Society “The Diocese of Dromore Past and Present” 2004
2. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Vol. 12.” Belfast: Institute of
Irish Studies, 1992.
3. Lewis, Samuel. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837.
4. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation,
1996

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A very small two-bay single-storey with attic former verger’s lodge, built c.1860 and located opposite All Saint’s Parish Church (HB17/02/021A). The lodge is simply detailed in the Gothic style, with pointed openings and steeply pitched roof. It represents the continued evolution of this ecclesiastical site, which has origins in the sixth century, and contributes to the group value of the associated seventeenth century tower (HB17/02/021C) and mid-nineteenth century church. The plaque (partially concealed) is of interest and, although the interior has been modernised, the lodge is a good example of a relatively unusual type.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered it was previously recorded HB17/02/022