St Mellan's Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A double height Church of Ireland church dating from the late 17th century with 19th century Gothic style alterations and a tower dated 1821. Rectangular plan form with a later chancel to east. Located on the west side of the junction between Scarva Street, Main Street and the Banbridge Road.

Pitched natural slate roofing with clay ridge tiles; scalloped courses over chancel; replacement uPVC rainwater goods; weather copings with gablets over chancel. Galleted rubble masonry to the main body of the church; rubble masonry to the chancel with sandstone dressing; rubble masonry to the tower with granite dressing and dressed stone spire. Gothic windows with latice Y-tracery; granite cills; rubble voussoirs. Gothic-arched cusped sandstone Y-tracery with centre trefoil; long-and-short surrounds with chamfered cill; hood moulding with moulded stops. Double-leaf timber panelled door with gothic-arched over-light with intersecting glazing bars; set into chamfered granite surrounds.

The principal gable faces west and is asymmetrically arranged; single cusped lancet window to the left; infilled square-headed opening to the right. Centrally abutted by a three-stage symmetrical tower with projecting corner piers surmounted by plain pinnacles and an octagonal stone spire with a copper spherical finial. The west elevation of the tower has a blank gothic-arched recess with granite surrounds at ground level, rising to a string course; the second stage has a rhombus plaque centrally located inscribed with “ERECTED A.D. 1821. RIGHT REV. JAMES SAURIN DR. LORD BISHOP OF DROMORE. JOHN P. GORDON OF WOODWILLE ESQ AND WILLIAM FIVEY OF UNION LODGE ESQ CHURCH WARDENS”; rising to a string course. The third stage comprises a gothic arched opening with a Y-tracery timber louver rising to a string course surmounted by a crenallated parapet. South elevation of tower is matching with the exception of a blank first stage and a square-headed bipartite lattice window centrally located in the second stage. North elevation matches the south with the exception of a door centrally located at the first stage. East elevation of tower is abutted at first and second stage by nave; third stage matches west elevation.

The north elevation is on an incline and comprises an asymmetrical arrangement three windows wide, the left window being a sandstone intervention; lattice windows centre and right. The right corner has been reinstated with squared granite quoins. Two stage buttress to the left with matching details to later chancel.

The east gable is blank and abutted with a subservient chancel with lower ridge level. The chancel is of a different stone type. The east elevation of the chancel comprises a large gothic-arched stained-glass window with sandstone geometric tracery and surrounds and a quatrefoil oculus over. Sandstone coping with kneeler stones and moulded apex and shoulders. The north and south cheeks of the chancel have a single gothic-arched sandstone cusped window centrally positioned and a two-stage buttress flush with the east gable; single-storey lean-to boiler house abutting the south face, accessed by steps; replacement door set into camber-arched granite surround.

The south elevation is asymmetrically arranged; four windows wide. Two gothic sandstone windows to the far right and left of centre. Lattice window right of centre. Narrow lattice window far left. The right is abutted by a two-stage buttress; the left has a distinct bow to the masonry at the corner.

Setting:
The church sits elevated on the southern part of the site overlooking Scarva Street. The grounds are predominately made up by a graveyard and bounded by rubble stone walling with railings of wrought and cast iron adjacent to the main gate which comprises a pair of robust masonry piers with granite copings supporting a pair of wrought and cast iron gates with arrowhead detailing. Adjacent to the wall at the northern part of the site is a telephone kiosk (HB17/03/052); north-east is St Patrick’s church (HB17/03/007).

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Rubble masonry
Windows: Leaded
RWG: Metal

Historical information

The central nave of the present church is of an early date, potentially dating from c.1688 when the church was rebuilt after the 1641 rebellion. A tower was added c.1821 and in 1876-8 the church was enlarged by the addition of a chancel to designs by W J Watson. Repairs and improvements took place in the 1890s.

Records tell of a church in Aghaderg from 1306 onwards which is thought to have been sited near the south end of Loughbrickland lough. Sir Marmaduke Whitchurch who was granted the lands around Loughbrickland, moved the church to its present position c.1600, using stone from the Franciscan Friary in the townland of Drumsallagh. This church was destroyed in the 1641 rebellion and a new church built c.1688 that was dedicated in the name of St Mellan. The tower and spire were added in 1819-21 the parish having been granted a loan of £500 by the Board of First Fruits (Lewis).

The ‘Church’ is shown, captioned, on the first edition OS map of 1833 and is valued in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) at £16. Dimensions are given for the church and tower. The valuation is raised in Griffith’s valuation to £27 and £3 for the graveyard, but the later addition to the church is not noted in valuation records and there are no further changes to the listing in Annual Revisions.

In 1876 William James Watson was engaged to enlarge and improve the church by adding a chancel, removing the ceiling to expose the hammer beams and removing the box pews. (Clergy of Down and Dromore) The contractor was Whelan and Watson of Newry and the total cost exceeded £1,100 (Bassett’s Directory; www.dia.ie)

The church re-opened in 1878 after undergoing ‘extensive improvements and enlargement’ The architect was William James Watson of Newry and the contractors Messrs Whelan and Watson also of Newry. The seventeenth century nave formerly consisted ‘simply of massive stone walls and a heavy plastered ceiling’. Amongst the improvements was the addition of a new chancel built of local blue stone ‘jointed in cement, having lancet windows and buttresses at each side, with freestone copings, barge courses and dressings, and ornamental slate roof, crested with ornamental ridge tiles. In the eastern gable of chancel has been placed, with good effect, the fine tracery window, containing stained glass, which formerly stood in east end of nave’. The chancel roof was set to be of ‘novel and effective’ design and the floor was covered in encaustic tiles ‘of chaste design and colours’ from ‘Minton’s celebrated manufactory’. The improvements included the internal alteration of the nave roof, which was achieved without affecting the existing rafters or slating. The nave was originally covered with a heavy plastered ceiling, concealing large, rough principals which supported the roof. The ceiling and principals were removed and replaced without disturbing the slates and rafters by an open pitch pine timber roof. New bench ends were fitted to replace the former pew framings and doors. The pulpit and reading desk were altered and improved and a new font supplied by Messrs Sibthorpe and Son of Great Brunswick Street, the gift of the Misses Lefroy. The cost was £600 which was subscribed by Dean Lefroy and Mrs Lefroy and their personal friends. ‘As Aghaderg Church now stands, it is perhaps, one of the most complete old parish churches in the north of Ireland’. (Irish Builder)
In 1886 a church bell was dedicated in memory of Rev Lefroy, Rector of Loughbrickland and Dean of Dromore as well as father to George Lefroy who became Bishop of Lahore and Metropolitan of India. The 25 cwt bell was cast by Messrs Llewellin & James of Bristol. The preparation of the tower and wooden cage in which the bell hangs and the work of hoisting it into position was carried out by Alexander Whelan of Newry. There is an older bell in the tower which weighs 168 lbs and bears the inscription ‘I was made for Ahoderick [Aghaderg] Church by HP 1698. A tradition is related in the Belfast Newsletter that ‘this bell was given to the church by King William III who, when on his march from Carrickfergus to the Boyne in 1690 spent a week in the parish, where his army was encamped, reviewing his troops and making arrangements for the final struggle with James II’ (Belfast Newsletter)

In 1891 a stained glass window by Bell of Bristol was erected in the south wall in memory of the granddaughter of Dean Lefroy. The cut-stone mullions were of Dungannon sandstone and were executed by Mr Whelan to designs by William Watson of Warrenpoint, the architect of the earlier chancel extension. (Belfast Newsletter)

In 1893 the church reopened after repairs and improvements. The Vestry had the spire thoroughly repaired and the internal walls of the church coloured in ‘delicate tints, ornamented with stencil patterns, in keeping with the architectural features of the edifice’. They replaced the stove by ‘one of Musgrave’s small –bore hot-water heating apparatus’ and substituted duplex lamps, suspended singly from the roof timbers, for the old candlesticks. (Irish Builder)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/34/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/34/2 Second Edition OS map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/34/3 Third Edition OS Map 1902-3
4. PRONI OS/6/3/34/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/18A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
7. Irish Builder 15th January 1878.
8. Belfast Newsletter 16th September 1886
9. Belfast Newsletter 13th October 1891
10. Irish Builder 1st December 1893

Secondary Sources

1. Bassett, G H “County Down One Hundred Years Ago: A Guide and Directory 1886” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1988
2. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation,
1996
3. Lewis, Samuel. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837.
4. www.dia.i.e.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A double height Church of Ireland church dating from c1690 with 19th century Gothic style alterations and a tower dated 1821. An early building of significant historic interest reflecting the history of the area. Its character and style survive, the additions and alterations are distinctive and of architectural and historic value. The interior is of note with unusual stencilwork and a fine roof structure. The setting is also good.