St Patricks Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A double-height gabled Parish church; built 1815 as a 1879 and located to the west side of Lurgan Road in Seapatrick, north of Banbridge. Rectangular plan with chancel to south and gabled entrance porch to north; two lean-to extensions to east housing store and vestry.

Pitched natural slate roof with pointed crested terracotta ridge tiles; gabled bell-cote with gothic opening supporting a bell to north gable. Aluminium rainwater goods to projecting timber eaves. Walling is painted roughcast render on an undercut cement-rendered plinth. Windows are pointed-headed leaded-and-stained glass casements with projecting painted sills.

The principal elevation faces north and is abutted by a gabled entrance porch (lower) opening to east with a gothic arched timber-sheeted door having cast-iron door furniture; window to west elevation. To north gable of entrance porch is a post and lintel supporting a large bell operated by an iron mallet from within.

The east elevation is five evenly spaced windows wide.

The west elevation is abutted to centre by a lean-to extension and flanked by two windows. Lean-to has a square-headed opening to north; remainder blank.

The south elevation is abutted by the chancel (lower) with staged tripartite window; single window to east; lean-to abutment to west with window to east and opening to south with a slender gothic arched timber-sheeted replacement door having cast-iron strap hinges.

Setting

Set back from the road at a slightly lower level, with large tarmacadamed car-park to east bounded by rock-faced stone wall with coping topped by original cast-iron railings; square metal gate piers supporting original gates to centre. Lawned to south with shrubbed garden of remembrance. Bounded to south by a rubble stone wall enclosing the ruins of the original Parish church.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Roughcast
Windows: Leaded-and-stained glass
RWG: Aluminium

Historical information

St Patrick’s Church occupies an ancient ecclesiastical site and as a structure also provides a link to the area’s linen heritage, being a former mill school that was adapted in the late nineteenth century for use as a chapel-of-ease. (Irish Builder)

The ancient church of St Patrick had been established near the site of the present building by at least 1306 when the parish was known as ‘Disertunde’. By 1422 the name was ‘Dysertmoygh’, but whatever building was on the site was destroyed in 1641. Tradition has it that King William ordered the church to be rebuilt when he crossed the Bann in 1698. (Clergy of Down and Dromore) The name ‘Seapatrick’ is thought to derive from the Irish Suide Padruic meaning place/residence of Patrick, but this name does not appear until a patent of 1610. It is thought possible that Patrick could have founded a church here on his route from Armagh to Saul, but there are no early records of an association with his name. (Stephens) In 1847 the old church was sold to Frederick Hayes, proprietor of the nearby spinning mill, for £25 and the proceeds used to build a wall around the churchyard. The stone from the old church was used and the work was carried out by James Watson, mason. Catholics ceased to use the church by 1630 but were buried in the graveyard until the early 19th century. (Stephens) The old church was abandoned in 1835 when a new church, Holy Trinity, was built in Banbridge, at the time reaching the height of its prosperity as a centre of the linen trade. The gable wall of the early church survives and is situated within the graveyard to the south of the present building. (Clergy of Down and Dromore)

In 1813 the Vicar, the Reverend Francis Burrowes, offered one or two acres of his glebe in perpetuity to build a school-house. The school was built in 1815 with funds provided partly by William Hayes, proprietor of the local spinning mill, and partly by the ‘Association for Discountenancing Vice’. In 1817 an addition to the school-house for instructing children in weaving and spinning brought technical education to Banbridge. (Stephens) The ‘School Ho[use] is shown, captioned, on the first edition OS map of 1833, with the ‘Church’ and grave yard shown to the south. OS Memoirs describe Seapatrick school house as a ‘stone building, roughcast and whitewashed. It is 44 and a half feet long and 18 and a half feet broad.’ (OS Memoirs) The school obtained its income partly from the London Hibernian Society and partly from the fees paid by pupils. There were 40 pupils in total mostly under 15 years of age and all female. Although the school was associated with the Church of Ireland the pupils came from all three main denominations. (OS Memoirs) The school is listed in the Townland Valuation as an ‘Endowed School’ with an associated dwelling house. The buildings are valued at £4.7s. Griffith’s Valuation describes it as a ‘Church Education Society School House’ valued at £3.

The growth in population around Seapatrick, due to the success of the local spinning mill, led to the need for a chapel-of-ease close to the site of the original parish church. What had been the school building was taken over in 1879 and entirely remodelled. (Clergy of Down and Dromore) The church opened for divine service in September 1879 when the sermon was preached by the Bishop of Ossory better known by many as the Rev Pakenham Walsh, of Sandford Church near Dublin. The school-house had been enlarged by the addition of a ‘very pretty’ chancel, vestry and porch, the raising of the walls, new windows and an entirely new roof. The architect was Edward Nevill Banks, who also designed St Thomas’s National School in Windsor Avenue, Belfast but is otherwise known principally as the engineer for various water supply works in Bangor, Ballymena and Belfast. He was a member of Belfast Corporation and worked ‘with enthusiasm and self-denial’ for the Church Missionary Society and the Protestant Orphan Society. (www.dia.ie) The contractor was John Harkness of Banbridge who ‘deserves great credit for the tasteful manner in which he has completed the work’. (Banbridge Chronicle) The workmen who built the church were mill craftsmen. (Stephens) The church could accommodate nearly 200 and was seated with open benches and lighted with thirteen lancet windows. The East window was presented by the architect and the remainder by the Archdeacon of Dromore. The church was also to be used as a mortuary chapel being more conveniently close to the grave yard than the parish church. The cost of building was over £200 of which £100 was contributed by the Vestry and liberal subscriptions were made by the Archdeacon, ’Mrs W Hayes, Rev W A Hayes, Mr Richard Hayes, Mr Robert Joy and Mrs O’Reilly’. The local newspaper reported that there was ‘the greatest interest felt in the opening of the Church by the residents of Seapatrick Village and its neighbourhood... we have little doubt they will practically prove their gratitude by availing themselves of all the means which are afforded for their benefit’. (Banbridge Chronicle) The church entered valuation records in 1880, valued at £15 and is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1903, captioned ‘St Patrick’s Church’.

The church was formally consecrated on 4th September 1882, after which time it could be used for the sacramental rites of the Church of Ireland. (Belfast Newsletter) In 1965 a new organ was installed and in 1983 a new east window depicting scenes from the life of St Patrick. (Clergy of Down and Dromore)

The building was listed in 1977 and in the late 1980s and early 1990s renovations took place including re-roofing, re-rendering, damp-proofing, re-wiring and new heating, together with the demolition of derelict outbuildings and the laying of tarmac for off-street parking. (HB file)

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 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/348A Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/41 Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. The Banbridge Chronicle 13th April 1989
9. Irish Builder, Vol 21, 1st October 1879, p.311
10. Belfast Newsletter 6th February 1882
11. NIEA HB file

Secondary Sources

1. 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.
2. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation,
1996
3. Stephens, R “The Parish of Seapatrick” 1987

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

St Patrick’s Parish church is a gabled church with chancel; built 1879 remodelled from an earlier school. A modest Victorian rural Parish church, simply detailed with original proportions intact. In recent years much historic fabric and character has been lost due to renovations. Although gates and railings and the ruin of the original Parish church to south add to the historic interest of the site, the setting has also been degraded. It is of a late date and not one of the best examples of the type and its interest has been compromised by extensive alterations.