Bannside Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A double-height Italianate Presbyterian church erected 1866 to designs by John Boyd; rectangular plan form with adjoining hall to the rear. Located off Castlewellan Road south east of the town centre, adjacent to the River Bann.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; cast-iron ogee moulded rainwater goods; masonry coping (leaded at front elevation); masonry corbelled eaves course. Stucco rusticated walling; projected plinth course; stucco mouldings. Round-arched leaded windows set into plain recesses; masonry cills. Round-arched double-leaf timber doors clad with 1960s artisan copper panels depicting Christian references; moulded surrounds.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged. Dentilled pediment facade broken by double-height round-arched recess with moulded keystone encompassing paired windows with central moulded colonette; louvered oculus; moulded spandrels. Gable surmounted by a moulded gable bell; no bell. Central paired doors with single window either side.

The left (south) elevation is asymmetrically arranged; five windows wide; blank recess and quoins to right.

The rear (west) symmetrical elevation is abutted by a pitched roofed link block between the church and the adjoining hall. Exposed section has a central oculus at high level flanked by a recess encompassing an oculus at slightly lower level.

The right (north) elevation is asymmetrically arranged; five windows wide; blank recess and quoins to left.

Setting

The main church is adjoined by various additions erected over different periods. Roughcast render gable ended hall c.1900 further abutted to the north and west by a single storey flat roofed extension c.1960. Two-storey block added 1996 adjoined by a glazed lobby. Beyond the church car park to the south is a basalt masonry mill building; River Bann to the west. The site is bounded to the west by a modern railing.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling : Stucco
Windows: Leaded
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Bannside Presbyterian Church was constructed between 1864 and 1866 on the Castlewellan Road to the east of Banbridge town centre. The Builder records that the foundation stone was laid by the Marquess of Downshire on 6 October 1864; the church was designed by John Boyd, a Belfast-based architect who specialised in building churches and schoolhouses for Methodists and Presbyterians and with his business partner William Batt established the firm Boyd & Batt which operated from 1862 71 (Dictionary of Irish Architects). Boyd designed Bannside as an Italianate Church that measured 77 by 50ft, possessed a Belfry and was intended to house a congregation of 650 people (The Builder, p. 781).

The Annual Revisions record that the church was first valued in 1873 at £40 and that this value did not alter by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. The church appears on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps for Banbridge (1903-18) as an oblong building situated between Solitude House (HB17/07/033) and a weaving factory to the south; the map also notes that there was a schoolhouse to the rear of the church. In 1871 a contract to erect a Manse for Bannside Presbyterian Church had been entered into by Robert Cochrane, with a Mr. John Jackson as the builder (Irish Builder, p. 331).

Kirkpatrick and the Ulster Street Directories record that the Rev. George Wilson was the first minister of Bannside Presbyterian Church (1866-80), however by 1886 Bassett wrote that the Rev. James Scott had become the new minister (Kirkpatrick, p. 279). Bassett further states that c.1874 some improvements were made to the interior of the church when it was receiled and its pews were remodelled (Bassett, p. 227). James Scott continued to be recorded as minister of Bannside until 1918 when he vacated the position; however he did not reside in the Manse on Reilly Street during this period but resided at Ballyvally House (HB17/04/009).

Bannside was the second Presbyterian congregation to be formed in Banbridge due to over membership of Scarva Street Presbyterian Church (HB17/06/012A) as a result of the 1859 Revival. The original church could not accommodate its expanding congregation and in 1864 construction of the new building began (Clarke, p. viii). The First Survey Record notes that the church was originally known as the Church of St. John. In 1969 Brett described Bannside Presbyterian Church as ‘distinctly strange … Italianate rendered façade, with too-tall pediment surmounted by curious tiny bell-less belfry; the base of the pediment broken to admit broad recessed arch.’ However he thought the interior to be much more appropriate with a ‘rather fine compartmented ceiling with feathery plaster rosettes in a sort of Japanese-Rococo style’ (Brett, p. 10).

Bannside Presbyterian was listed in 1977 and in 1996 a modern Church Hall was erected to the south side of the building to designs by Maurice Cushnie Architects (Ulster Architect International, pp 38-9).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1860
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1918
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/A – Annual Revisions 1864-1874
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/B – Annual Revisions 1874-1884
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/D – Annual Revisions 1885-1894
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/A – Annual Revisions 1899-1910
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/B – Annual Revisions 1911-1922
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/C – Annual Revisions 1921-1930
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/119/4 + 6 – Annual Revisions Banbridge Town Plan
10. The Builder, Vol. 22, (22 Oct 1864)
11. The Irish Builder, Vol. 13, (15 Dec 1871)
12. Ulster Street Directories (1843-1918)
13. Bassett, G. H., ‘County Down: One hundred years ago: A guide and directory 1886’ Belfast: Friars Bush Press, 1988.
14. First Survey Record – HB17/07/034 (1977)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Borough of Banbridge’
Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1969.
2. Clarke, R. S. J., ‘The Heart of Downe: Old Banbridge families from Gravestone Inscriptions, wills and biographies’ Belfast:
Ulster Historical Foundation, 1989.
3. Kirkpatrick, L., ‘Presbyterians in Ireland: An illustrated history’ Booklink, 2006.
4. ‘Ulster Architects International: A journal of architecture and building’ Belfast: Architectural Publications, 1996.

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A double-height neo Italianate Presbyterian church erected 1866 to the designs of John Boyd. Its classical style, proportions and historic character survive. Although the interior has lost some of the original fixtures and fittings, the overall proportions and detailing of plasterwork remain intact and the copper clad external doors (sculptor not known) are of artistic interest. Its setting has been compromised by the modern church hall and extensive tarmacadam. The church is a good example of the type that occurs elsewhere in the town and by a noteworthy local architect, although not among the best.