Garvaghy Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-celled parish church in simple Gothic style dating from 1699, located on an elevated site overlooking Garvaghy Church Road, south-west of Kinallen settlement in the Dromara hills. Rectangular on plan with porch to west and later vestry to north.

Pitched natural slate roof with rendered skews and simple Gothic bellcote over west gable; timber eaves with cast-iron rainwater goods. Ruled-and-lined rendered walling, over a projecting plinth. Windows are cast-iron lattice lights, detailed with elevations below.

Entrance gable faces west and is blank, abutted by an asymmetrical gabled porch catsliding over a lean-to store. Stone skews to porch, returning to suggest a simple open pediment detail. Replacement timber sheeted door with stone step. Timber notice board fixed to right. The store is blank and has a single ventilation slit to west. To Left of the porch, at ground level is a cast-iron door formed in sandstone leading to a ladder hold.

The north elevation has a paired lancet offset to right, set in square-headed dressed sandstone reveal. To left is a nineteenth century vestry, of exposed squared rubble masonry with roughly dressed quoins, all over a tall cement rendered plinth. Vestry lit by a paired window in long and short sandstone surround to east, and accessed at south by a timber sheeted door in similarly detailed chamfered surround.

The east gable is lit by a central pointed-arched window with interlocking sandstone Y-tracery, in long and short sandstone surround. Decorative apex stone.

The south elevation is lit by two paired windows, as before.

Setting

The church occupies a rural roadside
setting, on a built-up site above the road, contained by a rendered retaining wall and bounded by mature planting including yew trees. Burial grounds to three sides, earliest noted marker 1729. There are foundations of a watch house to west. Site is accessed via a tarmac drive to north accessed by a recessed entrance having a pair of wrought-iron gates on monolithic granite piers; to right is a separate pedestrian entrance gate leading to a small winding path bounded by high rendered walls to either side. To south-east, opposite, is a late nineteenth century former schoolhouse, now in use as a church hall. It has a pitched slate roof, rendered walling and projecting porch with curly bargeboards; windows are metal casements and there are toilet block extensions to east end. Simple interior with boarded floor and remains of timber sheeted partition screen.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Cast iron lattice
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Garvaghy Parish Church was constructed in 1699 and replaced an earlier church that was in ruins at that time; the church was constructed in the Grecian style and underwent restoration work in 1780 when its original chancel was taken down (Lewis). The building appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1833 as an oblong structure; the north-west entrance porch had also been constructed by this time and the contemporary Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1834; 1837) described the church as a ‘small plain building with a belfry ... 60ft long and 30ft broad ... the inside plain but neat, the aisle paved with limestone.’ The church could accommodate a congregation of 120 people and at the time of the Ordnance Survey was undergoing additional general repair work which cost £28 (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, p. 82).

The Townland Valuations valued Garvaghy Parish Church at £4 2s., however by 1861 the value of the church was recalculated at £8. Griffith’s Valuation noted that the church also possessed a school house which was valued at £2 10s. and was located to the south of the site; the former schoolhouse was constructed prior to 1833 as it can been seen on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map, however it closed in 1969 and is now utilised as the church hall (Musgrave & Thompson). There was no change to the valuation of either the church or its school house by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1928.

Garvaghy Parish has its roots in the medieval period; a stone uncovered in the current graveyard c. 1960 authenticated as a grave marker dating from c. 900 A.D. suggests that the current site was utilised as a Christian settlement from the early Christian period. Garvaghy Parish was mentioned in the 1422 and 1546 Papal Taxations, however the church site was attacked during the 1641 Rebellion and during Oliver Cromwell’s Inquisition of 1657 it was found that the medieval church lay in ruins. The current church was constructed in 1699 using the remaining walls of the medieval church as a foundation (Rankin, p. 193; Musgrave & Thompson).

In the eighteenth century a number of alterations to church were made. The current church bell was installed in 1743, whilst in 1780 an extensive renovation of the church resulted in the construction of the current vestry room and the removal of its original chancel. The church’s rectory was constructed in 1820 at a cost of £800; however this was sold in 1885 when Garvaghy Parish was joined with Dromara (Musgrave & Thompson).

In 1895, approaching the two hundredth anniversary of the erection of the church, the roof was repaired; the current roof was constructed at a sharper angle than the original. Further changes to the church included the decision in 1924 to erect a war memorial tablet in memory of those that served in the First World War and the installation of an organ in 1932. Electricity was installed in the church in 1955 and in 1962 more extensive repairs were carried out to the church when heating appliances were installed and new pews added. The former church schoolhouse, closed in 1969, has been used at the church hall from at least 1973 when it was first used for church functions including Bible Study, group meetings and Sunday school (Musgrave & Thompson).

Garvaghy Parish Church was listed in 1977 and since that time a number of further additions have been made to the church; in 1986 electrical heating replaced the earlier stoves and in 1988 the current organ was purchased at £3,200. The church continues to be used as a place of worship and is still grouped with Dromara Parish Church; the current congregation stands at around thirty families (Rankin, p. 193; Musgrave & Thompson).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/28/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/28/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/28/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/28/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1920
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/28 – Townland Valuation map 1833
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/343 – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/39 – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/12A – Annual Revisions 1864-1875
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/12B – Annual Revisions 1876-1885
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/12C – Annual Revisions 1885-1898
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/12D – Annual Revisions 1898-1908
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/12E – Annual Revisions 1909-1928
13. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down III Vol. 12 (1834)
14. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)
15. First Survey Record – HB17/11/001 (1969)
16. Ordnance Survey map – 221-4 (1975)

Secondary Sources

1. Rankin, F., ‘Clergy of Down and Dromore’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996.
2. Musgrave, G. Thompson P., ‘A rough field: The story of Garvaghy Parish Co. Down’ Garvaghy Parish, 1999.

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

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

Evaluation

Garvaghy Parish Church is a simple small rural church. It is of some antiquity, the current building dating from the late seventeenth century, and the site having an ecclesiastical association dating back to medieval times. The church is defined by its simplicity, almost devoid of ornament and having simple Gothic proportions. Its setting is an ancient burial ground including early Eighteenth century gravestones . The interior has been modernised but a simple character survives. The survival of the late nineteenth century schoolhouse to south east, although of little intrinsic interest, contributes to the socio-historic interest of the site. The church is a good example of the type surviving in its original setting.