St Joseph's RC Church, Downpatrick Street, Crossgar, Co Down BT30 9EA

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Gothic RC church of 1870, by Mortimer H. Thompson, with square tower, octagonal spire, and random rubble façade with sandstone dressings. The church is set to the E side of Downpatrick Street, at the centre of the small town of Crossgar.

The main entrance is to the SE face of the tower. The three storey tower is surmounted by an octagonal spire with a metal cross. The spire has three horizontal bands with geometric patterning. The spire merges with an octagonal section to the tower. The junction between the two is expressed with a small gable (each with a small roundel) to the base of each face of the octagon. The gables rest on a corbelled ‘machicolation like’ course. Alternate faces of this section have a single pointed arched opening with drip moulding and are framed with fine pilasters. The openings have timber ventilation slats. The short octagonal section splays (or broaches) on to the square tower which has double stepped buttresses.

The upper section of the square section is contained between two string courses, the lower of which splays out slightly. The corners of this section are articulated with fine pilasters. To each face at this level is a centred decorative, pointed arch feature. That to the NE contains a stone inscribed with the date 1870 while the other three each have matching and somewhat stylised Celtic crosses. Immediately below the stepped string there is a small pointed arch window to each face. To the ground floor are two matching double entrance doors each with a leaded light fanlight. The doors are set with in a pointed arch opening with cusps. The doors are framed with fine pilasters and moulded archivolt. The door to the (front) SW appears not to be used while that to the SE is used as the main entrance.

The tower merges with the main SW gable which is framed by stepped buttresses. To the upper part of the gable is a small roundel with cusps set within semicircular headed opening which is framed by fine pilasters. To the lower section are two equally spaced window openings each with paired lancet windows and roundel above all with cusps. The openings again are framed with fine pilasters and moulded archivolt.

The NW façade has reducing buttresses which divide the face into six equal bays, all but the second (counting from the right) of which has a tall lancet window, with dressings as before. The second bay has a gabled projection, housing a small altar, with paired semicircular headed windows, with dressings as before. The sides are blank. Below the window cill to the fourth bay, and infilling between the buttresses is a small lean-to projection.

The rear NE gable has a triple lancet window arrangement. (This gable comprises the chancel area which has a pitched roof set slightly lower than the main roof. The lancets are set within a dressing with pilasters, archivolt and cusps, all as before. The gable is framed with buttresses.) The left side of the gable merges with a two storey section which contains committee rooms etc. This section is flat roofed and has three pointed arch windows each to the ground and first floor. To the right of the gable is a single storey gabled vestry. To the left of the vestry is a timber door with shouldered dressing. To the immediate right is a paired window arrangement with matching shouldered opening. To the far right is a single storey flat roofed addition. The SW and NW faces are blank while the NE face has a plain window opening to the left and right of the centred door opening. Door and windows all have plain cement dressings.

The SE facade is divided in to six bays. The first bay (to the left) is obscured by the projecting tower. The remaining bays all have lancet windows as before. The fourth bay has a small lean-to projection, as before. To the far right is the flat roofed projection this section is flat roofed and has three pointed arch windows each to first floor. To the ground floor are two pointed arch headed windows to the left and a pointed arch headed door to the right. The SE face is blank.

The roof is covered with blue slate. CI rw goods are supported on a projecting eaves course. The walls are constructed off a shallow projecting base course. The two flat roofed extensions were added in recent times. The main walling is in random rubble grey wacke while the stone dressings are in a pale sandstone.

A set of decorative wrought iron gates are mounted within granite gate posts with a steeply pitched roof-like capstone.

Historical information

This church was built between 1867 and 1870, to designs by Mortimer H. Thompson of Belfast. It stands on the site of an earlier church, which was erected c.1798-1800 at a cost of £200. This earlier church was in fact one of the first buildings to be erected within Crossgar, which at that time was merely a tiny hamlet clustered around ‘Everogue’s Bridge’, over the River Glasswater. The original church is described in the OS Memoirs of c.1835 as measuring roughly 53 feet by 24 and containing only 38 seats.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/30/1 OS map, 1834, Down 30
2 PRONI VAL/1B/330 1st valuation, Kilmore, c.1835-38
3 PRONI VAL/1D/3/1 Valuation town plan of Crossgar, 1838
4 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
5 PRONI OS/6/3/30/2 OS map, 1860, Down 30
6 PRONI VAL/2D/3/14 Valuation town plan of Crossgar, 1859
7 PRONI 2nd valuation, Kilmore, 1863
8 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870)
9 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.378-79
10 PRONI OS/6/3/30/3 OS map, 1901, Down 30
11 PRONI OS/6/3/30/4 OS map, 1920, Down 30

Secondary sources
1 C.E.B. Brett ‘Historic buildings…East Down’ (Belfast UAHS 1973), p.47

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H+. Alterations enhancing the building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Gothic RC church of 1870, by Mortimer H. Thompson of Belfast, with square tower, octagonal spire, and random rubble façade with sandstone dressings. There is a vestry section to the rear,with a flat roof, which (in part at least), appears be a later addition.