Lisarra Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Gothic Presbyterian church of 1867 by W. J. Barre, with pyramidal roofed tower. The building is set on the SE corner of the Square, near Crossgar town centre. The church is constructed in squared grey wacke rubble with sandstone dressings.

To the left of the front façade is the four storey tower which is topped with a steeply pitched pyramidal slate roof with a pyramidal fleche and weather vane. The roof has a geometric patterned tiled roof. To each face of the fourth floor are paired pointed arch window openings, with timber louvers, each with pilasters and stone dressings. Above the windows is a slightly projecting decorative eaves course. The windows rest on a projecting cill course. The third level has a narrow slit window, with in/out sandstone dressings, to the centre of the S and E faces. Between the third and second levels is a centred roundel which has a drip stone merging with a string course. The roundels are also on the S and E faces and each has a blank slate infill panel with no inscription. To the first floor are narrow slit windows to the S and E faces , as before. The ground floor has tripartite slit windows to the S and E faces. Those to the E face are stepped to match the line of internal stair. A stone string course encloses the front section at ground and first floors. This is merged with drip mouldings of the window heads.

To the centre of the E gable are paired door openings. Each has a pointed arch opening which is framed by pilasters and a heavy plaster surround with archivolt. The doors and fanlights are modern and are glazed. Directly above the doors is a large decorative rose window which is surmounted by a small trefoil. To the right of the doors are two slit windows as before. To the left and right sides buttresses give a battered appearance to the overall frontage.

Equally spaced reducing buttresses divide the S façade is divided into six bays. To the extreme right the first bay comprises the S face of the tower, while the remaining five equal bays each have paired lancet windows, each with sandstone in/out dressings. The buttress to the extreme left is splayed at 45 degrees.

The lower portion of the W gable is obscured by a modern flat roofed extension. To the centre of the upper portion is a large window opening with four lancet windows surmounted by a large rose window with quatrefoils, drip moulding and in/out sandstone dressings.

The N façade is a mirror image of that to the S with the exception that the bay to the far left is the side of the front section rather than the side of the tower.

The roof is covered with Bangor blue slate with three bands of Cumberland Green decorative slates. The cast iron gutters are supported on paired brackets..

To the rear of the site is a single storey gabled hall which was constructed in 1932. The hall is constructed in a dark blue engineering brick and has sandstone dressings. In more recent times a single storey flat roofed block was constructed and now links the rear of the hall with side of the hall. Both hall and linking block have been designed to compliment the main structure.

The site is enclosed with a low random rubble wall.

Historical information

The church was built in 1867 to designs by W.J. Barre. It replaced an earlier church which was built in c.1770 and stood in Lissara townland, to the north of where Crossgar was to develop in the early 1800s. The church still retains the name ‘Lissara’.

A new organ installed within the building in 1920 and in 1932 a free standing hall was constructed to the rear. In 1979 a linking block was constructed between the hall and the church. The interior of the church was completely renovated in 1984. The mock stone decoration to the walls was added at this time.

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 (in print), 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
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Gothic Presbyterian church of 1867 by W. J. Barre, with pyramidal roofed tower. The façade is in greywacke rubble with sandstone dressings. To the rear the church is linked to a 1930s hall, via an extension which was added in 1979