Maghera Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Simple, single storey (Commissioners’) gothic C of I parish church, with tower, built in 1825, with additions of c.1861. It is constructed beside the site of the original medieval parish church, and set at the end of a relatively long driveway, on the E side of Carrigs Road. The building is finished in lined rendered rubble while the additions are constructed in dark granite with light coloured granite dressings to doors and windows.

The main entrance door is positioned centrally on the original W gable, i.e. in the base of the tower. The timber sheeted double door has a flat head with the upper area of the door opening similarly sheeted (i.e. filling the pointed arch head opening). The opening has drip moulding and label stops. The N & S of the base of the tower are blank. To the first floor W of the tower is a tall lancet window with diamond panes and similar drip moulding. The N & S of the first floor are also blank. The second floor has a narrow (but shorter) lancet opening and similar drip mouldings to N, S, E & W faces. Each opening is filled with a slatted timber frame and rests on a projecting string course. The parapet to the flat roofed tower, which also rests on a string course, is castellated and has a stone minaret to each corner. The NW and SW corners of the tower each have diagonal stepped buttresses.

The N face has three lancet windows, that to the centre being slightly wider. Each has drip mouldings, as before.

The S face has a full length lean-to with three double lancet windows each with in/out granite dressings. The roof is constructed at the same angle as the main roof but at a slightly lower level.

The E face of the original building has a small gabled projection with a central pointed arch window with drip moulding as before. To the left of this is a lean-to projection with two windows to the E and a shouldered headed door to the S.

Both lean-to projections have in/out quoins, window and door dressings. All roofs have raised parapets to their gables. Roofs are finished in Bangor Blue slate with cast iron rw goods.

The entrance off the Carrigs Road has a decorative cast iron gateway and splayed rendered walls. The long drive leads to an open parking area. The parking area is separated from the church grounds by a low rubble wall and a single leaf cast iron pedestrian gate. To the N of the grounds is a small outbuilding housing a small parish hall. To the S is a small grave yard.

Historical information

This church was constructed in 1825. It replaced the nearby 13th century church (whose ruins stand just to the east)(SMR DOW 43/85), which in turn appears to have replaced an Early Christian foundation, sited a short distance to the north-west, the stump of whose round tower still stands.

The new building of 1825 was partly funded by the Board of First Fruits and may have been designed by John Bowden. The south aisle (and presumably the vestry) are said locally to have been constructed as a relief initiative during the Great Famine (1845-51), but they do not appear to be indicated on the OS map of 1859, and other sources indicate that they date from 1861 and were built to designs by Welland and Gillespie.

Cast iron trusses similar to those in the nave have been observed in other churches (Ballyphilip Parish Church, Portaferry) which were re-roofed following the great wind of 1839; there is no record of a similar fate having befallen this roof of this building, however.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/1/3/49 OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co Down sheet 49
2 Samuel Lewis, ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ (Dublin 1837)
3 PRONI OS/6/3/49/3 OS maps 1st rev.1859, Co Down sheet 49

Secondary sources
1 ‘Archaeological survey of Co. Down’ (Belfast HMSO 1966), pp.306-307
2 EHS Records of the first survey of buildings of historical and architectural interest in Tollymore ward (1972-)
3 P.J. Rankin, 'Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Mourne area of South Down', (Belfast UAHS 1975), pp.44-46

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
F. Structural System
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Simple, single storey (“Commissioners’”) gothic C of I parish church, with three storey tower, built in 1825, with lean-to additions of c.1861. The building, which is constructed beside the ruin of the medieval parish church, is finished in lined render with the additions in dark granite with light coloured granite dressings.