St Patricks RC Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Simple, two storey, gabled RC church of 1830 with small recently built porch and vestry extensions to front and gables. The building is set on the N side of the main road running through Bryansford, to the NE corner of the village, with a graveyard to N and S and large car park to the E.

The building can be entered from the porch to the E gable or that to the front. The front (S) façade is symmetrical. To the centre is a small gabled porch, with timber double doors to gable. The porch is in stone (which resembles cladding) and has natural slate to the roof. Its roof has a slight overhang with boxed in eaves. This porch appears to have replaced an earlier (possibly mid 19th century) porch of similar size. To each side of the porch are three tall pointed arch windows with granite surrounds and string course at arch springing level. The windows have small square leaded lights with coloured glass. Directly above the porch is a slate panel with granite surround surmounted by a cross. The panel is inscribed ‘This chapel built A.D. 1830, The Rev John Hagerty being Pastor’.

To the W gable is a recently added gabled porch, low in height but broad and with a shallow pitched gabled roof. The porch has double doors (as before) to its S face and several modern windows, to the W (gable), and has a stone façade as front porch. Above the porch is a pointed arch window, as front only much smaller.

The E gable has a vestry, similar to the porch on the W gable, but is otherwise blank.

The rear has three central windows, much as front but with rendered surrounds. To the far left is a small flat arch window with modern frame.

The façade of the main building is in lined render with bevelled quoins. The main roof is covered in natural slate, as are the porch roofs. There is a small stone cross to the apex of each main gable. Cast iron and PVC rw goods.

Low rendered wall around graveyard with modern gates.

Historical information

This church was built in 1830, replacing an earlier church built by Rev. Robert Taylor in 1760. The site for the church was donated by Lord Roden and the building cost £900 to construct. The OS Memoirs of c.1836 describe it as ‘a very plain building surrounded by trees’ capable of accommodating a congregation of 550, but state (somewhat oddly given the original looking date panel to the front), that it was built in 1820. A porch appears to have been added to the front some time between 1834 and 1859 (it is indicated on the OS map of the latter year), but the present porch is a modern rebuild. The larger porch to the west gable and vestry are later additions, added after 1972 [?c.1990].

The following
references mainly refer to Bryansford village as a whole.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI MIC.147 Roden Papers
2 PRONI D.465 Roden Papers
3 PRONI D.2647 Roden Papers
4 PRONI T.2647 Roden Papers
5 PRONI T.3438 Roden Papers
6 PRONI OS/1/3/43 OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co Down sheet 43
7 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland vol.3: Parishes of County Down I’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1990)
8 Samuel Lewis, ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ (Dublin 1837)
9 ‘Parliamentary gazetteer of Ireland’ (Dublin 1843-44)
10 PRONI MIC/1D/73 Records relating to the RC churches at Bryansford and Newcastle, 1845-85
11 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), pp.429-31
12 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
13 Maps of Lord Roden’s Co. Down estate (c.1855) [Originals in possession of Lord Roden]
14 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), pp.491-93
15 PRONI OS/6/3/43/3 OS maps 1st rev.1859, Co Down sheet 43
16 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870)
17 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.137-139

Secondary sources
1 Rev J. O’Laverty, ‘Diocese of Co Down ancient and modern’ vol.1 (Dublin 1878), p.64
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), p.7.
4 F. Hamond and T. Porter, ‘A tour of the Mournes’ (Belfast ?1991)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Simple, two storey gabled RC church of 1830, with recently added gabled porches and vestry.