St. Mary's Youth Centre,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single storey RC church originally built c.1847, with eclectic front façade undoubtedly added to over the years. The building is set on the E side of Main Street, with graveyard to N, S and E sides. Ecclesiastical use ceased in c.1967 and is now a youth club.

The building is roughly rectangular in plan. The long nave has a gabled roof, the chancel three sided (canted) with a hipped roof with gabled vestry section attached to the SE corner. The front façade is an eclectic mix of gothic elements all crammed into a relatively small, low gable which is topped with an octagonal spirelet. Most of the façade is rendered and the roof covered in natural slate.

The front gable faces W. In the centre at ground level is a relatively small scale double gabled bay within which are twinned pointed arch doorways, with deeply recessed timber sheeted double doors to each. There is label moulding above each opening, with recently placed boarding between these and the edges of the gables. The pier between the openings has short three quarter colonnettes resting on a thick base and with decorative capitals. The outer piers also have thick bases and the outer edges of the whole doorway ensemble is buttressed. There is a small carved roundel to each side of the entrance ensemble.

Rising above the meeting point of the twinned gables of the entrance is a cluster of colonnettes which form the pedestal for a tall narrow gabled sentry box-like canopied niche presumably once for a statue. The gable over the niche is supported on carved brackets and a decorative course runs from the edges of the pedestal. The niche is flanked by matching pointed arch windows with label moulding and in and out dressings. Each window has twinned pointed arch lights with quatrefoil in tympanum.

To the outer side of each window (and the entrance) there is a buttress which breaks through the line of the gable. Both buttresses are capped with a gable and both have narrow pointed arch niches near their tops. The main gable is topped with an octagonal turret with spire, all in ashlar granite. The turret rises from a corbel at the apex of gable of the niche and has two sets of pointed arch openings at two levels to all its sides. The upper openings are taller and a projecting course separates both sets of openings. The spire is topped with a small ball pinnacle with metal crucifix.

The outer edges of the main front façade gable are buttressed and between these and the ‘inner’ buttresses (which break through the main line of the gable- see above) there is a small pointed arch window set just above entrance level. Set just behind the main front gable to both N and S (and largely visible only from N and S) are projecting three sided, canted stair turrets with hipped roofs. At lower level, each side of each tower has a small pointed arch window with dressings, with the windows following the rise of the stair. The upper level of the tower has a roundel to each side with largely plain dressings and quatrefoil tracery. The roundels are all at the same level and their dressings are all linked by a plain course. Above these windows is a castellated course behind which the short upper-most section of the tower is set which rises a short distance to the hipped roof. Metal crucifix pinnacle to tower roofs.

To the N and S facades of the nave there are six tall pointed arch windows, each with label moulding (linked to a course) and dressings. The window to very W of each façade is narrower than the rest and buttresses separate each window to each façade apart from the two to the E. The buttresses formerly broke through the eaves.

To the E side on the N and S façades the end window has had a doorway(with panelled door, placed beneath it, with doorway head cutting into the lower portion of the window. To the S façade this doorway has a wheelchair ramp running up to it and along the main façade. At the E edge of the S façade there is a two level gabled vestry with twinned pointed arch windows set at a high level to the gable with label moulding, dressings and sash frames. The short W façade of the vestry contains a small flat arch window with dressings and a sash frame (now boarded).

The vestry has another large gabled section to the E with evidence of two pointed arch window openings to the upper level (now blocked up) and a small plain sheeted doorway at ground level. To the N side of this section there is a stair which rises to an upper level plain sheeted doorway. To the left of the doorway are two small sash windows with dressings. To the short S side of this section of the vestry is a small window with dressings as before but with modern frame.

The latter gable portion of the vestry cuts across the S of the three sided chancel to the main E gable. The chancel has a broad pointed arch window at a high level to each side, a buttress to its E side and a hipped roof.

The entire façade, with the exception of the turret is finished in lined render. Most of the frames/tracery to the windows is in timber. All the windows have plain or latticed glazing excepting those to chancel which have late Victorian stained glass. All sections of the roof have natural slate and there are rendered parapets to the gables. Cast iron rw goods.

Graveyard to N, S and E. Rendered wall to front which links to main front gable with late Victorian railings and pedestrian gates.

Historical information

This church was built c.1847-8, probably through the efforts of the then Parish Priest, Rev. A. Hannah. The building may have begun life as a simple gothic structure with the decoration to the front gable, including the stair towers and turret, added in late Victorian/Edwardian times.

The building used to be used as a place of worship in c.1967, when the new modern church on the Downs Road was completed.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/49/2 OS maps 1st rev. 1859, Down 49.
2 PRONI D.1854 Annesley Papers.

Secondary sources
1 P.J. Rankin, 'Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in the Mourne Area of South Down', (Belfast UAHS 1975), p.72.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Single storey RC church originally built c.1847, with eclectic front façade undoubtedly added to over the years. The building is set on the E side of Main Street, with graveyard to N, S and E sides.
The building is roughly rectangular in plan. The long nave has a gabled roof, the chancel three sided (canted) with a hipped roof with gabled vestry section attached to the SE corner. The front façade is an eclectic mix of gothic elements all crammed into a relatively small, low gable which is topped with an octagonal spirelet. Most of the façade is rendered and the roof covered in natural slate. Ecclesiastical use ceased in c.1967 and is now used as a youth club and has witnessed some changes to the façade in recent years, most notably the decapitation of the buttresses to the nave and the insertion of doorways to north and south.