Saint Andrew's Parish Church of Ireland

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing symmetrical neo-gothic gabled stone Church of Ireland church, built c.1865 to the designs of Welland & Gillespie. U-shaped on plan facing west, set on a north-south axis with a pair of gabled projections to the front elevation and an octagonal-plan steeple to the northeast corner. Set on an elevated site on the east side of Carryduff Road at the junction with Carricknaveagh Road.

Steeply pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles set behind raised gables with chamfered sandstone coping and carved sandstone finials. Replacement metal rainwater goods to exposed rafter feet. Rock-faced random basalt ashlar walling with lime pointing and tooled sandstone ashlar quoins. Pointed-headed window openings with red and white sandstone voussoired relieving arches and sandstone plate tracery having iron latticed windows.

West nave elevation has a pair of window openings, as above, with trefoil-headed paired openings and quatrefoil above, while a gabled projection to either end houses an entrance porch to the north projection with the vestry to the south projection. To the re-entrant angle of the entrance projection is a trefoil-headed door opening with pointed-headed hood moulding and vertically-sheeted timber door with decorative iron door furniture opening onto sandstone step with cast-iron bootscraper. To the vestry projection is a trefoil-headed door opening with door as above.

Gabled north end elevation has a large circular sandstone plate tracery rose window with central quatrefoil opening and red and white sandstone relieving arch, with pair of small trefoil-headed window openings below. The steeple is attached to this gable and has an octagonal plan, battered to the lower level with a pointed-headed opening to each side with continuous hood mouldings and impost mouldings (openings now blocked up with cement block). The spire is built in pink sandstone ashlar with rib mouldings, ball finial and loop-hole pierced opening to alternating sides.

East nave elevation has three window openings as per the west elevation with a further tripartite stone plate tracery window lighting the altar area with three trefoil-headed windows and a quatrefoil opening above.

South gable extended to the west by the vestry with a single tripartite window opening comprising three trefoil-headed openings set within sandstone plate tracery and three lozenge openings above.

Setting:
Set on an elevated site facing west on the east side of Carryduff Road and to the south of Carricknaveagh Road. To the rear is a corrugated iron community hall. Large lawned site contains a few late nineteenth-centurystone grave markers, many twentieth-century grave markers and is enclosed to the roads by a low rubblestone wall with stacked coping. Bitmac driveway set perpendicular to the road enclosed by pair of decorative cast-iron gates on rubblestone piers and matching cast-iron railings on low wall to either side.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement metal
Walling Basalt / sandstone
Windows Original cast-iron latticed

Historical information

The fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey map for the area (1919-1920) records ‘St. Andrew’s Church’ and ‘Graveyard’ situated at a crossroads in the Townland of Carrickmaddyroe. The Irish Builder records that the church was constructed between 1865 and 1867, designed by Welland & Gillespie, architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and built by James Henry. Construction began in August 1865 and the church was consecrated on 18 April 1867 (Irish Builder Vol. 9, 1 May 1867, p. 111). The Annual Revisions record that the church was let by the Marquis of Downshire and valued at £30. In 1867 the valuer recorded that ‘some additional land likely to be added for a burial ground.’

Kelly tells us that the Parish of Killaney was first recorded in 1194 as part of a charter granted to John de Courcy and that the precursor to the current church was destroyed during the 1641 rising. The Church was not rebuilt and from the 17th century services were held in a number of locations such as a nearby Presbyterian Church Hall and the Carricknaveigh Old School. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1832-38) tell us that in 1830 the vicar was the Rev. William Boyd and that the Church had an average attendance of only 12 people. Rectors continued to be assigned to this Churchless Parish until the Marquis of Downshire donated a plot of land for a Church building in 1865 (Kelly, p. 58).

By the 1860s the congregation had greatly increased in size leading the minister, the Rev. R. L. Scott to appeal to the Marquis of Downshire for a plot of land on which to build the existing church. The Church was consecrated in April 1867 although it was then known as St. John the Evangelist Church until 1904 when the name was changed to St. Andrew’s. Between 1912 and 1923 this church was grouped with Drumbo Parish Church, however in 1923 it was paired with Saintfield when the Rector of Saintfield became the sole clergyman of each. St. Andrew’s was later paired with the parish of Carryduff when it was created in 1954 (Clergy of Down and Dromore, p. 131). The Church was listed in 1988; in 2005 a floodlighting system was installed. The Church and its Spire have also recently been refurbished and restored. The current rector is the Rev. William Nixon who was installed at St. Andrew’s Church in 2008 (Kelly, p. 58).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/15/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/15/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/15/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map c. 1900
4. PRONI OS/6/3/15/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1919-20
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/26 – Griffiths Valuation 1859
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/15 A – Annual Revisions 1866-1881
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/15 B – Annual Revisions 1881-1897
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/15 C – Annual Revisions 1898-1908
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/15 D – Annual Revisions 1909-1923
10. Irish Builder Vol. 9, 1 May 1867, p. 111
11. Ordnance Survey Memoirs Co. Down II Vol. 7, 1832-38
Secondary Sources

1. ‘Clergy of Down and Dromore’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996.
2. Kelly, D., ‘Lisburn’s rich church heritage: Churches and places of worship in the Lisburn city area’ Lisburn: Impression Print and Design, 2009.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Free-standing symmetrical neo-gothic gabled stone Church of Ireland church, built c.1865 to the designs of renowned architects Welland & Gillespie. A modest neo-gothic styled late nineteenth-century church with an austere interior and notably steep roof with exposed rafter ends, on an elevated and conspicuous site. Retaining all original fabric both internally and externally this church represents a good example of its type and a focal point for the local Church of Ireland communtiy.

General comments

Criteria R & S also apply.