St Patrick's RC Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small, plain, single storey gabled RC church of 1802, possibly built around the fabric of an earlier church of 1745. The building was extensively refurbished in the 1830s with the small gabled porch added in 1925. It is surrounded by a small graveyard, edged with mature trees, to the south-west side of which is a single storey vernacular dwelling of c.1835, originally the sexton’s house and vestry. The whole ensemble is situated in a secluded rural location, to the south of Barnfield Road, less than half a mile north of the small village of Milltown, c.2½ miles west of Dunmurry.

The front gabled elevation of the church faces W. To the centre of the gable there is a small gabled porch. To the front gable of the porch there is the entrance, which consists of a timber sheeted door set within a recess with splayed reveal and shallow pointed arch head. The arched head has a simple moulded archivolt above which there is a matching pointed arch ‘dripstone’ moulding. The latter moulding stretches between two diagonal buttresses (at each end of the gable itself). Recent electric light over doorway. To both the N and S faces of the porch there is a small pointed arch window. The porch roof is covered in concrete tiles. Rendered parapet with kneelers and stone cross to apex.

High on the gable of the main portion of the building there is a small roundel window with plain surround and moulded dripstone. The window is filled with stained glass.

To the N façade of the main portion of the church there are two pointed arch windows with plain surrounds and dripstone moulding. The windows are filled with stained glass. The S façade repeats this arrangement. The gable has a central grouping of three pointed arch windows set at a high level. The centre window is taller and the mouldings and surrounds (all as before) are linked. Below is a ‘stepped’ ‘cill course’ moulding. To the corners of the main portion of the building there are reducing angled buttresses.

The entire façade is finished in painted rough cast render with a smooth render base to the gables and porch and smooth rendered verge and eaves courses. The caps of the buttresses are also finished in smooth render.

The main roof is covered in concrete tiles (as porch) and has [?]rendered parapets with kneelers, and the apexes, small stone crosses. Small, cone topped fleche to ridge. Recent [?]PVC guttering and cast iron downspouts.

The church is surrounded by a small graveyard, with a small number of headstones (dating from the early 1800s onwards). The graveyard is surrounded to the N, S and E by mature trees. To the W side there is a low rendered wall with stone coping. The walling bends inwards to an entrance gate right in front of the church itself. The gate itself has simple square piers with shallow pyramidal caps and simply decorated wrought iron gates (possibly 19th century and undoubtedly made by a local blacksmith).

Historical information

Church and Sexton's House
The land on which this church sits was held by the O’Hamill (or Hamill) family in the 17th century. It is not known when a church was first built on the site but it is possible that a member of the O’Hamill family in holy orders, Rev Phelomy O’Hamill, built one here shortly after his ordination in 1667. At this point, and until the building of St Mary’s Church in Chapel Lane in 1784, the parish of Derriaghy, in accordance with its medieval boundaries, took in a large area to the south-west of Belfast as well as the town itself.

In 1744, during disturbances occasioned by the threat invasion of Young Pretender, the church was burnt. It was rebuilt the following year by Rev McMullan. Later evidence provided by the OS Memoirs (1837) states that the post 1745 church was 48ft long and thatched. The building was burnt again during the rising of 1798 and not reopened until 1802, by which time it had been reduced in length (to the present 36ft) and slated. It is not known whether the reduction in length involved the complete demolition of the structure and the construction of a new one, or simply the knocking down of part of the old structure; as the building is graded C+ (i.e. ‘old’) in the valuation of 1835, it is likely that much of the mid 18th century structure remained.

In 1836 the church was completely refurbished and the roof replaced at a cost of £100. The OS Memoirs of the following year describe the building as ‘lighted by 4 Gothic, 1 arch and two oblong windows…[with] the altar in the east end elevated some feet above the floor, and on the north side of it a small place enclosed by timber railing for the choir…’. ‘There is a good yard enclosed by a quickset fence and the exterior of it planted with forest trees. Entrance by a wooden gate and only one person buried in the yard’. The Memoirs do not mention the small dwelling to the south of the church (which acted as the vestry and sexton’s house), nor is the house shown on the OS map of 1832 or recorded in the valuation of 1835. It was in place by 1858, however, for it is shown on the OS map of that year.

The church remained its early 19th century form until the 1920s, when the porch was added. In 1984 electricity was installed, and following a malicious fire in 1986, the roof was replaced.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/1/64/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 64, 1832
2 PRONI VAL/1B/125 First valuation, Derriaghy, 1835
3 ‘OS Memoirs of Ireland- County Antrim II…’ ed Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p.104 [1837]

Secondary sources
1 Rev William Reeves, ‘Ecclesiastical antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore…’ (Dublin 1847)
2 Rev J. O’Laverty, ‘Diocese of Down & Connor ancient and modern vol.II’ (Dublin 1878), pp.342-53
3 Rev H.C. Marshall, ‘The Parish of Lambeg’ (Lisburn 1933), p.13
4 Information supplied by Mr Gerry Gordon

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Small, plain, single storey gabled RC church of 1802, possibly built around the fabric of an earlier church of 1745. The building was heightened slightly in the 1830s with the small gabled porch added in 1925. It is surrounded by a small graveyard, edged with mature trees, to the south-west side of which is a single storey vernacular dwelling of c.1835, originally the sexton’s house and vestry.