St John's C of I Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A small church in Gothic Revival style comprising a nave and chancel, with a gabled porch and a bell-cote. Main entrance faces north.

North elevation comprises four-bay nave with projecting gabled porch in right hand bay, with lower roofed chancel set back to the left. Roofs of red tiles in regular courses carried on exposed rafter ends with tongued and grooved soffits; cast iron gutters with rectangular cast iron downpipes, fixed with trefoil iron brackets. Terracotta finial to oversailing east gables of nave and chancel. Walls cement rendered with pebble dash finish, replacement for original pebble dash, on smooth cement rendered plinth; buttresses with smooth cement rendered weatherings, divide nave bays. Nave windows segmental arched with smooth cement rendered reveals; chamfered sandstone cills; windows timber three-light with cusped heads, with leaded glazing, incorporating a metal framed opening vent in central light; glass tinted translucent; protective wire grilles mounted over all windows in the church.

Main entrance is set in rectangular opening with rounded shoulders; original ledged timber door with decorative wrought iron hinges, original iron handle and escutcheon; doorway dressed in modern smooth cement, lined and blocked; apex of gable half-timbered, woodwork painted white. Oversailing eaves with white painted barge boards, tongued and grooved soffits, and shaped brackets. Terracotta finial to porch gable. East side wall of porch blank.

East gable of chancel has a triplet of Gothic arched windows dressed in sandstone with blocked surrounds; leaded glazing incorporating stained glass medallions. Oversailing eaves with curved brackets and plain timber barge boards; diagonal buttresses to extremities. Set back to left of chancel gable is small gable of vestry: contains semi-circular headed ledged timber door with original ironmongery as previous, set in semi-circular arched opening dressed with modern smooth cement rendered block surrounds; oversailing eaves as to chancel gable; two concrete steps.

South elevation comprises four-bay nave with four nave windows as previous to north elevation, with projecting gabled vestry to the right in angle between nave and chancel with roof continuous with main nave roof. One window in south face of vestry: segmental arched timber two-light with tinted translucent leaded lazing; concrete steps down to basement storey which contains rectangular ledged timber door. Modern tubular metal railing and modern iron gate to basement well.

West gable contains a large three-light window in a steep Tudor arch, dressed in sandstone with block surrounds; contains tinted translucent glazing containing medallions; storm proof glazing set against each lancet. Buttresses to each extremity of gable and shaped sandstone kneelers to raking copings which ramp up to a belfry which surmounts gable. Belfry finished in smooth cement render; comprises a Gothic arched opening hung with a bell, flanked by angled pilasters which rise from a pair of foliated sandstone corbels; datestone high in gable between pilasters, inscribed '1903'. Extending to left hand side is a low gabled entrance porch containing segmental arched window in west side; timber two-light window as in vestry.

SETTING: The church stands on a corner site, in its own grounds, facing the main road, with a gabled lychgate in line with the entrance porch. Concrete path around perimeter of church with lawns beyond. Trees and shrubs within the grounds add to the picturesqueness of the
setting. Boundary to south and to east is formed by thick hedge and chickenwire fence. Boundary to west and north, to main roads, is formed by a low wall finished with a wet and a dry dash of crushed stones, surmounted by plain modern spiked iron railings.
At east end of north boundary is a vehicular entrance with a modern iron railed gate mounted on plain piers; to west, in line with porch is a small pedestrian gateway with plain piers containing original ornamental wrought iron gate. Concrete path leads from gate through free-standing lychgate.

LYCHGATE: A large gabled structure of robust oak construction, painted, but rotting badly in places, on rendered base walls, smooth finished to inner faces and copings, but pebble dashed to exterior. Roof of red tiles carried on projecting rafter ends; cast iron gutters with cast iron downpipes, on painted fascias. Timberwork to front and rear faces comprises Gothic arched doorways with cusped heads to open sidelights. Timberwork to side faces comprises four cusp-headed traceried openings in a rectangular panel, surmounted by curving timbers to open gables. Original timber gate in front face: ledged and braced timber with fretted balusters.

Historical information

Built in 1903 to designs of the architect George H. Sands; contractor, T.A. Irvine of Glenavy; carved stonework and woodwork by Purdy & Millard; leaded windows and stained glass by Ward & Partners. The pulpit, lectern, prayer desk and chancel furniture were presented by J.M. Boyle-Glover, Vicar of the Parish, 1903. Church walls re-rendered and roof re-tiled during the 1980s. The original exterior wall finish was recorded as pebble-dashed; the original roof covering as Peak's red mottled tiles.

References - Primary Sources
1. Datestone on building.
2. Belfast News-Letter, 14 September 1903, p 5.
3. OS Map 1920, Co Antrim 59.

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

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

Evaluation

This is an Edwardian church in a Gothic Revival style which retains its original features to the inside and its original appearance to the exterior. Together with its lych gate it forms an attractive and picturesque group on a prominent corner site within the village.