St. Patrick’s RC Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Complex looking, two storey RC church which began life in 1762 as a simple rectangular structure, but which has grown over the years and is now roughly cruciform with a four storey bell tower and overall gothic styling. The church is located on the Ballyphilip Road, tucked behind Windmill Hill half a mile south east of the town of Portaferry.

As stated above, the church is basically cruciform in plan with a bell tower in the south east angle. The bell tower and the E facing gabled projection are faced with snecked sandstone, whilst the remainder of the building is finished in plain render and painted. All ‘end walls’ (i.e. nave and transepts) are gabled. The building is now entered from a doorway to the W end of the nave, with secondary entrances to the transept porches. The main entrance was formerly that to the E face of the tower.

The four storey bell tower itself culminates with a crenellated and pinnacled parapet. Each corner is finished with two right angle stepped buttresses, all of which are capped with a small decorative gable. To the E face of the tower is the main entrance, which consists of a timber sheeted double door set in a pointed arch (all openings are pointed arch and all windows have stained glass- unless otherwise stated). To the first floor is a cusped recess containing a statue of St. Patrick. The heads of both the recess and the doorway at the base of the tower are finished with label moulding and stops. To the second floor is a group of three narrow windows with stained glass. To the third floor are two tall belfry openings. To the second and third floors are several bands and string courses. The uppermost band (just above the belfry openings has decorative pointed 'dentilling'.

The second and third storeys of the N, S and W faces of the tower are as the E face. To the gound floor of the S face is a single narrow window, whilst to the first floor are two smaller windows. The N face is only exposed at second and third storey level. The W face is abutted at ground and first floor level by a narrow gabled porjection, which is sandwiched between the tower and the a large two storey projecting gable. The smaller projection has a narrow paired windows.

To the immediate right (N) of the tower is the front (nave) gable. This projects slightly beyond the line of the tower itself. The gable has buttresses as the tower. To the ground floor are three windows with cusped heads and stained glass. To the first floor are two much larger windows flanking a central (and larger) pointed arch recess. This whole first floor ensemble have linked label moulding and rest on a cill course. Small roundel near gable apex, cross finial to apex. The N façade of this section has a single cusped window to the ground floor, as gable. To the right of this the façade is abutted by a small, single storey, gabled porch (which actually extends from the N transept).

To both N and S are gabled (transept) projections of similar size as that to front, but much plainer. Each has two high level first floor windows, with two much taller windows to the N façade of each. To the S façade of each is a lean-to porch (whose roofs join neatly with the pitch of the main roofs of the projections). To the W face of each porch is a doorway with panelled double doors with fanlights. To the N face of the N porch and the S face of the S porch is a high level window. To the left on the W façade of the N transept is a stone panel which reads 'IHS All you good christians pray for ye benefacters of this chapel which was biult by the massons Dorians and M[stone broken] Henery Murland carpenter AD 176[?2]'.

The W gable of the nave has a single storey gabled porch/boiler house to ground floor with louvered door to S face and tall window to W face. To the N face is a large panelled double door. To the first floor of the main nave gable are three windows, with that to the centre taller. To the right on this gable there is a projecting chimney breast (relating to the boiler).

The S façade of the rear end of the nave has a single window to the ground floor and two to the first floor. The N façade has two windows to each floor. The roof is entirely covered in Bangor Blue slates with stone parapets and cross finials to the nave gables. Decorative cresting to ridge. Plain galvanised metal fleche to intersection of roof. Cast iron rw goods.

All of this building was originally faced in stone and had substantial gothic decoration, such as crenellated parapets (at eaves and gable), stone finials at transept gables and label and label stops to window heads, all of which appear to have been removed during the last renovation (c.1990). The pinnacles to the tower used to be much taller also.

To S and W of the church is a large graveyard, to the N a large car park. To the E is a low rendered wall interpersed with octagonal pointed piers and wrought iron railings.

Historical information

This church is situated on the site of a Mass House built in 1704. The original section of the present building was constructed in 1762 at the behest of the then Parish Priest Rev. James McTeggert. Masons named Dorian worked on this structure along with a carpenter named Henry Murland, and all are remembered on a date stone (dated 1762) preserved to this day on the wall of the church. Originally there was a large single storey house for the priest just to the north of the church.

In 1831/2 the church was repaired, extended and re-roofed at a cost of £600. This refurbished building was described in the OS Memoirs a few years after this as 'a large chapel with an uneven amount of windows, amounting in all to 23…The actual outlay for the present chapel was about 600 pounds, a very small sum considering its size, but is accounted for by a portion of the former chapel answering for the present and stones drawn and work done by members of the congregation gratis…There are 33 seats in bad repair at present. There are not any seats in the remaining part of the chapel. It is the intention of the parish priest, to raise a subscription for seating the chapel throughout. The architecture cannot be called the plainest, for the number of windows, small memorials, long and narrow, would contradict the statement. The exterior is ornamented with 2 false clocks and a sundial. The chapel might accommodate 1,500. The shape and dimensions are [ground plan, main dimensions 79, 24 and 33 feet, "T" shape]'.

In 1845 the present nave was added (at right angles) and the altar shifted from the north gable to the east side wall. The sloping galleries were also added at this time. The man behind these changes was Rev. James Killen, who also extended the graveyard and commissioned Dublin architect Timothy Hevey to design new altars in 1879.

In 1914 the bell tower, sacristy and side chapels were added (to designs by E & J Byrne of Belfast) as was the tall gothic arch, with a new altar installed in 1923. The church was re-roofed in 1947 and the Lourdes grotto added to the church yard in 1955. A baptistry was inserted in the west wall around this time also.

In 1990 further major renovations were carried out with the rendering of the transept and the west end of the nave and the construction of a porch.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.552 Savage/Nugent Papers [This collection contains many documents relating to Portaferry and the surrounding area]
2 Linen Hall Library ‘Pigot & Co.’s Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory’ (Manchester 1824)
3 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams
(QUB 1991), p.10
4 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
5 PRONI VAL/1B/37 1st valuation, Ballyphilip, c.1835-38
6 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.520-23
7 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65],
Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
8 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.592-95
9 PRONI OS/6/3/32/2 OS maps, 1st rev., 1860, Down sheet 32
10 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1863 [in print]
11 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870), pp.341-43
12 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886)

Secondary sources
1 St. Patrick’s Church Ballyphilip 1762-1962 [Souvenir booklet] (Portaferry, 1962), pp.32-33, 39
2 G. Philip Bell, C.E.B. Brett, Sir Robert Matthew, 'Ulster Architectural Heritage Survey: Portaferry & Strangford'
(Belfast UAHS 1969)
3 'Guide to places of interest in Portaferry and the Upper Ards' (Upper Ards Historical Society, ?1995)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

RC church which began life in 1762 as a simple rectangular structure, but which has grown over the years and is now roughly cruciform with a four storey bell tower and overall gothic styling. In 1990 the building was completely renovated, and in the process the transepts and west end of the nave were rendered and their gothic detailing, including castellated parapets, removed. Despite these alterations the church has definite architectural and historic interes.