St. Saviour’s C of I Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively simple snecked rubble-built gothic C of I church of 1868-69, incorporating a tower and spire which originally belonged to an earlier church of the 1770s. The building is set on a rise off Church Street on the northern edge of the village of Greyabbey.

The roof is covered with Bangor blue slates with decorative Cumberland green slate bands. All rw goods are cast iron.

The long N wall has two projecting bays, the right hand being the main entrance porch. On the N face of the porch are timber sheeted double doors supported on wrought iron hinge straps and set within an equilateral gothic arch opening with sandstone dressings, drip moulding and label stops. To each side of the porch is a small narrow window with sandstone dressings and small diamond panes.

To the right of the porch on the main wall are two tall lancet windows with small diamond panes and drip stone mouldings which merge into a string course. To the left of the porch are four tall lancet windows as before. The string course stops on a small buttress. Further to the left is the second projecting porch which houses the vestry. Surmounting the gable is a tall sandstone chimney stack. To the centre is a window composed of twin lancets surmounted by a quatrefoil, all set within a pointed arch opening with sandstone dressings. To the right face of the vestry is a door (as main entrance but single leaf and without dripstone moulding). The left face is blank. To the left of the vestry is a single lancet window as before but slightly shorter (higher cill) and without drip moulding.

The E gable has three tall lancet windows, as before but taller, and one small lancet window close to the apex.

The long S wall is filled with two lean to projections. The larger contains the side aisle and to the right of this is a much smaller porch and boiler house. The porch has an equilateral arch opening with simple sandstone dressings and a deeply recessed timber sheeted door. To the right of the door are paired lancet windows with sandstone surrounds. The roof of the porch lean to abuts the main S wall. The side aisle lean to to the left has a roof which dresses directly into the main roof. Its long S side has four sets of triple lancet windows with cusps, each with small diamond panes and sandstone dressings.

Rising from the main church wall at the junction of the two lean-tos is a large chimney stack, the lower portion of which is in rubble and tapers to the upper section which is in dressed sandstone. The upper section is oval in plan with two odd pots. At the SW corner is a short covered passageway which leads from the church interior to the base of the eighteenth century tower. The corridor has a pointed arch opening with sandstone dressings and sheeted door to the E and a triple lancet window, with sandstone dressings, to the W.

The four storey tower has a slightly corbelled and castellated parapet and a tall octagonal spire with quatrefoil openings to each face at the lower level and circular openings to each face at roughly half way up. The tower has two small round openings to each face at the third floor. At the second floor of the W there is a tall louvred lancet opening. The first floor of the E face has two tall flat headed windows with small diamond panes. To the ground floor of this side is a small shouldered arch opening with sheeted timber door. All openings on the tower have sandstone dressings. The lower half of the tower is strengthened with steel angles with are connected with welded steel bars.

The main W gable has a small pointed arch window opening over a large circular rose window which in turn is over three evenly spaced pointed arch windows with drip mouldings and string course. All windows have small diamond panes. The main corners of the walls are strengthened with double buttresses which reduce at upper levels. These are constructed of random rubble with sandstone dressings.

Historical information

The main body of this church was built in 1868-69 and replaced an earlier church of c.1770, the tower of which has survived. The new section was designed by English-born, Newtownards-based architect Henry Chappell (c.1832-1924) who appears to have been appointed an assistant county surveyor in c.1863 and who seems to have worked as a local architect for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

Construction work commenced in late July 1868 and the church wasconsecrated on 2 October 1869. The main contractor was 'Mr. Hanna' of Newtownards and the total building costs were estimated at 'about £2,500', £1,516 of which was supplied by the Commissioners with the remainder made up from voluntary contributions.

The original church was described in the OS Memoirs as ‘prettily situated but excessively small, dimensions 45 feet by 21 feet…[with] a small gallery for the use of the Montgomery family’. At this stage there was also a small schoolhouse just to the north of the church, which appears to have been founded by the Kildare Place Society in the eighteenth century.

References- Primary sources
1 Anonymous oil paint painting of Grey Abbey and its demesne c.1780, reproduced in "Grey Abbey Co. Down" by Jeremy Musson, 'Country Life', 30 October 1997 [This painting shows part of the original church and a small building which may have been the schoolhouse.]
2 PRONI VAL1B/33 First valuation, Greyabbey parish – c.1834-38
3 OS Memoirs, Greyabbey parish – c.1834
4 PRONI VAL2B/3/4 Second valuation, Greyabbey parish - c.1859
5 RCB Library Portfolio 12 Elevations and sections of ‘Greyabbey Church’ by Henry Chappell – 31 July 1868
6 'Belfast News-Letter' - 4 October 1869, p.4
7 'Downpatrick Recorder' - 9 October 1869, p.1

Secondary sources
8 Jeremy Musson "Grey Abbey Co. Down" in 'Country Life', 30 October 1997
9 Dictionary of Irish Architects - online at https://www.dia.ie/

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

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

Evaluation

Relatively simple snecked rubble-built gothic C of I church of the 1860s, incorporating a tower and spire which originally belonging to an earlier church of the 1770s.