St. Patrick’s RC Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Complex looking Church perched on top of a commanding rise on the E side of North Street, overlooking Newtownards town centre. This church was completed in 1877 and is basically gothic in style but with odd elements of Celtic Revival and Anglo-Saxon (and even Romanesque), all of which lend the building a complex, eclectic air.

The building is roughly rectangular in plan and single storey with a gallery. The facade is in squared Scrabo sandstone with red Dumfriesshire sandstone courses as dressings and quoins. All roofs are in Bangor blue slate.

The entrance is to the W gable end of the nave and consists of a relatively small pointed arch doorway with timber sheeted double doors set in a chamfered reveal. Directly above this is a large rose window with intricate tracery, and the left of the door is a small (almost slit) window, with a larger pointed arch window (with double lancets and quatrefoil), further to the left. To the right of the entrance is a projecting three sided stair tower with steep hipped roof and various slit windows. To the right of this is the W facade of a gabled ‘porch’ projection with three narrow cusped windows.

To the far left on the S facade is the gable of the ‘porch’ projection which contains a doorway (similar to the main entrance) above which is a small cusped recess which contains a statute, presumably of St. Patrick, in Portland stone. The gable is topped with a Celtic cross finial. To the right of this gable is the long facade of the lean to aisle section which runs along the side of the nave. This facade has three squat looking pointed arch windows each with triple lancets, trefoils and in fills. The S facade of the main nave (above the lean to roof) has a series of somewhat nautical looking roundel windows.

The N facade of the nave repeats the arrangement to the S but without the gabled porch projection. To the W the nave meets a squat tower with a pyramidal roof and roundel windows (as before). To the N and S faces of the tower are tall gabled transept projections each with a tall triple cusped windows with trefoils above, a large buttress to the W and a small lean to section beneath the windows. To the right side of the lean to on the S gable projection there is a small gabled porch with pointed arch doorway.

To the E face of the squat tower projects a large semicircular apse with a series of high level cusped windows with trefoils. To the N side of this (and also projecting from the short W face of the gabled projection on the N side of the tower), is a side altar section with semicircular W end with roundel windows.

To the S side of the apse is a gabled vestry projection with narrow rectangular windows and a tall, decorative chimney stack (mainly in Drumfriesshire sandstone) to the gable apex. There is a small lean to projection (with slit windows) to the left side of the gable itself. At the rear of this vestry section (and attached to the SW corner of the tower) is a round tower, which is taller than the main square tower. This round tower has a series of slit windows at two levels and a series of louvered, cusped openings at the highest level. Small ‘gabled-dormer’-like openings to the roof of the round tower.

Cast iron rw goods.

Historical information

This church was consecrated in October 1877. The building of the church was entirely financed by of the then Lady Londonderry, herself a Catholic. The church was renovated in 1962-3 and again 1988 after an arson attack.

References- Secondary sources
1 Trevor McCavery 'Newtown: a history of Newtownards' (Dundonald 1994), pp.148-150.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Somewhat complex looking but distinctive RC church of 1877, which though basically gothic in inspiration also displays an eclectic mixture of elements of Celtic Revival, Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque. The interior of this church has been altered slightly in recent times and now possesses a modernised altar area, the facade, however, is intact and well preserved.