St. Mary's Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Compact, and relatively simple gothic church of 1840 with three storey tower. The church is set back from the E side of The Square, surrounded by a graveyard, all originally the site of a medieval abbey.

The entrance doorway is to the ground floor of the S face of the tower. It consists of a pointed arch opening with chamfered sandstone reveal and recessed timber panelled double doors. Label moulding above doorway.

High above this entrance (roughly at first floor level) is a small roundel window with tracery, chamfered sandstone reveal and label moulding. Above and below this roundel is a projecting stone course. Above the upper course is a tall, louvered, pointed arch headed opening with twin lancettracery.

To the W face of the tower there is a tall pointed arch headed window with double lancet tracery and small lattice panes. Directly below this window (at ground level) the remains of a grave stone has been cemented into the wall. At first floor level there is a traditional round clock face (gold Roman numerals and hands on black background) to the first floor level and a louvered window to the uppermost level as on the S face. The N face of the tower has a similar window at this level also, as does the E face (which is only exposed at the uppermost level). The tower has another projecting stone course above the uppermost window and is topped with castellations and octagonal corner pinnacles.

The exposed sections of the E gable of the nave (either side of the tower) each have a single tall pointed arch window with lattice panes. The left hand window (i.e. to the exposed section to the N) has a red sandstone grave stone cemented to the wall directly below it. This gable has diagonal buttresses.

The N façade of the nave has two windows to right as to the ground level of the E face of the tower. There are small square, sandstone dressed, vents below the windows. To the left of these windows is a large projecting gabled transept. The W face of this transept has two windows as the nave. The gable of the transept is a large window with a shallow pointed arch head with perpendicular-like thick sandstone tracery. Below the window (at ground level- the ground slopes away to the N side of the church to reveal a semi-basement boiler house are three recessed windows with single fixed light panes with toughened glass. Flush sandstone cills to windows. To the left of these windows is a low plain timber sheeted doorway with louvered panel.

The E face of the transept is blank.

The E gable of the nave has a gable chancel projection with a window to its gable as the gable of the transept. The N and S faces of the chancel are blank.

The S façade of the nave has three pointed arch windows to the centre and left with similar vents beneath, with glazing as windows to N façade except that the 2nd and 3rd windows have stained glass. To the right side of this façade a modern style vestry extension with a mono-pitched roof. This is attached to the church via a short linking ‘corridor’.

The façades of the nave, transept and chancel are finished in lined cement render, the tower in rough cast. The lower part of the chancel façade is largely covered in ivy growth. The building has a chamfered base. The roofs of the nave, transept and chancel are covered in natural slate and have raised sandstone parapets with corbelled edges. The transept roof has a tall chimney stack (obviously relating to the semi-basement boiler house). Cast iron rw goods.

The church is surrounded by a graveyard with head stones dating back to the 17th century, at least, and including the large Andrews burial vault of 1867 (to the W side) (HB24/15/003). Around the chancel is a low rubble wall with simple wrought iron railings, all now largely covered in thick ivy growth. To the W of the church is a random fieldstone (greywacke) rubble wall with a gateway leading to The Square. The gateway has tall square pillars with decorative (but relatively simple) caps with ball pinnacles. The cap has an inscription to its base which reads ‘Thos. Andrews & Jas. Lemont CW (church wardens) 1774’. The gates are simple wrought iron affairs and appear to be early to mid 19th century. There is a wrought iron arch over the gates with a lantern at its apex.

Historical information

This church was built in 1840. It replaced an earlier one largely constructed in c.1620s by Hugh Montgomery, Lord of The Ards, from the ruins of a Cistercian abbey church which had been originally established in 1199. The older church is described in the OS Memoirs of 1837 as ‘a small, very old and oblong building…capable of accommodating about 300’.

The clock and a chandelier [which appears to have been removed] were presented by Viscountess Castlereagh in 1841. The rectory (which may have dated from the 18th century), originally stood to the south east of the graveyard, but was demolished some time in the mid 1900s.

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1991), p.28, 31-33, 35-36.
2 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
3 PRONI OS/2/3/10 OS map, 2nd ed. 1901, Down 10.

Secondary sources
1 ‘Archaeological Survey of Co. Down’ (Belfast HMSO 1966), pp.323-24.
2 R.S.J. Clarke ‘Gravestone Inscriptions Vol. 5’ (Belfast UHF 1970).
3 Norman Nevin ‘The Story of Comber’ (c.1980s) [Typescript in Comber library].
4. EHS SMR DOW 10/26

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Good example of a simple, compact single storey gothic church of 1840 with three storey tower and small modern vestry extension to the south. .