Killinchy C of I Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively small, plain and compact, single storey gothic church with tower, of 1830, perched prominently on a hill at the N end of Killinchy village. In recent times the facade has been rendered with ‘salt & pepper’ pebbledash, which has somewhat devalued what is otherwise a simple rural church.
At the W end of the church is the three storey buttressed and pinnacle tower. The entrance is located on the ground floor of the S face of the tower and consists of a timber sheeted door set within a pointed arch opening with chamfered sandstone reveal and label moulding over. High above the door is a small diamond shaped inscribed panel. Above this (at second floor level) is a pointed arch louvered opening. The W and N faces of the tower each have a similar opening to the second floor with a similar (but slightly taller) window to the first floor on the W face, with small leaded lights. Narrow projecting course to second floor. The tower is topped with battlements and four tall pyramidal pinnacles.
The N and S facades of the nave each have three tall pointed arch windows with small diamond lights and decorated tympanum. Coloured glass to windows.
To the E end of the nave is a small projecting chancel with large pointed arch window, with decoration similar to previous. Attached to the chancel is a lean to vestry/office with low level timber door on E facade leading presumably to a boiler house. On the N facade are two flat arch windows with sash frames.
The whole facade is finished in pebbledash render with smooth cement render to wall edges and as narrow surrounds to windows. The nave roof is gabled and covered in Bangor blue slates
Render curving wall with simple wrought iron railings to W and N of church. Scruffy stone gate pillars to W with simple wrought iron gate.
Graveyard to S with headstones dating back to at least 1672.
On the W side of the narrow road to the immediate W of this church is a fairly recently built estate of single storey houses in grey brick whose closeness somewhat mars what would otherwise have been a quiet rural
setting.

Historical information

There has been a church on this general site since early Christian times, the name ‘Killinchy’ translating as ‘church of the island’, a reference possibly to the prominent position of the site itself. The church is mentioned in Pope Nicholas IV’s taxation list of 1306, when it was valued at 20 shillings, but disappears from the sources until 1622, when Sir James Hamilton came into possession of the area. At this stage the church is reported as being in ruins, however it is unclear whether it was totally rebuilt or simply repaired by Hamilton, the only comment on its appearance dating from over a century later when Walter Harris noted that it was ‘seated on a high hill and therefore called by some in jest “The Visible Church”’. In or around the period Harris was writing, c.1740s, the then minister, Rev. Hamilton Traill, built a rectory a short distance to the east.
The present church was built in 1829-30 at a cost of £1,200, with £800 raised by subscription. The siting of the new edifice was not exactly the same as the old, however, as the OS memoirs of 1833 noted that the former church had ' become much dilapidated [and] is un-roofed’.
The pebbledash render may have been added in the 1960s.

References- Primary sources
1 “Ecclesiastical taxation of the dioceses of Down, Connor and Dromore”, ed. William Reeves in 'Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore ed. William Reeves (Dublin 1847).
2 PRONI DIO/124/1 ‘The state of the Diocese of Down and Connor, 1622, as returned by Bishop Robert Echlin to the royal commissioners’, copied from TCD E.3.6 by William Reeves.
3 'The Ancient and Present State of the County of Down' by Walter Harris (1744), p. 76.
4 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p. 91.
5 PRONI OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 17.
6 PRONI OS maps 1st rev. 1859-60, Co. Down 17.

Secondary sources
1 Rev. J. O’ Laverty 'Diocese of Down and Connor Ancient and Modern Vol.I' (1878, reprinted 1980), p.347.
2 R.S.J. Clarke (compiler) 'Gravestone Inscriptions Vol.6, County Down, Barony of Dufferin' (UHF Belfast [?1974]), pp.9-46.
3 Honor Rudnitsky 'Killinchy parish church' (local publication 1980).
4 C.E.B. Brett 'Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of East Down' (UAHS 1973), pp.44-46.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Simple rural parish church of 1829/30 which retains its late Georgian character. Prominently set on a hill on the north side of Killinchy village.