St. Finnian's Church of Ireland

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A double-height Gothic-style church built 1932 to the designs of W.D.R. Taggart. Nave with side aisles, chancel, tower and vestries. Located adjacent to the Knock carriage-way to the north, accessed from Cregagh Park, south-east of Belfast city centre.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles. Cast-iron ogee gutters; hopper-heads (inscribed “1932”) and circular downpipes. Octagonal ashlar chimney with single clay pot. Squared rubble uncoursed sandstone with chisel margins at corners; red sandstone ashlar dressing including projected plinth, moulding string course and saddle-back coping. Pointed-arched stained glass windows; cusped Y-tracery; long-and-short surrounds; chamfered cill; hood moulding with stops. Pointed-arched double-leaf panelled timber entrance doors; faux strap hinges; deep-moulded archivolt; long-and-short surround with chamfer stops; hood mouldings with stops.

The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged. Abutted at ground floor level by single-storey lean-to aisle; four windows wide separated by single-stage buttresses; gabled porch to the left; skew table with ashlar shoulders; single-stage diagonal buttresses; arrow-loop over entrance. Five paired diminutive pointed-arch lattice-leaded clerestory windows over aisle. Symmetrical three-stage tower abutting at right; double-height single-stage diagonal buttresses; triplet lattice-leaded pointed-arch window at ground floor, rising to string course; arrow-loop with long-and-short ashlar surrounds to second stage; timber louvered pointed-arch with hood moulding to third stage; surmounted by drip course with plain gargoyles and crenellated parapet; pyramid slate roof with finial. Single-storey parapetted vestry located at the re-entrant of the tower east face and the chancel (see east gable).

The west gable is symmetrically arranged; two-stage angle buttresses; skew-table ashlar shoulders, kneelers and apex cross. Ground floor abutted by single-storey parapetted semi-octagonal facetted baptistery; single pointed-arched stained glass window with hood mouldings to each face and continuous moulded drip-course; hipped roof over. Baptistery flanked by two matching single windows. Triplet upper west window comprising central Y-tracery flanked by elongated single windows; continuous drip moulding and central arrow-loop over.

The north elevation is asymmetrically arranged; largely matching the south elevation, the aisle is three windows wide; single-storey abutting choir vestry on the left (see east gable).

The east gable is abutted by a semi-octagonal chancel. The central face comprises a pointed-arched window with tripartite intersecting cusped Y-tracery; flanked by two-stage tracery; pointed-arched window with cusped Y-Tracery to the northeast and southeast faces. The north cheek of the chancel is abutted by a single-storey, parapetted choir vestry with faceted east elevation, each face comprising a single pointed-arched window. The north elevation is three bays wide separated by single-stage buttresses; Y-tracery lattice leaded windows to the centre and left and double-leaf timber door to the right; chimney to the far left rising above the parapet level. The south cheek of the chancel is abutted by a smaller vestry and tower (see principal elevation). The vestry is generally matching in style to the choir vestry; single windows to the northeast and east face; door to the southeast and paired single windows to the south. Stepped access to basement below choir vestry located to the right of the chancel.

Setting:

The site is bounded to the north and west by hedgerow; the south is bounded by a masonry retaining wall to the Knock carriageway. The site is access via iron railings and piers; vehicular access from west leading to a small car park adjacent to the chancel and pedestrian access from the south accessing a tree lined path flanked by well maintained lawns. West of the church is a hall dated 1939; modernist double height red bricked with distinctive ventilation lantern; replacement windows and largely extended to the rear. To the east is a small garden of remembrance.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Uncoursed squared rubble sandstone
Windows: Stained glass/leaded
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

St Finnian’s dates from 1931-2 and was constructed to designs by W D R Taggart by contractors J & R Thompson Ltd. (Irish Builder) Taggart was the designer of numerous suburban homes in Belfast as well as some schools in his post as architect to the Antrim Regional Education Committee. His other notable ecclesiastical commission was St Bartholomew’s in Stranmillis Road. (www.dia.ie)

The district of Cregagh had begun to develop as a result of the population boom experienced by Belfast in the late nineteenth century and the new tramway which served the Cregagh, Castlereagh and Ormeau Roads. As late as 1928 the lower reaches of the Cregagh Road were still inhabited by dairy farmers ‘who sold milk daily off spring carts in the streets of Belfast’, but gradually the whole area became residential. Cregagh was initially part of the parish of Knockbreda but attendance at the church from the new houses at Cregagh was low and a hall was established on the Knockbreda road at McCaughan Park with services conducted by a curate from Knockbreda. The new inhabitants of Cregagh, a rising middle class of shopkeepers, minor civil servants and tradesmen and those who occupied the ex-servicemen’s colony constituted a large new centre of population that was in need of provision in terms of churches, schools and other facilities. The boundary for a new parish of Cregagh was determined, a curate-in-charge appointed and the decision was made to build a new church in September 1928. The site chosen was a plot of land that had been leased from the Marquess of Downshire by a parishioner, Mr Ewart, in 1908 and reserved for the building of a church. The parish committee obtained the land from Mr Ewart’s estate and the Marquess and in due course W D R Taggart was retained as architect for the new building which was to seat 600. The eventual cost was £12,370. (Hammond)

In September 1931 the foundation stone was laid and a year later the church was consecrated ‘on probably the finest site occupied by any church in Belfast’. The church was built of Ballycullen stone from the Scrabo quarries with dressings of red Aspatria stone. The interior columns and arches are of reconstituted Bath stone and the floor of the nave is laid with wood blocks and white Sicilian marble tiles. The bronze communion rail and the oak pulpit were the gifts of the architect. (Hammond) The church is first shown on the seventh edition of the OS survey (1938) and enters valuation records in 1933 as a church and yard valued at £253. (Annual Revisions)

In 1938 building work commenced on a new parochial hall, also to Taggart’s designs and this was opened in March 1939 at a cost of £2,694. The hall was added to valuation records in 1940 at a valuation of £100. An extension was added in 1971. (Hammond, www.dia.ie; First General Revaluation)

Saint Finnian’s attained parochial status in 1946, but a growing population in the area led to pressure to build an auxiliary church, the church of the Pentecost at Mount Merrion (HB25/11/003A) which was completed in 1956. Cregagh parish provided 50% of the building cost and Mount Merrion became a separate parish in1962. (Hammond; Clergy of Down and Dromore)

In 1953 oak panelling and further furnishings were installed in the church interior. A new organ was installed in 1959 at a cost of £3,000. The stained glass was, for the most part, presented in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. (Hammond)

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/9/7 – Seventh Edition OS map (1938)
2. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/4/2 – Annual Revisions (1930-35)
3. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/9 – First General Revaluation (1936-1937)
4. Irish Builder Vol 71 21st December 1929, p.1138
5. Irish Builder Vol 72 4th January 1930, p.27
6. Irish Builder Vol 72 22nd November 1930, p.1055

Secondary Sources

1. Hammond, D “St Finnian’s, Cregagh, The Story of the first fifty years 1932-82”
2. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996
3. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A double-height Gothic-style church built 1932 to the designs of W.D.R. Taggart. Erected to provide an important role within a newly developed community. The church sits within a well maintained landscaped site and is enhanced by an adjacent Parochial Hall erected in 1939. Although the church is of a modest scale, all its essential components are retained and the gothic-style and proportion is enhanced by well planned grounds. St Finnian's makes a significant contribution to the historic character of the area and is of considerable social importance and interest to the local community.