Willowfield Parish Church of Ireland

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A large red-brick Victorian Parish Church, built c.1870 to designs by John Lanyon and extended c.1900; located on the west side of Woodstock Road east of Belfast city centre. Cruciform-plan on an east-west axis with side aisles (north aisle comprises four gabled bays); three-stage hexagonal bell tower with adjoining turret, apse and polygonal bay to east; projecting gabled entrance porches to east and west. Large modern extension (2007) to west.

Pitched natural slate roof with raised sandstone skews, finials and kneelers; brick chimney to gable of nave at east end. Lead linings to valleys. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on decorative brick eaves course; ornately carved gargoyle spouts to north. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick with projecting plinth, polychromatic brick courses and buttresses. Windows are leaded-and-stained glass lancets with cusped sandstone insets and chamfered sandstone sills (unless otherwise stated). Transepts have geometric rose windows with continuous sills, surmounted by diminutive lancets.

Entrance to north elevation, comprising transept and four projecting side bays; gabled entrance porch abuts hexagonal bell tower at left (see below); at far right is a projecting entrance porch opening to east and west, having angled buttresses, recessed timber-sheeted double-leaf doors with moulded sandstone lintels, and five grouped lancets set with a segmental-headed opening to north elevation. At left are masonry steps to basement, enclosed by red-brick-wall with masonry capping.

Three-stage hexagonal stair tower to east has narrow window openings irregularly arranged at first and second stage; abutted at right by the two stage turret; string course between second and third stage; belfry stage has pointed-arch openings in decorative chamfered recesses to all sides, surmounted by moulded cornice and castellated parapet.

The east elevation comprises full-height apse to centre, abutting the nave; to left is a single-storey polygonal bay abutting the south transept; to right is the hexagonal stair tower (recessed). Apse and polygonal bays have lead lining to hips and paired windows.
Side-aisle to south elevation is three sets of paired windows wide; abutted at left by modern extension (of no interest). Transept, at right, is abutted to east by gabled entrance porch containing timber-sheeted entrance door accessed by three enclosed masonry steps.

The west elevation comprises gable of nave and side aisle (lower and narrower); almost entirely abutted by the modern church hall and modern entrance porch.

Setting:
Prominently situated between Jocelyn Street and My Lady’s Road, to the west side of Woodstock Road, north and south faces brick terraced houses dating from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Rear is dominated by a large modern extension with small tarmacadamed car park. Set back from the main road with shrubs to east; enclosed by metal bollards and chains to all sides. Two-storey red-brick Manse to west, built 1875 also to designs by John Lanyon.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: English garden wall-bonded red-brick
Windows: Stained-and-leaded glass
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The Irish Builder records that Willowfield Parish Church on the Woodstock Road was constructed between 1871 and 1872 to designs by John Lanyon. Lanyon (1839 – 1900), the eldest son of Charles Lanyon, was a Belfast and Dublin based engineer and architect who was the chief architect to the Belfast and Co. Down Railway Co. and was principally engaged in railway engineering throughout his life, although he also designed a number of churches and secular structures in Belfast and Ulster (Dictionary of Irish Architects). The foundation stone for Willowfield Parish Church was laid in November 1871 and construction was completed a year later in August 1972 when the building was consecrated (Irish Builder, Vol. 13, 1 Dec 1871, p. 312). The Belfast Newsletter wrote that Willowfield was the seventh (and would turn out to be the final) church erected by the Belfast Church Extension Committee (Belfast Newsletter – 18 Nov 1871).

Lanyon also designed the redbrick Rectory to the rear of the Church on My Lady’s Road in 1874 which was valued at £45 in the Annual Revisions. The Church itself was valued at £170, remaining at that amount until c. 1906 by which time it had increased to £180 (in that year Ormeau Ward was first valued separately from the rest of Belfast city centre). The Church first appears on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Belfast in 1902 which depicts it as a rectangular shaped building situated at the corner of the Woodstock Road and My Lady’s Road with the Rectory to its rear. In 1927 the value of the church was increased to £207 when a new spire was added to the Church (the former had been taken down in 1912 – see below) and by the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935 the value of the church had risen substantially to £360. The second revaluation took place after the completion of the Second World War when the church was valued at £795; under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act this rate was reduced to £636 at which it remained until the end of the revaluation in 1972.

The site on which Willowfield Parish Church was erected was granted free of charge by William Mullan, a former Mayor of Belfast, who resided in the area (Rankin, p. 89). The decision to construct the church in the rapidly expanding area to the south-east of Belfast was made in June 1869; the building was originally designed to accommodate a congregation of 600 persons and cost a total of £3,838 to construct. Taylor records that the builders contracted to carry out John Lanyon’s designs for the Rectory were the Fitzpatrick Bros. who submitted a tender of £1,400 and completed the dwelling in 1875; another addition to the parish at that time was Willowfield National School which opened in 1879 (Taylor, p. 31).

When it was originally constructed Willowfield Parish Church was situated in a growing, but still predominantly rural area; between 1870 and the early twentieth century the Woodstock Road became a major suburban residential area resulting in the expansion of the Willowfield congregation. The church was therefore enlarged 1900-1901; the architect William G. Fennell extended the nave by 18 ft, increased the width of the south aisle and constructed an additional porch in the north-west corner of the building. The church reopened with its increased capacity in October 1901 (Taylor, p. 35-36).

John Lanyon’s original plans for Willowfield Parish Church intended for it to possess a spire; this was erected along with the building in 1871-72 however in 1884 the spire required extensive repair work and in 1912 the church architect W. J. Fennel recommended it should be taken down. It was not until 1926 that a new spire was erected to designs by a Mr. Robert Lynn. Taylor records that the new spire was a ‘steel frame enclosed in red pine covered with copper plates [and] rose to a height of 106 ft from ground level’ (Taylor, p. 45). This new spire was an appropriate addition to the church, the green copper pleasantly offsetting the redbrick masonry of the building; but in 1951 this spire also had to be removed when it became unsafe and since that time has not been replaced (Haines, p. 60).

The inter-war period saw a number of additions to the Church; the War Memorial Organ, dedicated to the 600 men from the parish that fought during the First World War (100 of whom died at the front) was installed in 1922 and was built by Messers Evans & Barr Ltd. of Belfast (Taylor, pp 42-43). In 1929, shortly after the new spire was added Willowfield was renovated with the enlargement of its chancel and the installation of a new electrical lighting system (p. 46). The construction of Willowfield’s Church Hall was a project that took time and suffered numerous delays. The first plans to construct a permanent Church Hall (the church had operated a number of temporary halls and smaller properties in the area, such as a mission hall in Ballarat Street since 1901) were presented as early as 1927; however, the plans for the current hall, situated across the Woodstock Road at the corner of Willowfield Gardens, were not accepted until May 1939. Construction was yet again delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War and it was not until 1954 that the foundation stone was laid. On 10 September 1955 after 27 years and a cost of almost £20,000 the hall was finally opened (pp 47-57).

During the Second World War Willowfield Parish Church escaped the worst damage of the Blitz, and in May 1941 the stained glass windows in the chancel were removed W. F. Clokey & Co. With the end of the war the church underwent a long overdue restoration project during the 1950s when £2,000 was expended by a Mr. Charles McAneary who repointed the brickwork, redressed the stonework and replaced all the damaged stone. Restoration projects continued into the 1960s when the Rectory was renovated in 1962, at a cost of £3,000, and in 1963-64 the inside of the church was refurbished with the installation of a new lighting and heating system and the complete redecoration of the interior (p. 58-59). The War Memorial Organ was given its own refit in 1967 when it was enlarged and electrified at a cost of £3,700 (Rankin, p. 89).

In recent years Willowfield Parish Church has undergone further restoration after wet and dry rot was found in the roof and floor timbers requiring two years of refurbishment; the church was reopened in 2007 after over £1 million was expended on repairs (Diocese of Down and Dromore website). A modern church hall extension adjoining the rear of the church, named the Micah Centre, was opened on 15 September 2007 (Willowfield Parish Community Association Autumn Newsletter - 2007).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1902
4. PRONI OS/6/3/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1920-21
5. PRONI OS/6/3/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1931
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/8 – Annual Revisions 1863 – 1881
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/17 – Annual Revisions 1882 – 1896
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/31 – Annual Revisions 1897 - 1905
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/K/4 – Annual Revisions 1906 - 1915
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/K/8 – Annual Revisions 1915 – 1930
11. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/25 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
12. Belfast Newsletter (1871)
13. Willowfield Parish Community Association Autumn Newsletter (2007)

Secondary Sources

1. Haines, K., ‘East Belfast: Paintings and stories from harbour to hills’ Donaghadee: Cottage Publications, 2001.
2. Rankin, F., ‘Clergy of Down and Dromore’ Belfast: The Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996.
3. Taylor, A. R., ‘Willowfield Parish Church Belfast: 1872-1972 Belfast: Unknown Publisher, 1972?

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Diocese of Down and Dromore - http://www.downanddromore.org

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

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
R. Age
S. Authenticity
U. Historic Associations

Evaluation

A large red-brick Victorian Parish Church with hexagonal stair-tower, apse and side aisles, built c.1870 to designs by John Lanyon and prominently situated on the west side of Woodstock Road east of Belfast city centre. A distinctive and lively design, the proportions and style of the north elevation is a good example of its kind and makes for an interesting composition. Architectural detailing is largely intact and the church has a relatively well-preserved Victorian interior. Although the setting has been altered by the addition of a large modern extension to the side and rear of the church, it continues to make a significant contribution to the surrounding area and is of considerable interest to the local community.