St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A large buff-pink sandstone Roman Catholic Church in uncoursed rock-faced rubble, with double-height hall, side-aisles, transepts, apsidal-end and two-storey sacristy to south, chapel to northwest and three-stage tower with broach spire to northeast. Built c.1880 and located south of the Newtownards Road east of Belfast city centre.

Pitched natural slate roof with decorative ridge crestings and weather-vane to apsidal-end, raised stone verges with kneelers and cross finial to gable. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on corbelled eaves. Walling is buff-pink Scrabo sandstone in uncoursed rock-faced rubble with ornamental Dumfries and York stone including a chamfered plinth and string courses; buttresses with ornate carved pinnacles to main elevation. Windows are paired mullioned and cusped lancets to side-aisles, with chamfered sills and alternating sandstone voussoirs; cusped oculus to clerestory and geometric tracery to north and apsidal-end.

The principal elevation is north-facing and gabled; entrances also to flanking bay at right, and three-stage entrance tower at left. Gable has two tracery windows each flanked by semi-engaged colonnettes with Corinthian capitals; surmounted by rose window at gallery level. Tracery windows are divided by a white marble statue of St Matthew on an ornately carved plinth and set into an ornately carved cusped Gothic niche. Diminutive statue to top of gable. Entrance comprises Romanesque-style portico with three pink sandstone semi-engaged half-columns having decoratively carved capital heads. Timber-sheeted double-leaf door with equilateral-headed transom light with vertical timber glazing bars. To either side of main entrance are pink sandstone insets with carved stone plaques. Tower has broach spire with lucarnes and weather-vane; paired louvered vents to third stage with semi-engaged colonnettes surmounted by oculus; Gothic blind arcade surmounted by cross finials and on a corbelled sill also to third stage; second stage has slender lancets to three sides; entrance to north has a portico as at main entrance, on a smaller scale with paired colonnettes (also to flanking bay at right).

Side-aisle to east is four sets of paired lancets wide, surmounted by clerestory six sets of oculus wide; to left at ground floor is transept with tracery triple window. South cheek has cusped oculus.

The apsidal-end to south has three sets of paired tracery windows. To left is the gabled sacristy, having chimney flue to centre, flanked by shoulder-headed windows to ground floor; west elevation has two cusped oculus to first floor; north elevation has a tracery triple window to first floor centre, triple square-headed mullioned window to ground floor left and timber-sheeted door with cusped transom light to ground floor right; each with relieving arches; entrance door is accessed by three enclosed masonry steps.

Side-aisle to west is four sets of paired lancets wide, surmounted by clerestory six sets of oculus wide; to left is the projecting canted bay chapel.

Setting:
Set on a large site south of the Newtownards Road opposite a housing executive estate, with late-twentieth century replacement red-brick terraced housing. Three-storey red-brick detached presbytery directly to south; lawned with shrubs and mature trees to north; enclosed by original decorative wrought-iron railings with Gothic stone piers and gates to north and east. Original twin entrance from north no longer in use; vehicular access to east with tarmacadamed driveway and parking area. Early memorial cross and shrine to ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’ to west (originally located to west wall which now has a modern replacement).

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Buff pink Scrabo sandstone in uncoursed rock-faced rubble
Windows: Mullioned and cusped lancets
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

St. Matthews Roman Catholic Church in Ballymacarrett was constructed in 1881, however the first edition Ordnance Survey Map and the associated memoirs indicate that there was a Roman Catholic Chapel on the Newtownards Road, located near to the current site, as early as 1832 (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down II, Vol. 7, p. 99). This early chapel was included in Griffith’s Valuation where it was valued at £45 and included a National Schoolhouse valued at £18. The Irish Builder records that plans for the construction of a new church were made as early as 1868, however it was not until 1881 that a site was purchased close to the earlier chapel and work got underway; on 23 October 1877 the Ulster Examiner stated that the 1830s chapel ‘is now the oldest in town, and though in good repair must soon be replaced by a much more spacious edifice’.

Construction of St. Matthews Church began in 1881 when the foundation stone was laid and the church opened shortly after, being consecrated on 24 June 1883 (Kernighan, p. 16). The Church was designed by Alexander MacAlister (c. 1821-1897), one of the leading church architects of Victorian Belfast who also designed a number of churches at locations throughout Ulster; the builder contracted to carry out construction was John McElhatton of Cookstown (Irish Builder, Vol. 10, 1 Nov 1868, p. 273; Vol. 23, 15 Apr 1881, p. 126; Dictionary of Irish Architects). In the 1880s the Rev. J. O’Laverty recorded that the new church measured 133 by 70 ft, possessing a tower and spire which rose to a height of 170 ft and was topped with a 12 ft wrought-iron cross. The original high altar and pulpit of the church were built in Caen stone by a Mr. J. W. O’Neill of Dublin, whilst the side altars were also constructed of Caen Stone by Messers Pearce & Sharpe of Dublin (O’Laverty).

The Annual Revisions first record St. Matthew’s in 1883 when it was valued at £300 and situated on land let by Lord Templemore (landlord of much of Ballymacarrett); in 1897 this value was lowered to £294 when a sexton’s house valued at £6 (now demolished) was given a separate valuation record. In 1906 Pottinger Ward was valued separately from the rest of Belfast’s city centre for the first time and the value of the church was increased to £410 at which it remained until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. The First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland carried out in 1935 recorded the value of the church had risen to £775; however by the beginning of the second revaluation in 1956 this had risen further as a result of inflation to £1,170. Under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act the value of the church was lowered to £936; subsequently this was deemed too low and in 1960 an application to revise was made resulting in an increase to £1,048; by the end of the Second General Revaluation in 1972 the value had risen further to £1,060.

Patricia Kernaghan records that the origin of the congregation dates from c. 1810 when Father Patrick Curran formed a catholic congregation in Newtownards; in the absence of a local church, Catholics from the townland of Ballymacarrett travelled miles each week to attend services at the chapel in Newtownards which was constructed in 1813. In 1828 a plot of land was purchased in Ballymacarrett by a Belfast Merchant who claimed that it was to be used for commercial purposes, however it was in fact intended for the construction of the Catholic Chapel which was constructed c. 1830 and dedicated on 13 March 1831. At that time the congregation consisted of around 350 parishioners, however by c. 1870 the local catholic population had risen to approximately 7,300 resulting in the construction of the new building which could accommodate the growing congregation (O’Laverty, p. 221; Kernaghan, pp 12-13). Shortly after its consecration in 1883 St. Matthew’s Church was given its own parish (pp 17).

Due to its position at the interface of the Newtownards Road St. Matthew’s Parish Church has witnessed many acts of civil unrest throughout its history, like the nearby Westbourne Presbyterian Church (HB26/08/006) has frequently been the target of attacks, the most violent of which occurred during the 1920s shipyard riots. (Kernaghan, pp 35-50).

During the early-1920s the congregation of St. Matthew’s Church declined in numbers due to civil unrest on the building during services. However, in the mid-1920s the local congregation returned to the church as attacks lessened. In 1927-28 the church was renovated and repairs were carried out on the spire costing a total of £200; at this time the church organ, built by Evans & Barr, was installed. During the 1941 Blitz St. Matthew’s Church was spared major damage, although much of the Newtownards Road was devastated during the Luftwaffe raid on the shipyards; the windows of the church were however shattered and were not replaced until the end of the war when renovation work was made on the damaged roof timbers as well as the shattered glazing. Later changes to the church included the addition of the original Lourdes Grotto which was completed in 1963 (this was constructed of brown Scrabo sandstone and included a portion of the rock on which Our Lady was purported to have stood), and the installation of a central heating system in the same year.

In 1983 the church celebrated the centenary of its consecration. St. Matthews Church was listed in 1987 and in the next year the church’s convent, which had stood for 90 years, was closed (demolished in 1991). During the 1990s a series of renovations were made to the church, the parochial hall and the church presbytery; the windows of the church were restored in 1996 and renovation work to the decayed exterior stonework was completed in 1998. The Lourdes Shrine, originally located against the western wall, was moved to the east of the church when a Celtic memorial cross was erected at the west wall commemorating all the members of the congregation who had lost their lives (Kernaghan).

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 VAL/2/B/7/1E – Griffith’s Valuation 1859
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/21 – Annual Revisions 1882-1896
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/28 – Annual Revisions 1897-1905 (1)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/30 – Annual Revisions 1897-1905 (2)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/3 – Annual Revisions 1906-1914 (1)
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/6 – Annual Revisions 1906-1914 (2)
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/11 – Annual Revisions 1915-1930
12. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/12 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
13. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/30 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
14. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down II, Vol. 7, 1832
15. Ulster Examiner (1877)
16. O’Laverty, J., ‘An historical account of the Diocese of Down and Connor: Vol. II’ Dublin, M. H. Gill & Son, c. 1880.

Secondary Sources

1. Kernaghan, P., ‘Watching for daybreak: A history of St. Matthew’s Parish, Belfast’ Belfast: Universities Press Ltd., 2000.
2. First Survey Record – HB26/08/007 (1987)

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

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
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A large buff-pink sandstone Catholic Church in uncoursed rock-faced rubble, with side-aisles and three-stage tower with broach spire, built c.1880 and located on a large site south of the Newtownards Road east of Belfast city centre. Externally the building has retained many of its original features with architectural detailing largely intact. Internally, the church has been refurbished in recent years, altering the original character and some of the historic detailing. Set on an attractive mature site with Presbytery to rear and enclosed by original decorative railings, gates and pillars. St Matthew’s has an important history dating back to the early nineteenth-century and is of considerable social importance and interest to the local community it serves.