Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB22/08/001 A

Address :
St. Nicholas' Church of Ireland Church Lancasterian Street Carrickfergus Co. Antrim BT38 7FH

Townland:
Carrickfergus

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Survey 2:
A

Date of Listing:
25/02/1976 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
Yes

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
98-16SE

IG Ref:
J4130 8742

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Owner Category

Church - C of I

Exterior Description And Setting

A triple-height Norman Church of Ireland church, built c.1180 by John de Courcy, enlarged c.1305 to designs by Robert le Mercer, remodelled c.1615 to designs by Thomas Cooper and 1614 by master mason Thomas Paps, renovated 1907. Cruciform on plan, facing west; with nave and elongated chancel, full-height transepts to north and south, three-stage tower with spire to west, baptistry to south of nave, late-nineteenth-century double-height gabled organ loft and modern single-storey vestry to north of chancel. Pitched natural slate roofs, blue/black clay angled ridge tiles, dressed stone verges, crosses to transept and chancel apexes; parapet gutters with round cast-iron downpipes. Walling is random rubble basalt, moulded stone cornice. Buttresses are random rubble stone with dressed quoins and off
setting. Windows are pointed-arch-headed stained glass, sandstone Geometric-tracery with splayed flush sills (unless otherwise stated). Hoodmoulds are label ended. Principal (west) gable is centrally abutted by tower. Both exposed sections have V-jointed granite quoins, single stained glass oculus over square-headed casement with sill, all with splayed sandstone surrounds (left oculus blocked). Tower first stage has V-jointed granite quoins, moulded cornice with balustraded parapet and urns to corners; third stage has random rubble walling with central round-headed timber louvered aperture with dressed granite architrave and keyblock. Tower principal (west) elevation has ashlar walling with central square-headed replacement timber raised-and-fielded three-panel double-leaf door with modern overlight in moulded sandstone architrave with keyblock. Doorcase has triangular pediment with simplified Doric entablature over engaged Doric columns flanking door. Second stage has squared rubble stone walling (built to courses) with central dressed stone semi-circular relieving arch over pediment surmounted by Serliano window framed by Doric pilasters with simplified Doric entablature, keyblock and blocked sidelights. Tower cheeks are blank with first and second stage having squared rubble stone walling (built to courses). Spire is octagonal on plan with dressed stone and has modern clockfaces to principal compass points, surmounted by orb and cross. North elevation is abutted to left end by transept. Exposed section is abutted entirely (except to left end) by rubble stone buttress with single diminished window inset at left end; left end window is inset in dressed sandstone elliptical-arch-headed recess and has Decorated tracery. North transept gable centrally abutted by crypt porch. Exposed section is blank with ghostmark of slightly lower gable; angled buttresses. Both cheeks have two wall-head gables over pointed-arch-headed windows with splayed sandstone reveals and single buttress between. Crypt porch has pitched natural slate roof, blue/blank roll-top ridge tiles, roughcast walling, angled buttresses with terracotta offsetting. Gable has central pointed-arch-headed entrance opening, cement-rendered reveals, wrought-iron gate, diminished louvered door within (accessing Donegall and Chichester crypt); cheeks are blank. Rear gable is entirely abutted by chancel. Chancel has random rubble stone walling; gable has angled buttresses (left has remains of decorative carving), single-central full-height window with moulded sandstone reveals and hoodmould. Left cheek is four windows wide, each with Decorated tracery and decorative hoodmoulds; single buttresses between first and second windows at right; additional diminished cusped lattice-glazed lancet to extreme left end; blocked pointed-arch-headed entrance with dressed sandstone surround. Right cheek is abutted by modern vestry (of no interest) to left and organ loft to right. Exposed sections have excavated plinth to right end with single Decorated tracery window with hoodmould (label dated 1932), and similar window to extreme left end. Organ loft gable has bipartite lattice-glazed lancet with label-ended hoodmould and splayed flush sill over pointed-arch-headed timber door with moulded sandstone architrave (blocked by exposed boiler of no interest); cheeks are blank. South elevation is abutted to right end by transept and baptistry to centre. Exposed section has single pointed-arch-headed leaded painted glass window in moulded sandstone surrounds with block-label-ended hoodmould, brick elliptical relieving arch over; single diminished window over baptistry is surmounted by brick half-round relieving arch. Baptistry has elliptical-arched stone roof with moulded verges and cornice (with keystone), sandstone quoins; gable has central single round-headed tripartite stained glass casements (that to centre is taller) in recessed sandstone plate tracery with sill; cheeks are blank with various later eighteenth- and nineteenth-century wall-mounted memorial plaques affixed. South transept gable has angled buttresses, central full-height window with hoodmoulds. Cheeks are two windows wide with central single buttress. Right cheek has single window to left with Intersecting tracery and hoodmoulds, and single square-headed tripartite cusped casement with stop-ended labelmould. Left cheek has one complete double-height pointed-arched ghostmark to right and one partial to left; left end has square-headed tripartite window (detailed as right cheek), right end has single off-centre blocked square-headed window with splayed sandstone surround. The church is situated in an ancient churchyard enclosed by boundary walls containing numerous nineteenth-century mausolea, wrought-iron and cast-iron railing-enclosed family plots, cast-iron grave markers and seventeenth- to eighteenth-century gravestones and wall-mounted plaques. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Rubble basalt Windows: Pointed-arch-headed stained glass, sandstone Geometric-tracery, splayed flush sills Rainwater Goods: Half-round cast-iron gutters

Architects

Historical Information

St Nicholas Church was built in c.1180, by John de Courcy. According to the current honorary secretary of St. Nicholas the chancel is dated 1306, and the nave, south transept and north aisle were built c.1180. The original structure consisted of nave, south transept and north aisle, with ground levels around eight feet lower than at present. A chancel was added by Robert Le [Mercer] in 1306. (Brett, McAuley & Hill). The church was burned by rebels in 1606 and remodelled c.1614 by Thomas Cooper and Thomas Paps (for Sir Arthur Chichester). They re roofed the structure but shortened the nave, demolished the aisles and blocked the aisle arcades [and these]….repairs lasted until the 12th of January 1712 when the chancel roof collapsed. During this period Mayor Samuel Davys Alderman opened the east window’ (Hill, pg 6-8). Cooper and Pas also demolished the church office, the south transept and rebuilt the north transept over a crypt. The vestry was added in the 18th century and rebuilt in the mid twentieth century. (Brett, McAuley & Hill). Hill describes how "efforts at establishing St Nicholas' as a Norman church instead of one from its seventeenth century remodelling date back to an 1872 report by the eminent Sir Thomas Drew to Bishop Knox. In addition Mr W. H. Lynn carefully measured the arches within the church in 1890 and concluded they were round and not pointed but thought the column capitals to be Early English and not Late Norman". (Hill, p 5) Lawlor concluds in 'Ulster: Its Archaeology and Antiquities' that Carrickfergus [church] dates from the same period as one in Staindrop, Co Durham, where the nave is closely dated to c.1185. Lawlor concluded that the capitals and arches were Late Norman and "…the original plans of both the churches - Staindrop and Carrickfergus - with circular arches and their cylindrical columns, and with four chapels on the east side of the transepts, are practically identical’. He adds "so precisely alike are they, that one would think they were planned by one architect, and certainly that they are of the same period" (Hill, p5). Hill notes that the church is often connected with a monastic site but that it is now known that the church existed well before the Franciscan friary (c.1232-1233) on the present site of the town hall. He cites a letter of complaint dated 1220, from Bishop Reginald to Henry III regarding the gifting of the church to the Abbey of Woodburn by John de Courcy. (Hill, p 4-5). St Nicholas' Church is recorded on James O’Kane’s survey map of Carrickfergus of 1821. It is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and is captioned ‘Church’; its layout is identical to the current form. James Boyle’s OS memoirs from 1840 describe the church: "there are two entrances to the church, one by the belfry and the other by a doorway at the western side of the church". The stained window in the east side "represents John baptising Christ. It was brought from the private chapel of [Dangan?] House, Co Meath in 1800 and presented to the parish by the late George Burleigh of Burleigh Hill". (Boyle, p 23). Boyle is unclear on the date of the church claiming its origins are "…wrapped in obscurity… [but] a belief exists that it was founded on the site of a pagan temple…" (Boyle, p24). Apparently it is supposed to have been "the oratory of a chapel of a Franciscan monastery which stood on the site of the present gaol. This conjecture is rendered more probable by the circumstance of there having been a subterranean passage leading from one to the other, a distance of yards…" (p. 24). The entry of this passage is said to be in the east gable of the church but at the time Boyle was writing it was impossible to explore the passage for more than 3ft. (p 25). It is on this basis that Hill dismisses this idea as "a Victorian-era rumour that first appeared in McComb’s ‘Guide to Belfast’ of 1861". (Hill, 5). Boyle writes that in 1812 the roof of the west part of the church collapsed and was entirely re-roofed (excluding the north aisle section); thorough repairs were also carried out in 1818 (Irish Architectural Archive), with the aisles being newly flagged and a number of windows re-fitted and repaired. An organ was erected by subscription in 1830. (OS mem p 26). The Valuation Revisions do not list Lancastrian Street. It is likely that a church entered under exemptions in Market Place refers to St. Nicholas'. The entry records a Church and grave yard, valued at £43. In 1907, a "complete renovation and repair of the church reveal[ed] various ancient architectural remains which were embedded in the walls. These have been restored and left exposed to view, and include eight beautiful late Norman column, the arches springing there from being semi-circular and not pointed; these are to be seen in the Nave and Chancel entrance and Wills aisle [South Transept]." (Hill, p8) A plaque found in the new vestry (1960s) was removed from the original vestry, and reads "vestry room erected at expense of Richard Dobbs, Dean of Carrick 1787". References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI D/1954/6/13 –James O Kane’s Map of Carrickfergus (1821) 2. PRONI OS/6/1/52/1 -First Edition OS Map (1832) 3. PRONI OS/6/1/52/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1857) 4. PRONI OS/6/1/52/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1901-2) 5. PRONI VAL/12/B/7/7A-C Valuation Revisions (1894-1929) 6. OS Memoirs: Vol 37-Carrickfergus:James Boyle, 1840, pg 23 Secondary Sources 1. C.E.B. Brett. Buildings of County Antrim, UAHS, 1996, pg 29. 2. Drew, Thomas. Ancient church of St Nicholas, Carrickfergus, Diocese of Connor: A report to the Right Rev. Robert Knox. Dublin: E. Ponsonby & Belfast: L.W Erskine Mayne, 1872. 3. Emerson, George. A Historical Sketch of Carrickfergus. London: Montgomery, 1848. 4. Hill, Edwin Darley. A Historic and descriptive guide relating to the ancient church of St Nicholas, Carrickfergus, Diocese of Connor - Northern Ireland. Belfast: Aiken & Son, 1932. 5. Irish Architectural Archive. 'Dictionary of Irish Architects' [Internet Source] Available from: Accessed 20/05/09. 6. McAuley, Ted. Parish of Carrickfergus St Nicholas Church: A view of St Nicholas’s Church as I see it. Pamphlet, undated.

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

Historic Interest

V. Authorship W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A large evolved twelfth-century Church of Ireland church, one of a few surviving pre-Reformation parish churches in Northern Ireland and containing one of the finest Jacobean funereal monuments in Ireland in the form of the Chichester Memorial. The church has a well-documented history that connects it with most of the key events in Carrickfergus and many in Ulster. Although the church has been much restored, the exterior remains impressive and displays different periods of wall construction and windows; while the spire dominates Carrickfergus. The interior possesses many memorials and historic objects of considerable merit, including an exposed Late Norman arcade in the nave, several ghostmarks of earlier works and a rare Flemish sixteenth-century window of painted glass. Together with the boundary wall and historic graveyard, and enhanced by the twentieth century gate tower (HB22/08/001B), the church forms an evolved grouping of artistic, archaeological, architectural and historic interest, central to the development of the historic settlement of Carrickfergus.

General Comments

Record renumbered previously HB22/08/001.

Date of Survey

06 December 2008