Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB23/07/007 A

Address :
St Comgall's Parish Church of Ireland Hamilton Road Bangor Co Down BT20 4LE

Townland:
Coroporation

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
06/01/1975 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
115/12

IG Ref:
J5062 8165

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Owner Category

Church - C of I

Exterior Description And Setting

Double-height Gothic Church built c.1880 to the design of W.H. Lynn. The spire was added to the tower c.1900. Plan form; barn-style rectangular nave adjoining aisles, tower and vestry accommodation. Located in the centre of Bangor town at the convergence of Castle Street, Hamilton Road and Main Street. Adjacent to listed building, Bank of Ireland HB23/05/028. Replacement pitched natural slate roof; clay ridge tiles. Cast-iron, box section rainwater goods painted red. Walling squared rubble basalt with red sandstone double plinth, string & corbel courses, quoins & dressings. Windows are stained glass/leaded light inset to sandstone surrounds. Main church body windows are principally paired lancets with sandstone hood moulding. The doors are vertical timber sheeted; some remaining wrought iron strap hinges and ironmongery set into ordered gothic-arched surrounds. The gabled principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged. Dominated by a tripartite arrangement of central tall round arched window flanked by gothic arched windows, crowned by a large eight-piece rose window; small trefoil window inset into lozenge located in the gable head. Two-stage lateral buttressing with gablets. Sandstone coping with gablets over shoulders. Continuous sandstone cill and hood moulding course. The north elevation is abutted by the north aisle comprising five-bays and two-stage square plan tower with spire at north-west corner. First stage is double height with lateral two-stage buttressing; single plate tracery window to west face at ground floor level; paired sandstone quadralobe blanks; small lancet-arched windows to upper portion. Second stage; large paired timber louvers set into paired ordered gothic openings. Tower surmounted by broach spire with lucarnes on alternating facades; surmounted by ball finial and cross. Entry into the tower is via small shouldered door located at the foot of the right hand buttress on the west face, rising to a projected octagonal turret housing a spiral staircase accessing the bell ropes. Former principal entrance to the main body of the church located at ground floor on the north face of the tower; gabled porch with sandstone dressings embracing deep gothic arched opening with ordered composite circular columns rising to impost and archivolt. Ashlar sandstone internal walls with cusped statuary niches; timber sheeted door with round arched stained glass overlight; inset to large cusped opening with moulded surrounds embraced by carved sandstone gothic arch with columns and imposts to match porch entrance; served by three replacement sandstone steps flanked by wrought-iron hand rails with scrolls. Five bays left of tower partitioned by single-stage lateral buttresses with stained glass windows. East gable face of north aisle has a tall plate tracery stained glass window; single lateral buttress to right hand side, surmounted by sandstone gablet. The east gable is abutted by two bay gabled chancel. North face of chancel matches north aisle. East facing gable end comprises three tall gothic-arched stained glass windows with small trefoil opening central to apex; flanked by single-stage lateral buttress surmounted by sandstone gablet. South face of chancel abutted on left hand bay by two-storey gabled projection with extended mono-pitched single-storey projection across right hand bay; diminutive lateral buttress to right hand corner; various cusped and square-headed window openings throughout; access to vestry location to left hand side of single-storey projection; all details and materials matching. Further 1 ½ storey gable ended projection with catslide at a lower pitch, extending southwards; large circular sandstone chimney rising from diminutive buttress on right hand side. The south elevation is abutted by the single-storey lean-to south aisle comprising six-bays; the far left bay having three gothic-arched stained glass windows; central four bays having paired gothic-arched stained glass windows. Far left bay is abutted by a single storey gable porch with sandstone dressing, gothic-arched timber sheeted double door embrace by ordered composite columns rising to circular imposts and archivolt; flanked by diminutive lateral buttress and served by modern steps and ramped access. Single-storey flat-roofed projection to the re-entrant of the chancel abutment and the right hand side of the south aisle. Tall circular sandstone chimney serving heating chamber below, rising from buttress right of centre. The east face of the south aisle comprises plate tracery leaded lattice lights with singular buttress to right hand side. Setting Triangular site located adjacent to the convergence of Hamilton Road and Church Street to the west and Ruby Street running parallel to the east. Open green space on the western and southern side of the site with mature trees and adjacent car park; fine gates and cast-iron railings fixed to basalt rubble walling with sandstone piers and copings. Primarily surrounded in two-storey Victorian residential and commercial properties. Large supermarket with associated petrol station and car park located south of the site. Roofing: Natural slate Walling: Rubble basalt Windows: Stained glass RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Lynn, William Henry

Historical Information

St Comgall’s Parish Church is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1901. In December 1877, the Irish Builder announced that a new parish church was to be built in Bangor, the Abbey church having become too small for Bangor’s expanding population. The old church was also thought to be badly positioned with regard to catering for residents to the east of the town. (Patton, p.39; Irish Builder) The decision to abandon Bangor Abbey church rather than repair and enlarge it, had been made in the face of some opposition, notably from J Sharman Crawford. Nevertheless, the Rector, Rev E Maguire determined to press ahead and at a meeting of the select vestry it was unanimously decided to erect a new church, capable of seating 600 people at a cost of £6,000. (Clergy of Down and Dromore, p.49; Irish Builder) “Robert E Ward Esq DL, the lord of the soil, has given a plot of ground and a donation of £1,100, Lord Bangor has contributed £500, and there is on hand the sum of £430, the proceeds of a bazaar held fifteen months ago for the ‘enlargement and improvement’ of the existing building. The trustees of the ‘Marshall Beresford Fund’ have promised liberal assistance.” (Irish Builder) According to Patton, the Lord Primate had sent an English architect, William Butterfield, to advise on the feasibility of extending the Abbey church, but Butterfield had advised against the use of funds to enlarge it and suggested that a new church was called for. (Patton, p.39) W H Lynn’s design was chosen, the intention being to complete the nave initially and then to add to the design as funds permitted. (Clergy of Down and Dromore, p.49) The laying of the foundation stone, by Lord Arthur Hill, was announced in the Irish Builder in October 1880. “R E Ward DL, Bangor Castle, who kindly granted the site, presented Lord Arthur Hill with a beautiful silver trowel, and in doing so conveyed to his lordship, on behalf of the Bangor congregation and building committee, their sense of gratitude to him for taking so prominent a part in the work of erecting that church. Lord Arthur Hill, having received the trowel, laid the stone in the customary manner. The cost will be about £10,000.” (Irish Builder) The church was consecrated in August 1882 in the name of St Comgall but the building did not enter valuation records until 1890 when it was listed as a church and yard and valued at £150. At this stage only the nave with north and south aisles had been completed at a cost of £7,500 (Clergy of Down and Dromore, p.49; Annual Revisions; Patton, p.39) Over the following decade, additions were gradually made to the building but the valuation was not affected. A chancel was dedicated in 1892 and in 1898-9, a spire was added at a cost of £2,500, Dean Maguire being ‘hoisted aloft’ to lay the capstone. Messrs Laughlin and Harvey, Belfast, were the contractors. (Irish Builder, Clergy of Down and Dromore, p.49) Unfortunately a celtic cross that graced the top of the spire was displaced during violent storms in 1903 and had to be replaced with a smaller cross. (The Building of Bangor Parish Church) A peal of bells produced by Messrs J Taylor & Co of Loughborough was installed in 1899, the gift of Mr Robert Atkinson. (The Building of Bangor Parish Church) In 1919 the church organ, by John Hunter of London, was installed as a memorial to those who died in the First World War. Recent refurbishment of the organ was carried out as a memorial to those who died in the 1939-45 war. (Clergy of Down and Dromore, p.49-50) Valuation records note that an engine house had been installed by 1921 containing an engine ‘to drive [depressors?] for organ’. The engine house was separately valued at £2.10s. (Annual Revisions) There appear to have been some minor additions to the south-east corner of the church in recent years. According to the NIEA stained glass survey, the building, ‘contains a remarkable collection of glass with a complete absence of signatures’. However, some of the windows can be attributed. The Tower of Glass studio produced ‘Sower’ by Beatrice Elvery and ‘Knight’ by A E Child, both of 1915. Heaton, Butler and Bayne produced five pairs of memorial windows in the 1890s to 1900s and Mayer & Co the East window (1905) and a Clanmorris memorial window (1908) in the south aisle. Windows depicting Isaiah (1939) and St Cecilia (1960) appear to be the work of the Clokey studio. (The Stained Glass Windows of Bangor Parish Church; NIEA file) References: Primary Sources 1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901 2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26 3.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939 4.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99) 5.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/9A-S – Annual Revisions (1900-1930) 6.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plans (c.1864-1899) 7.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/2 – Annual Revisions Town Plans (1898-c.1916) 8.Irish Builder, Vol 19, 1 December 1877, p.358 9.Irish Builder, Vol 22, 1 October 1880, p.277 10.NIEA file – HB23/07/007 Secondary Sources 1.Church information leaflet – “The Stained Glass Windows of Bangor Parish Church” 2.Church information leaflet – “The Building of Bangor Parish Church” 3.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999 4.Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Double-height Gothic Church built c.1880 to the designs of W.H. Lynn with spire added c.1900. A prominent building owing to its scale, style and proportion. The large arcaded nave and good decorative stone work to the chancel and sanctuary are of particular interest. Of significant interest, it also has group value with the Dufferin Memorial Hall (HB23/07/007B), which was built as its parish hall. Its gates and cast-iron railings fixed to basalt rubble walling with sandstone piers and copings enhance its setting. This well-proportioned church displays high quality of ornamentation and workmanship in the detailing of the sandstone and the interior demonstrates an assured touch. The church is a major work by an important architect and its scale, design and character raise it above the norm.

General Comments

Renumbered as HB23/07/007A was previously HB23/07/007

Date of Survey

20 September 2010