Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/07/048 A

Address :
Ballydown Presbyterian Church 151 Castlewellan Road Banbridge Co Down BT32 4JP

Townland:
Ballydown

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

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:
221-5 SE

IG Ref:
J1451 4524

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Owner Category

Church - Presbyterian

Exterior Description And Setting

Free-standing single-cell single-storey double-height rendered church, dated 1904, replacing an earlier church built in 1798. Designed by William Wright Larmor. Rectangular on plan set on an east-west axis on a sloping site at a lower level to the south of Castlewellan Road. Pitched natural slate roof with decorative terracotta ridge comb tiles with cement coping to raised gables and decorative moulded kneelers to eaves. Moulded cast-iron guttering supported on moulded eaves corbels and square-profile downpipes with decorative brackets. Pebbledash rendered walling with smooth rendered plinth course, decoratively moulded render quoins and continuous moulded sill course. Pointed-headed window openings with stop-chamfered smooth rendered surrounds, hood mouldings and coloured leaded glazing with storm glazing. Symmetrical gabled east front elevation has a tripartite window opening to the upper level with continuous hood moulding and moulded sill. Decoratively moulded plaque above the entrance states; ‘BALLYDOWN / BUILT 1798 / REBUILT 1904 / PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH’. Diminutive pointed-headed window openings flank a central pointed-headed door opening having deep moulded archivolt supported on pair of plain columns resting on plinth blocks with hood moulding and original diagonally-sheeted double-leaf timber doors with decorative iron door furniture. Door opens onto concrete paved platform and three steps with universal access ramp. South elevation is six windows wide. Gabled west elevation has two pointed-headed window openings to the upper level with decorative stained glass windows. The gable is abutted by an off-centre lower gabled rear entrance porch having pitched natural slate roof, detailed as above. Pointed-headed door opening with hood moulding and vertically-sheeted woodgrained timber door having decorative iron door furniture, opening onto two moulded concrete steps with steel universal access ramp. North elevation is six windows wide. Setting Positioned on a sloping site at a lower level to the south of Castlewellan Road, encircled by bitmac paths and stone and marble grave markers located mainly to the north, west and south. Two bitmac drives rise to meet the road, that to the west opening onto the road via decorative wrought and cast-iron gates supported on rendered brick piers with gableted capstones. To the west of this entrance is a two-storey rendered house, built c.1950. To the northeast of the site is a detached rendered church hall built c.1980 with large parking area. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Pebbledash render Windows Coloured leaded glazing RWG: Cast iron This building was demolished prior to listing in 2019.

Architects

Larmor, William Wright

Historical Information

Ballydown Presbyterian Church was built in 1904/5 to designs by William Wright Larmor. The church replaced an earlier building on the site, dating from 1798, and, like its forebear, is a plain hall church. Larmor’s design, however, lifts the church out of the realm of vernacular church architecture by the use of nineteenth century gothic detailing. A ‘Seceder’s Meeting Ho[use]’ is shown captioned on the first edition OS map of 1833 as a rectangular structure on a small plot surrounded by trees. The Townland Valuation (1828-40) values the meeting house at £6.16s but no dimensions are given. Two smaller buildings are shown to the north of the plot, later identified as a sexton’s house and stables. The earlier meeting house is described in OS Memoirs as a ‘stone building, roughcast and whitewashed. Inside, the roof is not ceiled nor are the aisles boarded. The pews are very plain and accommodate 400 persons. The house was built in 1798 and cost about 500 pounds, which was raised by subscription’. (OS Memoirs) Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the Presbyterian church, offices and yard, national school house, sexton’s house and garden and values the buildings at £19 with £1 for the acre of land. The meeting house measures 20 yards by 11 and is described as ‘plain finished’. Two ‘car houses’ and stables form part of the church out offices. The school measures 8x5 yards and the sexton’s house is a single-storey thatched building, 13 yards long. No further changes were made to the valuation in Annual Revisions. In February 1904 tenders were invited in the pages of the Irish Builder for the rebuilding of the church to designs by William Wright Larmor of Banbridge and the opening services were held in May 1905. The contractor was George Patton of Lurgan, ‘whose work has given entire satisfaction’, the heating contract was, as was almost universally the case, by Messrs Musgrave & Co, Belfast, leaded lights were by Campbell Bros of Belfast, lamps by Messrs Richard Patterson & Co of Belfast and the pulpit was carved by Thomas Proctor of Banbridge of which the comment was made, ‘It has been greatly admired and reflects much credit on the maker’. A marble tablet in the vestibule which commemorates the laying of the foundation stone and records the names of past ministers was ‘executed in a most satisfactory manner’ by Mr Emerson of Banbridge. J E Leinster, perhaps a relative of the minister at the time, Edward Carleton Leinster, travelled to Brookline in Boston to raise money to clear the debt on the church and ‘has been made happy by getting nearly $300 from members of the Brookline congregation’. (Holmes) In the first general revaluation of the 1930s the church is described as ‘substantial and well built’, giving accommodation for 400. Heating was by hot water pipes and lighting by means of oil lamps. Dimensions are given for the church, vestibule, vestry and separate stables and cycle store. The single storey school building to the east (now gone) had been erected in 1864 and later became a church hall. The congregation at Ballydown dates from 1796 when a petition was made to the Presbytery of Down who granted ‘supply of sermon’. The first meeting house was built in 1798 and a minister, Mr John Rutherford, ordained in 1800. John Rutherford was succeeded as minister by his own son, also John Rutherford who remained at Ballydown until 1874 when he emigrated to the USA. Ballydown congregation was united with Katesbridge in 1938, but this union was dissolved in 2009. The ministers of the united charge were Robert Buick Knox (1938-42) and his son also Robert Buick Knox who was a scholar and historian. Knox resigned in 1957 on being appointed Professor of Church History at Aberystwyth, later becoming a Professor at Cambridge. (History of Congregations) The congregation today stands at around 165 families. (Kirkpatrick) References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 First Edition OS Map 1833 2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 Second Edition OS map 1860 3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903 4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18 5. PRONI VAL/1/B/366 Townland Valuation (1828-40) 6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64A Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929) 8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57 9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/E/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57 10. Irish Builder, Vol 46, 27th Feburary 1904, p122 11. Irish Builder, Vol 47, 3rd June 1905, p386 12. Holmes, Richard S The Westminster Volume 30 (1905) Secondary Sources 1. Day, A. And P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Vol. 12.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1992. 2. “A History of Congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland 1610-1982” authorised by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Belfast: Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, 1982 (available at www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com) 3. Kirkpatrick, L “Presbyterians in Ireland” Booklink, 2006

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed Not listed Not listed

Evaluation

Free-standing single-cell single-storey double-height rendered church, dated 1904 to designs by William Wright Larmor, replacing an earlier church built in 1798. A modest provincial Presbyterian church with most of its early twentieth-century fabric surviving. The simple plan and modest external detailing conceals an unusually detailed roof structure complete with all original fixtures and fittings and a pair of notable stained glass windows to the west gable as well as most of the original interior fittings. Although the setting has been compromised by modern structures, the church is a good, later example of the type by a local engineer involved in many public projects. This building was demolished prior to listing in 2019.

General Comments

To be reumbered as HB17/07/048A; originally recorded as HB17/07/049 FILE PA's 16/04/15

Date of Survey

03 April 2012