Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/01/019

Address :
St. Paul's Church of Ireland High Street Gilford Co Down BT63 6HY

Townland:
Loughans

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
25/10/1977 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:
201/14

IG Ref:
J0635 4878

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Owner Category

Church - C of I

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached double-height Church of Ireland Church, built c.1870, located on a sloping site to the east side of High Street, Gilford. Cruciform plan comprising chancel at east and transepts at north and south. Roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles; masonry raised verges with corbelled ends, chimney at east and acroterion at each apex; painted cast-iron gutters. Walling is roughly coursed random rubble with plinth, ashlar plinth course and irregularly stepped ashlar quoins and buttresses with off-
setting. Windows are lancet style with stained leaded lights and external secondary glazing contained within gothic arched opening with ashlar voussoirs, irregularly stepped ashlar quoins and chamfered ashlar sills. West gable is butted by gabled projecting bay; exposed area to right is blank; exposed area to left is blank and has a large three stage off-set angle buttress supporting a bell-cote above which projects above line of eaves. Stone gabled bell-cote comprises a gothic opening housing the bell with string course at impost level and surmounted by a cusped blind opening at apex. Stone gabled roof surmounted by a circular shaft with stepped cone finial. Projecting bay gable has a three tiered plinth with two ventilation slots surmounted by two sets of paired gothic-arched plate-tracery windows with continuous sill course and projecting hoodmould terminating at continuous string course at impost level. Windows surmounted by string course and cusped tracery oculus with double chamfered ashlar surround and rubble voussoirs terminating at string course. Left cheek has a square headed timber sheeted door within a chamfered stone surround to basement level; remainder blank. Right cheek is abutted by a single storey pitch roofed porch; exposed section blank. South face of porch comprises a diagonally sheeted double leaf timber door at gable accessed by five stone steps and plainly detailed metal handrail; right cheek is blank; left cheek contains single square headed window. North elevation is abutted to left by the north transept (lower); four windows to right (that to left is an oculus at high level); central two-stage angle buttress. North transept gable has paired gothic-arched windows within a stone relieving arch over with a ventilation oculus to apex; left cheek has a single window; right cheek is abutted at right internal angle by single-storey lean-to porch, exposed section is blank. Lean-to porch north face contains timber sheeted door contained within deep ashlar surrounds accessed by two stone steps (now covered by modern steel ramp; right cheek contains single square headed window at centre. East gable is abutted at centre by slightly lower chancel; exposed section has a chimney to left of centre and a ventilation oculus to apex. Chancel gable contains a large geometric tracery window with a ventilation oculus to apex. Left cheek is abutted by lean-to vestry; right cheek abutted by lean-to organ chamber. Organ chamber has a single window at east; right cheek is blank. Vestry east face has a timber sheeted door at left flanked by a square headed window at right; left cheek contains single square headed window at left. South elevation is abutted to right by the south transept (lower); four windows to right divided by a central two-stage angle buttress. South transept gable contains paired gothic-arched windows within a stone relieving arch over with a ventilation oculus to apex; right cheek is blank; left cheek has a single window at centre. Setting: The church is set on a sloping site accessed at west via roughly coursed random rubble boundary walls and metal gates supported on decorative ashlar piers comprising chamfered plinth, stepped bullnosed corners with stops, quatrefoil cusped blind opening, pyramidal coping with saw toothed detailing topped by a cast iron barley twist lamp fitting. Pedestrian access is located to south side of the side via a steeply sloping tarmac drive. A later church hall of no interest is located at south accessed by steps from High Street at west. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Stone Windows: Stained leaded lights RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Lanyon & Lynn

Historical Information

St Paul’s parish church was built c.1868 to designs by Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon. (Belfast Newsletter; Irish Builder) The history of Gilford in the nineteenth century is inextricably linked with the fortunes of the spinning mill, one of the largest in Ireland in the 1840s and the driver of economic growth and social development in the nineteenth century. Hugh Dunbar was the descendant of a linen family, his grandfather having leased a property at Huntley from the Whyte’s of Loughbrickland, where Hugh was manufacturing thread and his hand-loom weavers produced linen cloth. In 1834 the competition from mill-spun yarns, produced by the new wet-spinning process was such that Dunbar was compelled to start his own spinning mill or go out of business. Dunbar chose Gilford as the centre of his new enterprise and Dunbar McMaster & Co spinning mill opened in 1839, Dunbar having gone into partnership with John Walsh McMaster of Armagh. The mill was an immediate success and attracted large numbers of workers to the town. Between 1841 and 1871 the population more than quadrupled, from 643 to 2,720, contrasting strongly with other areas in Ireland at this period which were experiencing mass emigration due to famine conditions. (Logan) At the time of OS Memoirs, the parish church was situated about a mile to the east of Gilford in Tullylish townland. This early church was ‘very old’ and could accommodate about 600 and was ‘generally very full’. In 1865 JW McMaster applied to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to build a church in Gilford as he felt that the distance to the church at Tullylish discouraged attendance. McMaster was prepared to donate a site for the building, valued at £250, £1,000, an endowment of £40 a year and £750 to build a house for the incumbent. The benefice of Gilford was a ‘vicarage’ under the Ecclesiastical Tithes Act and this designation is retained today for the rector’s house. (Clergy of Down and Dromore; Logan) The foundation stone of the church was laid in October 1868 and it was built to designs by Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon, the dedication in the name of St Paul taking place in November 1869. The builder was John Collen of Portadown, who was especially commended for having completed the work within twelve months, and the cost £4,000. The church was intended to provide accommodation for 600 and consisted of nave, chancel and transepts, together with a ‘well-proportioned’ tower. At the time the style was said to be ‘Early French’ with a ‘fine open-timbered roof’. (Irish Builder; Belfast Newsletter) An organ was donated to the church by Hugh Watson Esq and a bell by Hugh Dunbar McMaster, which, according to Walker, was recast from a 1681 bell that formerly hung in the belfry of the Middle Church at Ballinderry. (Walker) ‘St Paul’s Ch[urch]’ is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1901-2 but through an oversight was not included in valuation records until 1909 when it was given a valuation of £110. As benefactor and proprietor, JW McMaster and his family are commemorated in much of the stained glass within the church. The east window is by Caldwell of Canterbury and the west by Mayer of Munich. A hand rail and marble plinth on the chancel steps were erected in memory of Captain L P S Orr, MP for South Down 1951-74. A new organ was installed in 1957. Gilford became a curacy briefly in 1991 and full parochial status was restored in 1995. (Clergy of Down and Dromore) References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map 1834 2. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map 1858 3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2 4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21 5. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1930) 6. Belfast Newsletter, 12th May 1868 7. Belfast Newsletter, 22nd November 1869 8. Irish Builder, 1st December 1869 9. Irish Builder, 1st November 1874 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. Logan, R A “A Window on the Past, A History of Gilford County Down” Banbridge Chronicle, (n.d.) 3. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996 4. Walker, S “Historic Ulster Churches” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 2000 5. www.dia.ie

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

An detached double-height Church of Ireland Church, originally constructed between 1868 and 1869 to designs by Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon. Historic character and original detailing survive, of particular interest is the fine open-timbered roof. This is a good example of the type and representative of the work of a significant architectural practice. There are also links to the local linen industry.

General Comments

Date of Survey

25 July 2011