Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB06/06/012

Address :
St John’s C of I Church, Glynn Larne Co Antrim

Townland:
Glynn

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
23/10/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
Yes

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
70/16

IG Ref:
J4070 9970

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Owner Category

Church - C of I

Exterior Description And Setting

A small gabled rectangular church in Gothic Revival style built of snecked basalt with painted sandstone dressings, with a gabled porch to the front and a gabled vestry to the rear. Main entrance front faces north: symmetrical with a single lancet window each side of projecting porch. Stone pointing of reticulated type, not original. Roof of natural slates, Bangor blue in regular courses between gable copings of cream painted sandstone; black ridge tiles. Plastic guttering and downpipes, recent replacements; gabled porch with sandstone copings and kneelers, painted; four-centred basalt arch over entrance, with dressings of chamfered ashlar sandstone, painted; plain rectangular wooden panelled double door below panelled wooden tympanum, all original, painted brown; metal doorknob later replacement. Trefoil motif with lobed stem, presumably intended to form the symbol of the cross, in rectangular panel over entrance. Concrete step, not original. Projecting eaves course of blocking stones around building, with timber fascia not original; projecting weathering to plinth course all around building. Windows of lancet form in projecting chamfered surrounds within basalt arches, with splayed cills; those to front wall have cast iron frames painted white, cusped at top containing metal glazing bars of lozenge pattern and including opening vent; plain glazing except for translucent glass to two lowest rows of quarries. Windows in side of porch similar style but smaller with wooden frames and glazing bars, and plain glass throughout; some rot apparent to west window of porch. East gable contains three-light window, similar type to front, surmounted by a small open louvred lancet to roof space over a stone-framed datestone inscribed ‘St John’s Church AD 1840’. South front a blank wall with projecting gabled vestry in centre, of similar walling to church but gable lacking coping; window surround on west side original but glazing recent and not following original pattern; windows and doorway on other sides set in recent surrounds of projecting cement render, with inappropriate glazing; plate glass to east side, timber top hung vent to south side; large concrete steps. Vestry appears to have been enlarged from an original projection on that side, its plinth weathering a mixture of original stones and newly cut sandstone replicas. Pointing is recent, of smeared type. West gable similar to east, with three-light window but set in a projecting breakfront with chamfered shoulders to gable and surmounted by a sandstone bell-cote projecting on a corbel course and hung with a bell in a pointed opening. Some tinted glass to windows, with some panes broken. The church stands in a secluded rural
setting at the end of a lane, on a slightly elevated site which contains an old graveyard with the overgrown ruins of an ancient church adjacent (historic monument no ANT 40:10). Grassed area to front with cement path from gateway; modern graveyard to rear. Entrance gates of ornamental ironwork, of 19th century origin, mounted on large cylindrical gate piers of basalt rubble with shallow pitched sandstone caps, one pier smooth cement rendered and one partly roughcast and limewashed and abutted by rubble stone wall to western boundary. Other pier abutted by small pedestrian gate of modern ironwork mounted on short square section smooth rendered pier attached to low return of front boundary retaining wall.

Architects

Lanyon, Charles

Historical Information

Designed by Charles Lanyon, architect, who provided his services free; foundation stone laid 1839; opened 9th December 1840; consecrated 20th July 1841. New rear porch with integral toilet added in 1993. The church lies within the area of a historic monument (the old church ruin), no. ANT 40:10. References - Primary 1. Fourth and final report of the Down and Connor Church Accommodation Society, Belfast, 1843, p 19, with lithographic plate. Secondary 1. L. Ewart, Handbook of the United Diocese of Down and Connor and Dromore (Belfast, 1886), p 94 [but dates are erroneous]. 2. C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Antrim (UAHS, 1996), pp 56 and 57.

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

Evaluation

This is an attractively sited example of an early Victorian church designed by an important Irish architect, which presents an unaltered appearance to the entrance front and two end gables

General Comments

Date of Survey

05 September 1997