Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB18/06/008

Address :
Magheradroll C of I Parish Church Church Road Ballynahinch Co Down

Townland:
Ballynahinch

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
11/02/1980 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:
204/6

IG Ref:
J3661 5208

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Owner Category

Church - C of I

Exterior Description And Setting

Irregular, mainly single storey, gothic parish church built in three distinct stages- the tower and spire dating from 1772, with the nave (re)built in 1829 and extended, in the form of three large gabled side bays, in 1870. The tower and original portion of the nave are rough casted with a simple Georgian gothic appearance, whilst the 1870 extension is in dark rock faced rubble and is distinctly Victorian. The building is situated rather awkwardly is a hollow close to the roadside, and is surrounded to the W and S by a graveyard. It is located to the S of Ballynahinch town centre on the SW side of the Church Road. To the centre of the S gable of the main (original) portion of the nave, is a panelled front door with a matching panelled wooden Tudor arch ‘fanlight’ over. The door has moulded dressings and a moulded dripstone with label stops. Directly above is a stained glass pointed arch window with matching dressings and label stops. The gable has a stone parapet. Abutting the right is the S side of the 1870 extension and to the centre of this is a projecting porch with a steeply pitched hipped roof. The S face of the porch has a gothic arched door opening with a moulded surround. To the E face of the porch is a small square headed window with leaded panes. The E elevation is mainly taken up with the 1870 extension. This consists of has joined gables each with a large gothic window with four lancets with reticulated tracery over. The windows and quoins are dressed with light coloured [?Portland] stone. Between the roof pitches are two secret gutters. A cast iron rain water hopper and down pipe is attached to the outfall of each. To the to the right of the N elevation is the N face of the 1870 extension while to the left is the gable of the original nave. To the centre of the gable is a panel tracery window with four lancet lights to the lower section. The gable is buttressed and has a parapet with stone copings. To the centre of the W elevation is the four storey square tower of 1772. To the right of the tower (on the nave) is a tall lancet window. To the far right is a small hipped roof single storey extension. To the left of the tower is a lean-to single storey projection, possibly added in the early 20th century. To the W face of this is a pointed arch doorway with a plain fanlight over a modern panelled door. A short flight of steps rises to the door which leads into the lean-to. To the W face of the base of the tower is a Tudor arched headed door opening with a plain fanlight over a modern panelled door. The door is set at the head of a short flight of stairs and has a ‘gallows bracket’ canopy over. The ground floor S face of the tower is blank while the N & E faces are built against the vestry and the nave. The upper faces of the tower are all identical. Each of the four floors is slightly set back (i.e. the size reduces slightly to each level), and has a projecting horizontal stone string course. To the first floor is a small ‘Y’ tracery window while to each of the faces of the second floor is a small decorative opening which contains a blank slate panel. To the third floor is a small gothic arch headed window opening with a timber louvered frame. To the four corners of the battlemented parapet are pinnacles. An octagonal spire rises from the top of the spire. The walls of the original nave and the tower are finished in unpainted rough cast while the 1870 section is finished in squared dark field stone with sandstone [?and Portland stone] dressings. The roof is covered with natural slate and rw goods are in cast iron. To the roadside there is a low boundary wall in rubble with granite coping. The wall supports simple wrought iron pointed head railings. There are two gateways in simple style to the railings but curved at the top.

Architects

Welland & Gillespie

Historical Information

The first church on this site was built by Lord Moira in 1772. It replaced the medieval parish church of Magheradroll (sited roughly a mile to the south-west), which had been used by both Catholics and members of the established church up until this point. The spire of the ‘new’ church is depicted in Thomas Robinson’s (near) contemporary painting of the 1798 Battle of Ballynahinch. By the late 1820s the nave of the ‘new’ church had fallen into disrepair and was demolished. A new nave was constructed in 1829-30, apparently on the site of the old one, but given the present irregular position of the tower, one suspects that its siting was shifted. The largely rebuilt church is described in the OS Memoirs of 1837 as ‘a plain rectangular building with a square tower and spire’. In 1870 the nave was extended to the east side with the addition of the three gabled bays [?designed by Welland & Gillespie]. The building was ‘restored in 1922, at which time the rough cast render and lean-to to the west may have been added. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI D.1255 Title deeds, legal and testamentary papers, correspondence and Irish Land Commissioners Papers re the Ballynahinch Estate, 1630-1940 2 ‘Taylor’s and Skinner’s maps of the roads of Ireland’ (Dublin 1777) map 284 3 PRONI D.272/41 MS map of Ballynahinch by William Byers, c.1790 4 PRONI OS/1/3/22 OS map 1st ed., 1834, Co. Down 22 5 ‘Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland’ vol.17 ed Angélique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1992) p.106 6 PRONI VAL/1D/3/19 Valuation town plan, Ballynahinch, 1838 7 PRONI OS/9/41/1 OS Town plan of Ballynahinch, 1860 8 William McComb ‘Guide to Belfast and adjoining districts’ (Belfast 1861) 9 PRONI VAL/12E/83/1 Valuation town plans, Ballynahinch, 1864-1905 10 PRONI VAL/12E/83/2 Valuation town plans, Ballynahinch, 1905-35 11 PRONI OS/8/3/2 OS town plan of Ballynahinch, 1920 12 PRONI VAL/3G/59/1 Valuation town plans, Ballynahinch, 1937-53 Secondary sources 1 C.E.B. Brett, ‘Historic buildings…Mid Down’ (Belfast 1974), p.39

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style H-. Alterations detracting from building

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Irregular, mainly single storey, gothic parish church built in three distinct stages- the tower and spire dating from 1772, with the nave (re)built in 1829 and extended, in the form of three large gabled side bays, in 1870. The tower and original portion of the nave are rough casted and have a simple Georgian gothic appearance, whilst the 1870 extension is in dark rock faced rubble and is distinctly Victorian. To the west side there is a single storey lean-to extension, which may have been added in c.1922. The building is situated rather awkwardly is a hollow close to the roadside, and is surrounded to the west and south by a graveyard.

General Comments

Date of Survey

13 September 2000