St. John's Church of Ireland Church, Doagh Road, Ballyclare, Co Antrim, BT39 9BG

St. John's Church of Ireland Church

A detached, double-height Church of Ireland church built around 1860, located south of Doagh Road in Ballyclare. The building is constructed in Commissioners' Gothic style using Flemish-bonded red brick with a robust character that creates a substantial presence in the locality, though it is not among the finest examples of the type.

The church is rectangular on plan, facing north, with a single-cell chancel to the south gable and a three-stage tower to the north gable. The pitched natural slate roof features roll-top red clay ridge tiles and stone-coped verges with ogee cast-iron gutters. The walling is Flemish-bonded red brick with chamfered plinth and cornice. Clamp buttresses with offsetting sit between windows, whilst diagonal buttresses feature stone offsetting and quoins.

All windows are Gothic arched with splayed sandstone reveals. The tower is the principal architectural feature, with moulded sandstone stringcourses between stages. Diagonal buttresses rise to the mid-second stage and are surmounted by octagonal pinnacle bases extending to the parapet. The parapet is crenellated sandstone with corner octagonal pinnacles. The first stage contains a central Gothic arched door with double rebated moulded surround, label-ended hoodmoulds, and a painted timber sheeted double-leaf door with wrought-iron hinged straps and ring handle. The second stage elevations (except rear) have quatrefoils within sandstone circular surrounds. The third stage elevations contain timber louvered belfry windows.

The chancel features a stained glass lancet window. The building has stained glass casement windows throughout. The church stands set back from the road to the north, sited on a sloped tarmac parking lot to the west, with a modern flat-roofed church hall adjacent to the basement level.

Modern extensions of no architectural interest include a double M-profile roofed extension to the west elevation, single-storey lean-to and single-bay hipped extensions flanking the tower, and a single-storey-over-basement extension to the west of the chancel.

Historical records indicate the church was first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902. Earlier editions show the site as vacant. The Griffith's Valuation map of 1859 shows the church added in pen, suggesting construction around 1860, confirmed by its appearance on the Valuation Revision Map of 1864.