All Saints Parish Church, Church Street, Antrim

All Saints Parish Church, Church Street, Antrim

All Saints is a Church of Ireland parish church of Elizabethan origin, founded in 1596, making it reputedly the fourth oldest church in Ireland in which the Protestant religion has been continuously celebrated. It is an exceptionally rare surviving example of an Elizabethan church in Ireland, and its original portion — the nave and central transept — remains substantially intact, retaining features of considerable architectural and historical rarity. The church has been altered and enlarged at several points during the 19th century, and the result is a building that ranges in style from Elizabethan late medieval to 19th-century Gothic Revival, with the tower and spire of 1816 forming the most prominent architectural landmark in the town.

The building consists of a gabled nave with a double transept on the south side and a tower and spire at the west end. The main entrance, set within the tower, faces north.

EXTERIOR

The north elevation of the nave presents walling of random rubble, chiefly whinstone, with sandstone dressings to four windows, roughly squared quoins at each extremity, and a roof of Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses with a cast iron gutter. Below the second window from the right, the sandstone jamb-stones of an original blocked doorway survive, one of them inscribed with the date 1596 in old characters. Two sandstone musket loopholes are set low in the wall, one to each side of this original doorway, and a memorial plaque is also present. The windows are of three lights, of late medieval Perpendicular type, with trefoil heads set in rectangular panels beneath a projecting Tudor-style drip moulding. Although the window form and detailing are original to the Elizabethan period, much of the fabric of the window frames is later restoration work; the second window from the right, which replaced the blocked doorway, is entirely later work, presumably of the early 19th century. All windows contain stained glass.

The east elevation presents the nave gable in stonework similar to the north elevation, with sandstone copings, quoins, and dressings to openings, and a sandstone loophole low in the wall to the right-hand side. The lower part of the gable is occupied by a large Gothic arched three-light window with cusped heads, fitted with a modern steel-framed grille. Above it, in the apex of the gable, is a narrow Gothic lancet containing timber louvres. The gable is surmounted by a small square-headed pedestal. To the left extends a small low gable of basalt rubble with sandstone quoins, sandstone gable coping with a small square-headed apex, and a single small Gothic arched lancet with leaded glazing in sandstone block dressings; the gabled roof is slated as elsewhere and served by a cast iron downpipe to the right and a moulded cast iron gutter to the left. Further left is a lower lean-to bay containing a doorway, with a swept slated roof, moulded cast iron gutter and downpipe, walling of basalt rubble, and a shouldered arch doorway with sandstone block surrounds. The door itself is a recessed timber tongued-and-grooved sheeted door with studs and decorative hinges. To the left of this is another lower lean-to bay containing a window: the roof is slated as elsewhere, the walls are smooth cement-rendered, lined and blocked, with a timber bargeboard and moulded cast iron gutter and downpipe; the single window is a small Gothic arched lancet with leaded glazing in raised rendered surrounds.

On the south elevation of the nave, only the left-hand end of the original nave wall is exposed, the remainder being covered by the projecting transepts and vestry. The roof is slated as on the north elevation, with a flush rooflight at the left-hand end and a metal ventilator above the abutting roof of the central transept, with a cast iron gutter and downpipe. The nave walling matches the north elevation and retains one window of original late medieval Perpendicular form and detail, containing stained glass.

The central gabled transept has slated roofs with moulded cast iron gutters. Its south-facing gable walling matches the nave, with similar quoins to the left-hand extremity and sandstone copings rising to a small square-topped pedestal. There is one window of original late medieval Perpendicular form and detail, containing stained glass. Below the window is a low central doorway comprising a dressed sandstone Tudor-arched opening set beneath a pointed basalt relieving arch, containing a recessed timber door approached by a flight of steps between low plinth walls. The west side of the central transept is of similar walling, but features a central blind red brick archway that appears to be a previously open archway that was later blocked. There are two sandstone-dressed windows, one at each end, comprising narrow lancets of Perpendicular type with cusped heads and similar detailing to the original late medieval Perpendicular windows elsewhere, but lacking drip moulds; the left-hand window contains stained glass and the right-hand window contains leaded glazing.

To the right of the central transept is the gabled east transept, with slated roofs and moulded cast iron gutters. Its south-facing gable walling is of roughly squared basalt rubble, visibly different in grade and colour from the central transept, with sandstone copings rising to a similar flat-topped pedestal. There is one large four-light Gothic arched window in sandstone with ogee tracery and an arched drip moulding, containing stained glass. Projecting forward from the lower part of the transept gable is a modern addition with a swept slated roof rising to a canted-fronted bay that extends to the right; the walls are smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with a timber bargeboard and moulded cast iron gutters and downpipe. The lean-to roofed portion contains a pair of double doors of rectangular ledged timber set in a chamfered surround. The canted bay contains a three-light mullioned and transomed timber window.

The west gable of the nave is largely covered by the later tower, though the rubble walling with its quoins and gable copings remains visible at the extremities.

TOWER AND SPIRE

The tower, added in 1816, is square in plan and built of basalt ashlar in irregular courses with sandstone dressings. Sandstone angle buttresses rise through three stages to panelled and crocketed pinnacles, linked by crenellated ashlar sandstone parapets. On all four sides, these parapets rise to incorporate a clock face surmounted by an ogee hood moulding. Rising from behind the parapets is a tall ashlar sandstone spire surmounted by a two-tier ball finial. A metal lamp on a bracket is mounted on the right-hand buttress on the west face. Each face of the tower contains a large window at the third stage: a tall three-light Gothic window with a two-centred arch and Perpendicular tracery, with an arched drip moulding that returns to each side at the springing level to form a stringcourse. The ground-level doorway in the north face forms the main entrance to the church. It is a square-headed Tudor archway with panelled spandrels and two recessed orders in a moulded surround with a drip moulding returning to each side at springing level to form a stringcourse; the dressings are of sandstone block, the door itself is a Tudor-arched timber panelled door, and the entrance is approached by two stone steps. There is one window at first floor level on the west side: a three-light window of late medieval Perpendicular type, with trefoil heads set in a rectangular panel matching those of the nave's north elevation, set in block surrounds.

INTERIOR

The interior contains a number of important features. Sculptured wall memorials to members of the Clotworthy family of Antrim Castle include works by John Flaxman, J. R. Kirk of Dublin, and Harry Hems and Sons of Exeter. There is also a plain marble plaque in the south wall of the nave to the memory of George Victor Du Noyer, 1817–1869, described as artist, geologist, and antiquary. Two small scenes of stained glass incorporated in a window in the central transept — known as the Massereene transept — are reputedly examples of old Continental glass brought from the Continent by the 8th Viscount Massereene, who died in 1816; the precise date of the glass and the date of its installation in the church are both uncertain. These are rare examples of old Continental stained glass re-used in an Irish church. Other stained glass in the church includes works by Aldam Heaton of London and Shrigley and Hunt of Lancaster and London.

HISTORY AND ALTERATIONS

The church was founded in 1596, when it comprised the nave and the central transept on the south side. It was burnt in 1649, along with most of the town, by General Munro leading a Royalist assault against the Cromwellian force then holding Antrim Castle, but was soon repaired and was later reportedly rebuilt in 1720. The gateway to the grounds was built in 1733. The tower and spire were added in 1816, probably to the designs of John Bowden of Dublin, architect to the Board of First Fruits, which provided the loan for the work. The original doorway in the north wall of the nave was closed up and replaced by a new window, also probably in 1816. A new roof was built in 1825. The east transept and vestry were added in 1869, probably to the designs of Welland and Gillespie of Dublin, architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners who financed the works. The original east window was replaced with the present east window of different tracery pattern in 1870, when it was also fitted with stained glass.

In 1892 the church was partly remodelled and new fittings installed to the designs of S. P. Close. This work included the reseating of the church; the installation of a new organ and the construction of an organ chamber; the raising of the east end of the church and the tiling of its floor; the creation of a burial vault beneath the central Massereene transept, with external access; the replacement of the wall between the two transepts by two arches, above which was inserted the frame of an original window from the central transept uncovered during the alterations — a window that can also be seen in its original setting in a drawing of the 1830s; the fitting out of the interior of the Massereene transept in oak; the provision of a stone pulpit executed by Purdy and Millard of Belfast; and the provision of a new marble font.

During the 1798 Battle of Antrim, the churchyard was the scene of a fierce skirmish, and the original oak door of the church received bullet marks and had one bullet embedded in it. That door was subsequently removed from the church — presumably in 1816, when the new main entrance was created in the tower — and was installed in the Oak Room at Antrim Castle, where it was destroyed when the castle was gutted by fire in 1922. It is also recorded that in the 1830s three loopholes were visible on the north side of the nave (only two are now visible) and two in the east gable (only one is now visible).

SETTING

The church stands in its own grounds on a corner site fronting the main street, set slightly above street level. Boundary walling to the north and west sides is of rubble stonework. At the north-west angle is a pedestrian gateway comprising a pair of square sandstone ashlar piers with moulded cornices and ball finials, with original ironwork gates still in place. A datestone in the northern pier is inscribed with the date 1733 and the names of the minister and churchwardens of the time. The boundaries to the east and south are formed largely by adjoining buildings and other boundary walls. The grounds are mostly grassed, with some trees and bushes to the west and south. Modern paths of concrete flag paving with concrete kerbstones lead from the gateway to the tower doorway and across the front of the church. There are numerous gravestone memorials throughout the grounds, though none is of special architectural interest.