St. Patrick’s RC Church, Ballyphilip Road, Tullyboard, Portaferry, Co Down, BT22 1RB

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Ballyphilip Road, Tullyboard, Portaferry, County Down

St. Patrick's RC Church is a complex-looking, two-storey Roman Catholic church with origins dating to 1762, when it was built as a simple rectangular structure. Over the centuries it has grown into a roughly cruciform plan with a four-storey bell tower and an overall gothic character. It stands on the Ballyphilip Road, tucked behind Windmill Hill approximately half a mile south-east of Portaferry town. The listing covers the church together with its gates, railings, and walling.

Exterior

The church is broadly cruciform in plan, with the bell tower positioned in the south-east angle. The bell tower and the east-facing gabled projection are faced in snecked sandstone, while the remainder of the building is finished in plain painted render. All end walls — nave and transepts — are gabled. The main entrance is now through a doorway at the west end of the nave, with secondary entrances through the transept porches; the original main entrance was through the east face of the tower.

The four-storey bell tower is the most architecturally elaborate element of the building. It terminates in a crenellated and pinnacled parapet. Each corner is finished with two right-angled stepped buttresses, all capped with a small decorative gable. On the east face of the tower is a timber-sheeted double door set within a pointed arch — all openings throughout the building are pointed arch, and all windows have stained glass unless otherwise noted. Above the doorway, at first-floor level, is a cusped recess containing a statue of St. Patrick. Both the recess and the doorway below are finished with label moulding and stops. At second-floor level is a group of three narrow stained-glass windows. At third-floor level are two tall belfry openings. The second and third floors carry several bands and string courses; the uppermost band, just above the belfry openings, has decorative pointed dentilling. The north, south, and west faces of the tower repeat the arrangement of the east face at second and third-floor levels. On the south face at ground-floor level is a single narrow window, with two smaller windows at first-floor level. The north face is only exposed at second and third-floor levels. The west face is abutted at ground and first-floor level by a narrow gabled projection sandwiched between the tower and a large two-storey projecting gable; this smaller projection has narrow paired windows.

Immediately to the right (north) of the tower is the front nave gable, which projects slightly beyond the line of the tower and has buttresses matching those of the tower. At ground-floor level are three windows with cusped heads and stained glass. At first-floor level are two large windows flanking a central, larger pointed arch recess; this entire first-floor ensemble shares linked label moulding and rests on a cill course. There is a small roundel near the apex of the gable and a cross finial at the apex. On the north façade of this section is a single cusped window at ground-floor level, matching the gable treatment. To the right of this, the façade is abutted by a small single-storey gabled porch, which extends from the north transept.

To both north and south are gabled transept projections of similar scale to the front, but considerably plainer. Each has two high-level first-floor windows, with two taller windows to the north façade of each. To the south façade of each transept is a lean-to porch, whose roofs join neatly with the pitch of the main transept roofs. On the west face of each porch is a doorway with panelled double doors and fanlights. On the north face of the north porch and the south face of the south porch is a high-level window. On the left of the west façade of the north transept is a stone panel inscribed: "IHS All you good christians pray for ye benefacters of this chapel which was biult by the massons Dorians and M[stone broken] Henery Murland carpenter AD 176[?2]".

The west gable of the nave has a single-storey gabled porch and boiler house at ground-floor level, with a louvred door on the south face and a tall window on the west face. On the north face is a large panelled double door. At first-floor level of the main nave gable are three windows, the central one being taller. To the right on this gable is a projecting chimney breast associated with the boiler. The south façade of the rear end of the nave has a single window at ground-floor level and two at first-floor level; the north façade has two windows on each floor.

The entire roof is covered in Bangor Blue slates with stone parapets and cross finials to the nave gables, decorative cresting to the ridge, a plain galvanised metal fleche at the intersection of the roofs, and cast iron rainwater goods.

It should be noted that the whole building was originally faced in stone and carried substantial gothic decoration including crenellated parapets at eaves and gables, stone finials at the transept gables, and label mouldings and stops to window heads. These appear to have been removed during the 1990 renovation. The pinnacles to the tower were also formerly much taller.

Setting

To the south and west of the church is a large graveyard. To the north is a large car park. To the east is a low rendered wall interspersed with octagonal pointed piers and wrought iron railings.

Historical Development

The church stands on the site of a Mass House built in 1704. The original section of the present building was constructed in 1762 at the behest of the then Parish Priest, Reverend James McTeggert. It was built by masons named Dorian, together with a carpenter named Henry Murland, all of whom are commemorated on a datestone of 1762 that survives on the wall of the church to this day. Originally a large single-storey priest's house stood immediately to the north of the church.

In 1831–32 the church was repaired, extended, and re-roofed at a cost of £600. A few years later the Ordnance Survey Memoirs described the building as: "a large chapel with an uneven amount of windows, amounting in all to 23…The actual outlay for the present chapel was about 600 pounds, a very small sum considering its size, but is accounted for by a portion of the former chapel answering for the present and stones drawn and work done by members of the congregation gratis…There are 33 seats in bad repair at present. There are not any seats in the remaining part of the chapel. It is the intention of the parish priest, to raise a subscription for seating the chapel throughout. The architecture cannot be called the plainest, for the number of windows, small memorials, long and narrow, would contradict the statement. The exterior is ornamented with 2 false clocks and a sundial. The chapel might accommodate 1,500. The shape and dimensions are [ground plan, main dimensions 79, 24 and 33 feet, 'T' shape]."

In 1845 the present nave was added at right angles to the earlier structure, the altar was shifted from the north gable to the east side wall, and sloping galleries were installed. These changes were directed by Reverend James Killen, who also extended the graveyard and commissioned Dublin architect Timothy Hevey to design new altars in 1879. In 1914 the bell tower, sacristy, and side chapels were added to designs by E & J Byrne of Belfast, along with a tall gothic arch; a new altar followed in 1923. The church was re-roofed in 1947. Around 1955 a Lourdes grotto was added to the churchyard, and a baptistry was inserted into the west wall at approximately the same time. In 1990 further major works were carried out, including the rendering of the transepts and west end of the nave and the construction of a porch — changes that resulted in the loss of much of the original gothic stone detailing.