Groomsport Parish Church, Donaghadee Road, Groomsport, Co Down, BT19 6LG

Groomsport Parish Church is a modestly-scaled cruciform Church of Ireland church set on the north side of Groomsport village overlooking the sea. The main body was built in 1842 to designs by Sir Charles Lanyon, with a chancel added in 1909 by Samuel P Close and transepts added in 1932 by James A Hanna. The church is a good example of the minor works of two prominent architects and contains many features of historic and artistic interest.

The building is aligned north-south with transepts to east and west, and an entrance tower to the south-west re-entrant angle. There is a lean-to vestry extension to the south-east. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue and black angled clay ridge tiles and sandstone kneelers to all gables. Cast-iron rainwater goods are set on cavetto-moulded sandstone eaves.

The walling is roughcast with ashlar sandstone quoins and a string course at floor level. Windows are tripartite stained-glass lancets with chamfered blocked sandstone surrounds, though a number of replacements are in reconstituted stone.

The tower is two-stage with a castellated parapet, gableted pinnacles, and a string course between stages. It has a four-centred arched entrance opening to the west with a double-leaf wood grained door in a reconstituted stone surround, with a panelled tympanum and bronze door furniture. Above this is a stone shield inscribed with a gilded date: 1842. There is a single lancet to the south cheek, while the second stage has bipartite louvred lancets with linked stone hood-moulds to all elevations.

To the right of the tower, the nave is one window wide. The transepts have tripartite lancets to the gable and bipartite lancets to the north. The chancel has a gothic tracery window to the north gable with a sandstone surround and hood mould detailed with foliated carved stops. The east transept has a square-headed timber door accessed by a concrete step to the north cheek and tripartite lancets to the east gable. The vestry has a gothic timber door with bronze furniture and tripartite gothic windows on the east elevation, with two additional gothic windows to the south. The south gable has a break front containing tripartite lancets surmounted by a single lancet with hood mould detailed with foliated carved stops.

The church is set in a tarmac car park planted with shrubs at the borders and enclosed by a rubble stone boundary wall with soldier coping to the road and saddleback render coping to the remainder. It is accessed at the south-west by a mild steel gate supported on square ashlar sandstone piers with moulded caps.

The church was built as a chapel-of-ease to Bangor and was one of sixteen churches built with funds from the Church Accommodation Society. The site was a gift from John Waring Maxwell of Finnebrogue, Downpatrick, and Charles Lanyon gave his services free to the Society. The church was originally only a nave with tower, costing £750 and seating about 130. A bell cast by Thomas Mears of London was added in 1843.

A three-light east window representing the Transfiguration was installed in the nave in December 1876 to commemorate Robert and John William Perceval-Maxwell, who died in 1873 and 1875 respectively. The makers were Mayer & Co of Munich. In 1909, the chancel was added in memory of Major Robert Perceval Maxwell and his wife Helena Anne. New pews were installed and the flat ceiling was replaced by the present hammer beam roof. The east window by Mayer of Munich was re-installed in the new chancel.

In 1932, James A Hanna designed new transepts of Conlig stone with artificial stone dressings to provide extra accommodation. Stained glass windows were created by his son Dennis O'D Hanna. The contract cost £1,300 and was awarded to Messrs William Dowling Ltd of Belfast. In 1955, the vestry was enlarged at a cost of £850. The Good Shepherd window in the nave, designed by Kate O'Brien, was installed in memory of Montague Gordon Weaving in 1952. A three-light window by David Esler was added in 2000. The church contains good stained glass windows from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.