St. Joseph’s RC Church, Blackstaff Road, Ballycran Beg, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 1A?

St. Joseph's RC Church, Blackstaff Road, Ballycran Beg, Kircubbin

St. Joseph's is a large, two-storey church built between 1874 and 1876 in the French gothic style, designed by architects O'Neill & Byrne of Belfast. The church sits on a slight rise commanding views of the surrounding countryside and was constructed in blue stone, semi-coursed, snecked rubble with buff-coloured sandstone dressings, decorations and quoins.

The building comprises a main nave with a semi-circular apse to the south-east, a projecting gabled porch and vestry to the south-east side, and a four-storey stone bell tower with a tall pyramid spire positioned to the right-hand side of the north-east gable. A flight of 12 steps leads to the main entrance in the south-west facade of the tower. The entrance features a trefoil-arched opening with a projecting stone gable surround supported on short stone round columns with floral capitals and cushion bases. The opening is filled with double timber-sheeted doors.

The tower windows include two leaded squared-headed windows to a shallow lean-to on the south-east side containing stairs to the gallery. Tall lancet windows with sandstone dressings appear to the first floor on all elevations. At the second floor are two roundel quatrefoil windows with sandstone dressings, also appearing on all elevations, and paired equilateral-arched windows to the third level on all sides. The tower is buttressed at ground and first-floor levels. The spire features red sandstone banding, decorative stone dormer windows to each face, and is topped with decorative carvings and a cross.

The north-west facade has four small equilateral-arched windows to ground level and a large rose-tracery window lighting the gallery. The gable ends with a stone parapet and cross finial. The north-east nave elevation has five evenly-spaced equilateral-arched windows with sandstone dressings and cills. The south-east nave elevation has four similar windows beside the projecting gabled porch, which features two square-headed windows to its north-west side and three to its south-east facade. The south-west facade has an equilateral-arched door opening with sandstone dressings and timber-sheeted door, flanked by square-headed windows. The semi-circular apse contains seven equilateral-arched windows resting on a sandstone cill band, and its half-cone roof is finished with a tall decorative metal finial.

All roofs are in Bangor blue slate with decorative red fire-clay ridge tiles. To the front of the church is a large gravel parking area, with a graveyard to the north-west and north-east.

The church was consecrated in October 1876 and was built on the site of a mass rock, intended to replace the smaller church at Lisbane which could no longer accommodate the growing local congregation. Construction funds were collected as far afield as the USA, and local craftsmen were employed on the work. A new bell was installed in the tower in 1911, the interior was re-plastered in 1912, and a generator was installed in 1925. The adjoining parochial house was built in 1883 to designs by John O'Neill (formerly of O'Neill & Byrne), who was also responsible for the nearby National School (built in 1874) and possibly for the neighbouring school teachers' residence (1878).