St Comgall's Parish Church of Ireland, Hamilton Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 4LE

St Comgall's Parish Church of Ireland, Hamilton Road, Bangor

St Comgall's is a double-height Gothic church designed by the architect W.H. Lynn and built around 1880, with a spire added to the tower around 1900. It occupies a prominent triangular site at the convergence of Castle Street, Hamilton Road and Main Street in the centre of Bangor, where its scale, style and proportion make it a landmark building. The listing covers the church itself together with its gates, piers, walling, railings and steps.

Origins and History

In December 1877 the Irish Builder announced that a new parish church was to be built in Bangor, the Abbey church having become too small for the town's expanding population and being considered poorly positioned for residents to the east. The decision to abandon the Abbey church rather than repair and enlarge it was not without opposition, notably from J. Sharman Crawford, but the Rector, Reverend E. Maguire, pressed ahead. A meeting of the select vestry unanimously resolved to build a new church capable of seating 600 people at a cost of £6,000. Funding came from several sources: Robert E. Ward, lord of the soil, gave both the plot of ground and a donation of £1,100; Lord Bangor contributed £500; a bazaar held fifteen months earlier had raised £430; and the trustees of the Marshall Beresford Fund promised further assistance. Notably, the Lord Primate had previously sent the English architect William Butterfield to advise on extending the Abbey church, but Butterfield had recommended against spending money on enlargement and considered a new building necessary.

W.H. Lynn's design was selected, with the intention of completing the nave first and adding to the building as funds allowed. The foundation stone was laid by Lord Arthur Hill in October 1880. On that occasion Robert E. Ward presented Lord Arthur Hill with a silver trowel, conveying the gratitude of the Bangor congregation and building committee; the estimated cost had by then risen to approximately £10,000.

The church was consecrated in August 1882 under the dedication of St Comgall, though it did not appear in valuation records until 1890, at which point only the nave with north and south aisles had been completed, at a cost of £7,500. Additions followed gradually over the next decade without affecting the valuation. A chancel was dedicated in 1892. In 1898–9 the spire was added at a cost of £2,500, with Dean Maguire reportedly hoisted aloft to lay the capstone; the contractors were Messrs Laughlin and Harvey of Belfast. A Celtic cross that originally graced the top of the spire was displaced during violent storms in 1903 and had to be replaced with a smaller cross. A peal of bells made by Messrs J. Taylor and Co. of Loughborough was installed in 1899, the gift of Mr Robert Atkinson. In 1919 a church organ by John Hunter of London was installed as a memorial to those who died in the First World War; a later refurbishment of the organ was carried out as a memorial to those who died in the Second World War. By 1921 valuation records note the installation of an engine house containing an engine to drive the organ mechanism; the engine house was separately valued at £2 10s. There appear to have been some minor additions to the south-east corner of the church in more recent years.

Exterior

The plan form is a barn-style rectangular nave adjoining aisles, with a tower and vestry accommodation. Walls are of squared rubble basalt with a red sandstone double plinth, string and corbel courses, quoins and dressings. The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles. Rainwater goods are cast-iron box section, painted red.

The principal gabled elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged. It is dominated by a tripartite composition: a tall central round-arched window flanked by two Gothic-arched windows, all three crowned by a large eight-piece rose window. A small trefoil window set into a lozenge is inset into the gable head. The elevation has two-stage lateral buttresses with gablets, sandstone copings with gablets over the shoulders, and a continuous sandstone sill and hood moulding course.

The north elevation is abutted by the north aisle, which is five bays wide, and by a two-stage square-plan tower with spire at the north-west corner. The first stage of the tower is double height with two-stage lateral buttressing. It has a single plate tracery window to the west face at ground-floor level, paired sandstone quadralobe blanks, and small lancet-arched windows to the upper portion. The second stage has large paired timber louvres set into paired ordered Gothic openings. The tower is surmounted by a broach spire with lucarnes on alternating faces, topped by a ball finial and cross. Entry to the tower is through a small shouldered door at the foot of the right-hand buttress on the west face, rising to a projecting octagonal turret that houses a spiral staircase giving access to the bell ropes.

The former principal entrance to the main body of the church is at ground-floor level on the north face of the tower. It takes the form of a gabled porch with sandstone dressings enclosing a deep Gothic-arched opening with ordered composite circular columns rising to an impost and archivolt. The ashlar sandstone internal walls of the porch have cusped statuary niches. The timber-sheeted door has a round-arched stained glass overlight and is set into a large cusped opening with moulded surrounds, itself embraced by a carved sandstone Gothic arch with columns and imposts matching the porch entrance. Three replacement sandstone steps lead up to it, flanked by wrought-iron handrails with scrolls.

Five bays to the left of the tower are separated by single-stage lateral buttresses, with stained glass windows throughout. The east gable face of the north aisle contains a tall plate tracery stained glass window, with a single lateral buttress to the right-hand side surmounted by a sandstone gablet.

The east gable is abutted by a two-bay gabled chancel. The north face of the chancel matches the north aisle in character. The east-facing gable end has three tall Gothic-arched stained glass windows with a small trefoil opening at the centre of the apex, flanked by single-stage lateral buttresses surmounted by sandstone gablets. The south face of the chancel is abutted on its left-hand bay by a two-storey gabled projection, with a single-storey mono-pitched projection extending across the right-hand bay. There is a diminutive lateral buttress at the right-hand corner. Various cusped and square-headed window openings appear throughout this range, with access to the vestry from the left-hand side of the single-storey projection. All details and materials match the main church. A further one-and-a-half-storey gable-ended projection with a catslide roof at a lower pitch extends southwards, with a large circular sandstone chimney rising from a diminutive buttress on its right-hand side.

The south elevation is abutted by the single-storey lean-to south aisle, which is six bays wide. The far left bay has three Gothic-arched stained glass windows; the central four bays have paired Gothic-arched stained glass windows. The far left bay is abutted by a single-storey gabled porch with sandstone dressings and a Gothic-arched timber-sheeted double door embraced by ordered composite columns rising to circular imposts and an archivolt, flanked by a diminutive lateral buttress and served by modern steps and a ramped access. There is a single-storey flat-roofed projection in the re-entrant angle between the chancel abutment and the right-hand side of the south aisle. A tall circular sandstone chimney serving the heating chamber below rises from a buttress right of centre. The east face of the south aisle has plate tracery leaded lattice lights with a single buttress to the right-hand side.

Interior

The large arcaded nave and the decorative stonework of the chancel and sanctuary are of particular interest. The interior demonstrates an assured touch in the quality and handling of its ornamentation and workmanship in the sandstone detailing.

The church contains a remarkable collection of stained glass with a complete absence of signatures, though several windows can be attributed. The Tower of Glass studio produced Sower by Beatrice Elvery and Knight by A.E. Child, both dating from 1915. Heaton, Butler and Bayne produced five pairs of memorial windows during the 1890s to 1900s. Mayer and Co. produced the east window of 1905 and a Clanmorris memorial window of 1908 in the south aisle. Windows depicting Isaiah (1939) and St Cecilia (1960) appear to be the work of the Clokey studio.

Setting

The church stands on a triangular site at the convergence of Hamilton Road and Church Street to the west, with Ruby Street running parallel to the east. Open green space with mature trees and an adjacent car park lie to the western and southern sides of the site. The boundary is defined by fine gates and cast-iron railings fixed to basalt rubble walling with sandstone piers and copings, which enhance the setting of the church. The surrounding area is primarily two-storey Victorian residential and commercial properties, with a large supermarket, petrol station and car park located to the south. The adjacent Bank of Ireland building (also listed) stands nearby, and the church has group value with the Dufferin Memorial Hall, built as its parish hall, which stands in the same group.