Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer, 30 Church Street, Dromore, Co Down, BT25 1AA

Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer

A rubble stone parish church built around 1660 in the Early English style on the site of an earlier church. The building has been substantially extended and altered over nearly two and a half centuries.

The square tower, constructed in 1808, stands to the west as the entrance feature. The church was extended to the north in 1811 and again in 1870 to designs by Thomas Drew, at which time a chancel and baptistery were added to the east and an organ aisle to the north. A further aisle was added to the north in 1899.

The plan comprises a central nave on an east-west axis with the entrance tower at the west and an apse at the east end. A projecting porch extends to the south, and an extended aisle to the north includes a projecting entrance bay.

The walls are built in random coursed rubble stone with sandstone dressings and quoins. An ashlar sandstone string course runs across the apse (1870) and north aisle (1899). The northeast corner of the projecting bay to the north (1870) corbels out to the upper level with sandstone corbel stones. The pitched natural slate roof is finished with blue and black angled ridge tiles and raised stone verges. Decorative filigree crestings with a finial crown the ridgeline of the apse, and a chimneystack projects from the south wall of the apse.

Windows throughout the building are a variety of leaded-and-stained glass lancets and tracery. Mullioned round-headed lattice windows to the tower sit in round-headed sandstone surrounds. The south nave (1661) has four tripartite Y-tracery windows to its south wall. The north nave contains windows dating from 1869 that were moved from their original position on the original north wall when the aisle was added in 1899. Windows to the baptistery (1870) are diminutive lancets in continuous sandstone surrounds, depicting the four Christian virtues. Windows to the 1899 aisle are Y-tracery painted arched windows flanked by lancets. The east elevation has paired lancets and a cinquefoil, while the apse displays six windows at upper level. The south elevation has four sets of evenly-spaced interlocking Y-tracery windows.

The four-stage entrance tower (1808) to the west features a castellated parapet instepped to the upper stages and louvered vents to three sides at the belfry with rubble voussoirs to the openings. A clock is positioned on the east face. Bi-partite round-headed lattice windows light the first and second stages at the west elevation. The ground floor has timber-sheeted doors with cast-iron strap hinges and Gothic timber transoms in pointed-headed chamfered ashlar reveals on both the north and west elevations.

The north aisle incorporates a projecting entrance bay built in two distinct phases. The left section dates from 1811 and is two windows wide. The right section, dating from 1870, has a timber-sheeted entrance door surmounted by a Gothic timber-casement window. A projecting porch opens to the east from the south elevation, containing a three-panelled timber door with a Gothic panelled transom light in a sandstone surround with moulded architvolt.

The building is prominently sited at the junction of Church Street and Banbridge Road in Dromore town centre, adjacent to the Northern Bank and opposite the Rectory. It is set to the northwest of the site and surrounded by a graveyard with burial markers dating from the eighteenth century. The River Bann flows directly to the south.