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

Dromore Cathedral: Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer

Building Type, Date and Origins

Dromore Cathedral is a rubble stone parish church built in the Early English style, constructed around 1660–1661 on the site of a much earlier church. The site is traditionally held to have been founded by St. Colman in the 6th century, though no fabric from that early period survives. A stone bearing the incised outline of an early cross, known as St. Colman's Pillow, is located in the chancel and may date from the early medieval period, while a worn granite Celtic Cross in the graveyard is thought to be somewhat later. By the 17th century a substantial church had developed on the site; a 1622 description records it as "almost all now builded, covered, glassed and in part furnished with seats." That building was destroyed during the 1641 Rebellion, and during the Irish Confederate Wars of 1642–53 Cromwell's troops are said to have pulled down the Celtic Cross. The site lay vacant for some twenty years, the walls described as "ruined, without covering, door or windows," before the present church was built in 1661 under the supervision of Bishop Jeremy Taylor shortly after his appointment to the diocese.

Architectural Overview

The plan comprises a central nave on an east–west axis with an entrance tower to the west and an apse to the east end. There is a projecting porch to the south, an extended aisle to the north with a projecting entrance bay, and a baptistery abutting the east elevation. The walling is random coursed rubble stone — the Stone Database NI identifies the primary stone type as basalt with greywacke, and English Lower-Mid Jurassic Limestone as both a secondary and replacement stone — with sandstone dressings and quoins. An ashlar sandstone string course runs around the apse (added 1870) and the north aisle (added 1899). The northeast corner of the projecting bay to the north (1870) is corbelled out at upper level using sandstone corbel stones. The pitched roof is clad in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles and raised stone verges; decorative filigree crestings with a finial run along the ridgeline of the apse. A chimneystack rises from the south wall of the apse. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

The windows are a variety of leaded and stained glass lancets and tracery windows. Mullioned round-headed lattice windows to the tower sit within round-headed sandstone surrounds. The south nave (1661) has four tripartite Y-tracery windows to the south wall. The north nave has windows dating from 1869, moved from their original position on the original north wall when the aisle was added in 1899. The windows to the baptistery (1870) are diminutive lancets set in continuous sandstone surrounds and depict the four Christian virtues. The south elevation has four sets of evenly-spaced interlocking Y-tracery windows.

The Western Tower (1808)

The four-stage entrance tower was added in 1808 under the supervision of Bishop Thomas Percy, replacing an earlier tower that had carried a spire. The spire was subsequently removed as it was found to be in a state of disrepair and has not been replaced. The tower has a castellated parapet instepped to the upper stages, with louvred vents to three sides at belfry level and rubble voussoirs to the openings. A clock faces east. Bipartite round-headed lattice windows appear at the first and second stages of the west elevation. At ground floor, the north and west elevations each have a timber-sheeted door with cast-iron strap hinges and a Gothic timber transom, set within a pointed-headed chamfered ashlar reveal. The tower contains a bell dated 1708, a gift of Madam Joanna Rust, John Magill and Matthew Stothard Gent, members of the congregation.

The North Aisle and Entrance Bay

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, with a timber-sheeted entrance door surmounted by a Gothic timber casement window, dates from 1870. The aisle added in 1899 has Y-tracery painted arched windows flanked by lancets.

The East Elevation, Apse and Baptistery

The east elevation has, to the right, paired lancets and a cinquefoil window. At ground floor this is abutted by the baptistery (1870), which has a canted end with four windows to the left and a Gothic timber-sheeted door to the right. To the left is the apse, which has six windows at upper level. The apse is abutted to the south by the projecting porch, which opens to the east and has a three-panelled timber door with a Gothic panelled transom light, all set within a sandstone surround with a moulded archivolt.

Phases of Development

The church was extended to the north in 1811. Between 1869 and 1871, Sir Thomas Drew (1838–1910) — the Dublin-based architect best known for St. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast — designed a new chancel, apse and north aisle, erected in memory of Bishop Jeremy Taylor. The construction was carried out by a Mr. Walter Doolin at a cost of £1,500. In 1898–99, the north aisle was extended further to designs by Henry William Edward Hobart (1858–1938), a local architect who also designed the Cowan Heron Hospital and the Ulster Bank on Church Street. Oak pews were added to the earlier Victorian pine seating in 1962. Extensive repair work had been carried out by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1856. Restoration works have also been carried out in recent years.

The result of these successive campaigns is what one commentator has described as an "architectural hybrid" in which each phase of development remains legible. Brett described the interior as "disturbingly shaped and an unsatisfactory hybrid," and Atkinson lamented the substitution of slates for the original oak shingle roof and the loss of Jacobean features that the church had possessed since its rebuilding by Bishop Jeremy Taylor, though he acknowledged that "all was no doubt done with the best intentions." Brett also described the building in 1974 as "one of the smallest and most modest of Irish Cathedrals."

Interior

The interior retains a relatively intact 19th-century character. In 1834 the Ordnance Survey Memoirs described the church as a "stone building, roughcast and whitewashed [measuring] 80 feet by 30 feet" with pews and a gallery capable of accommodating a congregation of 650, with an average attendance of 500 at that time.

Historical Notes

Bishop Jeremy Taylor, who supervised the rebuilding of 1661, died in 1667 and is associated with the cathedral as one of its most significant figures. Prior to the construction of the apsidal chancel in 1869–71, workers discovered an underground vault containing five human skulls, believed to have belonged to Bishop Jeremy Taylor, his wife and three other bishops. Bishop Thomas Percy, who oversaw the addition of the north transept and new tower in 1808, died in 1811 and was buried beneath the north aisle he had built; this aisle is now known as Percy's Aisle.

The Celtic Cross in the graveyard, reportedly pulled down in the mid-17th century, had by the 19th century fallen into disrepair and been removed to the Market Square, where it was used as a mount for the town stocks. A detainee shackled to the stocks was forced to sit upon the ancient monument, and the insertion of the stocks' shafts caused irretrievable damage to a portion of the cross. In 1887, Canon W. A. Hayes, with the assistance of the Town Commissioners, rescued the cross and remounted it in its present position on the south side of the cathedral. The town stocks were subsequently remounted in 1910.

Setting

The cathedral 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, with which it has group value. It is set to the northwest of its plot, surrounded by a graveyard with burial markers dating from the 18th century. The River Bann flows directly to the south. The original gates, walls and railings are included in the listing and survive as part of the original setting. The cathedral sits within a conservation area.