Gates and Pillars At, St. Gobhan's Church, Seagoe Road, Portadown, Co.Armagh

Gates and pillars at St. Gobhan's Church, Seagoe Road, Portadown, County Armagh.

These gates and pillars form part of the boundary to St. Gobhan's Church, one of the most ancient Christian settlements in Ireland, thought to date from around 540 A.D. The parish church itself has a complex architectural history spanning nearly two centuries.

The original stone church on the site was built before 1609 by English settlers who came with Lord Essex. This building was destroyed during the rebellion of 1641. A replacement church was constructed around 1666 by Valentine Blacker of Manor House, Ballynaghy, accommodating 150 worshippers. Improvements were made in 1705 and 1755, but the church remained in use until 1816. The ruins of this second church survive in Seagoe Cemetery.

The present church was built on an entirely new site to avoid problems with graves encroaching upon the building and rising ground levels. The first stone was laid on 1 June 1814, and the church was completed and consecrated on 28 June 1816. It was a simple rectangular structure, 70 feet by 30 feet, without a chancel and with a flat plaster ceiling. The Rector was Rev. Stewart Blacker, with Rev. Richard Olpherts as curate, who contributed £500 towards the building.

Over the following seventy years, under Archdeacon Saurin, the church underwent gradual improvements including the addition of a gallery, a west tower with a bell installed in 1860, and replacement of square pews in 1862.

The most substantial transformation came under Dean Dawson, who commissioned architect Thomas Drew RHA to redesign the interior. This major renovation, completed in 1891, removed the gallery, added a chancel, new vestry, organ chamber, southern aisle, and a new porch. Most notably, Drew introduced an open-timbered nave ceiling with soaring arches, designed in the manner of 15th-century English examples with four-centred arch frames springing from hammer-beams. The windows are large, handsome traceried stone designs in perpendicular style. The Baroness von Steiglitz laid the foundation stone for the chancel on 11 April 1890, and the church reopened for worship on 7 August 1891. Dumfries Red Sandstone was used externally for windows and wrought iron, with Bath stone for the interior.