All Saint's Parish Church, 36 Tullylish Road, Tullylish, Craigavon, Co. Down, BT63 6DP

All Saints Parish Church

A double-height rural parish church in Gothic style, dated 1861, located on the west side of Tullylish Road in the picturesque rural area of Tullylish, on an elevated site immediately south of the River Bann. The church stands opposite the remains of an earlier church and graveyard, and an original verger's cottage.

The church is rectangular on plan with a three-stage bell tower to the south-east corner and a gabled porch set into a re-entrant angle. To the north is a lower gabled chancel, with a vestry and choir room abutting at the north-west. The building is constructed of random coursed basalt over a plinth with tooled sandstone quoins and dressings. The pitched natural slate roof features ridge crestings and stone verges with kneeler stones, supported on stone bracketed eaves with ogee cast iron rainwater goods.

The tower has a pavilion roof with fishscale banding, surmounted by a decorative cast-iron filigree rail. Single-stage angle buttresses with battered bases and string courses between stages articulate the tower. At the first stage, lancet windows open to the south and east; the diminished second stage contains a group of three small lancets to each face. The belfry stage features Y-traceried stone openings with louvers to each facet. A three-quarter-engaged octagonal stair tower is flush with the south gable, with staggered square-headed openings to exposed facets, except for a lattice lancet to the top.

Windows throughout are generally cast-iron margined lattice lancets set in chamfered sandstone reveals, with two twentieth-century stained glass replacements. The principal east-facing elevation is four windows wide, with the gabled porch containing a varnished gothic-arched timber-sheeted door with studs and wrought-iron strap hinges set in a moulded stone reveal with voussoirs. A stone shield datestone at the porch apex records: "FOUNDATION STONE OF THIS CHURCH / WAS LAID BY / …..STEWART ESQ, JP(GL?) / ON THE 15TH DAY OF MARCH / AD / 1861".

The north cheek has three close-set lattice windows with stained glass central panels in a contiguous chamfered sandstone reveal. The south gable contains three close-set lancets to the centre with a rose window above, all with leaded lattice glazing, and a small rectangular grille in a stone surround at ground level to the left.

The west elevation is abutted at left of centre by the west transept and is four windows wide. The transept has a window to the south over a lean-to brick boiler house, and a pair of lancets to the gable surmounted by a lozenge-shaped traceried rose window. The gabled vestry is located at the re-entrant angle and features a shoulder-headed varnished timber door with stone reveal and relieving arch over. A shield datestone is positioned above, flanked at high level by a margin-paned lancet. A large rose window opens to the gable apex with two pairs of lancets to the north. The north gable is abutted by the chancel, which has three stained glass lancets with flush stone reveals.

Doors throughout are timber sheeted with studding and wrought-iron strap hinges set in ordered sandstone surrounds.

The site is bounded by a basalt boundary wall with saddleback coping and features a tarmacadamed forecourt accessed by a pair of cast iron gates supported on painted ashlar masonry piers with exaggerated chamfers and offset pyramidal caps affixed with lamps. Across the road are a modern two-storey church hall, the former verger's lodge, and the tower and gable of the earlier church within the graveyard.