Methodist Church, Downshire Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 3JY

Methodist Church, Downshire Road, Banbridge, County Down

Built in 1870–71 to designs by architect J. A. Moncrieff, this is a gabled rubble stone Methodist church in the Gothic Revival style, situated on the north side of Downshire Road in Banbridge town centre. The Victorian interior survives in well-preserved condition with much original fabric intact, and the building retains its original cast-iron gates and railings at the front. It forms part of a notable group of 19th-century religious and civic buildings along Downshire Road, flanked to the right by the Edwardian Old Technical School and to the left by the classically-styled mid-19th-century Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church.

Architectural Description

The church is rectangular on plan, with modern single-storey extensions to the rear and southeast. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, raised stone verges, and a large stone finial to the gable apex. The stair bays have battlemented parapets. Rainwater goods are cast-iron ogee pattern on eaves brackets.

The walling is random squared rubble stone built to courses on a chamfered plinth, with sandstone dressings. Buttresses have masonry offsets and rise to pinnacles. A raked frieze with a floriate motif runs at the upper level. Windows throughout are pointed-headed lattice leaded-glass casements with coloured glass margins, set in sandstone blocked surrounds with chamfered sills and head moulds.

Principal (Southwest) Elevation

The principal elevation faces southwest and is dominated by a central entrance bay. This features a pointed arched entrance opening surmounted by a feature window, flanked by narrower stair bays, with the whole composition framed by buttresses. The stair bays have crenellated parapets and a window to each floor. The entrance has a sandstone surround with a moulded archivolt and is flanked by columns with decorative capitals. The double-leaf door is diagonally timber-sheeted with ornate cast-iron strap hinges, accessed via four stone steps, and is surmounted by a leaded and stained glass transom light. A Gothic mullioned window with cusped arch-heads and a central rose light occupies the gable of this elevation.

Northwest Elevation

Five windows wide, divided by buttresses. The extreme left bay has a window and a timber-sheeted side door with transom light set in a Gothic chamfered reveal; a further timber-sheeted door gives access to the basement. To the far right is the stair bay, with raised parapet and pinnacles, containing a window.

Northeast (Rear) Elevation

Two windows to the gable and two square-headed modern windows to the right at ground floor level. The single-storey modern link-block abuts at the right.

Southeast Elevation

Divided by buttresses into five bays, each containing a window. A single-storey flat-roofed modern extension is located to the right, and the stair bay — as described above — to the left.

Construction Materials

The main building was constructed of local bluestone with sandstone dressings. Granite for the door and window surrounds came from the Carland Quarries, Dungannon. The contractor was Mr Collen of Portadown.

Interior

By the time of the First General Revaluation in 1933–34, the church seated 300. All pews were in pitch pine and the aisles had been newly panelled in Oregon pine boarding. There was a vestibule at the front, a pipe organ within the main body of the church, and a vestry and classroom to the rear at ground floor level with a meeting room on the first floor. Heating was by hot water and the building was lit by electricity. The church was recorded at that time as well built and in good condition.

Setting

The church is set back from the road, with the forecourt paved in tarmacadam and a car park to the west. The boundary is formed by a rubble stone wall with sandstone coping stones topped by original cast-iron railings with fleur-de-lis heads, terminated by square stone piers with pointed caps. Original cast-iron gates on polygonal cast-iron piers occupy the centre of the front boundary. To the rear is a modern two-storey rendered church hall of no architectural interest.

Historical Background

Methodism in Banbridge dates back to 1785, when Methodist preachers first visited the town and held services in a stable belonging to John Bradford. Meetings subsequently moved to Bradford's kitchen, then his upper rooms, and later to the old Market House. The congregation's reputation for beautiful singing attracted large crowds, leading to the construction of a chapel in Gospel Lane in 1803–04 capable of accommodating 200 worshippers. In the late 1820s, Primitive Wesleyans became active in the town and opened a chapel for 150 people in Scarva Street in 1831.

Although John Wesley himself is not known to have preached in Banbridge, he passed through the town frequently on horseback travelling between Newry and Lisburn, and mentions Banbridge in his journal in July 1775.

By the late 1860s, the Gospel Lane meeting house had become unsuitable, but considerable difficulty was experienced in securing a site and overcoming organisational inertia. The project was driven forward largely through the perseverance of the Reverend Dr Scott of the Wesleyan College in Belfast, himself a native of Banbridge. Significant financial assistance came from across the Atlantic: John Glass of New York initially offered £1,000 through Dr Scott on condition that the site and minister's residence were provided by the congregation; once he had seen the plans and established the full cost, he raised his contribution to £2,000, leaving only £800 to be found locally.

The foundation stone was laid on 24th August 1870 by William McArthur MP (later Sir William) of London. Contemporary newspaper reports praised in particular the "very beautiful Gothic window with elaborate mouldings and tracery" and the "exceedingly chaste and tasteful" appearance of the front elevation. The side walls, noted to be exactly twice the length of the front, were supported by buttresses described as rendering the building "not only substantial but elegant and durable." The fenestration at the front was deliberately arranged to allow for the future addition of a gallery. The church was designed to accommodate 400 worshippers and was built with a vestry and classroom at the rear and a schoolroom above. A minister's house was also built at an additional cost of £500.

The church opened on 25th May 1871 and was judged "handsome and commodious." Collections taken at the opening service in aid of the debt included contributions from notable local linen manufacturers, among them Thomas Ferguson of Edenderry House and William Smyth of Brookfield. The building was entered in the valuation records in 1873, with the chapel and yard valued at £60 and exempted from rates as an ecclesiastical building. Bassett's Directory of 1886 records that improvements were made to the interior around 1878, the same year in which the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Society united with the Irish Wesleyan Methodist Church, resulting in the closure of the Scarva Street chapel.

J. A. Moncrieff, the architect, is also known as the designer of a Wesleyan schoolhouse on University Road, Belfast in 1869, and is possibly the designer of a racquet court and billiard room in Carlow in 1873, but is otherwise little recorded as an architect working in Ireland.

Among the ministers of Banbridge Methodist Church was the Reverend John A. Walton, whose son Ernest T. S. Walton became one of Ireland's foremost scientists. At the time of the 1911 census, seven-year-old Ernest was living in Banbridge with his parents and younger sister while his father served as minister at the chapel. Ernest Walton went on to become a distinguished physicist and educator at Trinity College Dublin. In 1951 he was awarded the Nobel Prize jointly with John Cockcroft for their work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles — the only Irish Nobel Prize in science. Walton declined invitations to participate in war work, including the Manhattan Project, and was deeply committed after the war to banning nuclear weapons. His Methodist faith influenced him throughout his life and he lectured widely on the relationship between science and religion.

The church was listed in 1977. In 1981, a new Methodist hall opened on land to the rear that had been purchased in 1927. In the early 1990s, following bomb damage, the church underwent a major refurbishment; a service of re-dedication was held in March 1992. Works carried out at that time included the installation of a new lighting system, organ, heating system, public address system, and baptismal font, together with a specially created cross for the front of the church, new hymn books, repainting, new carpeting, and work to the communion rail. The main contractors were Dale Bros.