St Patricks Church, Lurgan Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4LY

St Patrick's Parish Church, Lurgan Road, Seapatrick, north of Banbridge

St Patrick's is a modest Victorian rural parish church of the Church of Ireland, built in 1879 by remodelling a former mill school originally constructed in 1815. The building was designed by architect Edward Nevill Banks and constructed by contractor John Harkness of Banbridge. It occupies an ancient ecclesiastical site with origins stretching back to at least 1306. Although the church retains its original proportions, extensive renovations in the late 20th century have resulted in the loss of much of its historic fabric and character, and its setting has also been degraded. It was formerly listed in 1977 but was delisted in January 2014, having been assessed as a late and not particularly distinguished example of its type whose interest had been significantly compromised by alteration.

Architecture

The church is a double-height, gabled building on a rectangular plan, set back from the west side of Lurgan Road at a slightly lower level than the road. A chancel projects to the south and a gabled entrance porch to the north; two lean-to extensions to the east house a store and vestry. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with pointed crested terracotta ridge tiles. A gabled bell-cote with a gothic opening supporting a bell sits on the north gable. Rainwater goods are aluminium, fixed to projecting timber eaves. External walls are painted roughcast render on an undercut cement-rendered plinth. Windows throughout are pointed-headed, leaded-and-stained glass casements with projecting painted sills.

The principal elevation faces north and is joined by the lower gabled entrance porch, which opens to the east through a gothic arched, timber-sheeted door with cast-iron door furniture. There is a window to the west elevation of the porch. To the north gable of the porch, a post and lintel support a large bell, operated by an iron mallet from within. The east elevation has five evenly spaced windows. The west elevation is abutted at its centre by one of the lean-to extensions and is flanked by two windows; the lean-to has a square-headed opening to the north and is otherwise blank. The south elevation is abutted by the lower chancel, which has a staged tripartite window, a single window to the east, and a lean-to extension to the west with a window to its east side and a slender gothic arched, timber-sheeted replacement door with cast-iron strap hinges to the south.

Setting

The church is set back from the road at a slightly lower level. To the east is a large tarmacadamed car park bounded by a rock-faced stone wall with coping, topped by original cast-iron railings, with square metal gate piers supporting the original gates at the centre. The ground to the south is lawned with a shrubbed garden of remembrance. The site is bounded to the south by a rubble stone wall enclosing the ruins of the original parish church. The gates, railings, and this ruin add to the historic interest of the site, though the wider setting has been degraded.

Historical Background

The ecclesiastical history of the site is long and complex. The ancient church of St Patrick is recorded near this location from at least 1306, when the parish was known as 'Disertunde'. By 1422 the name had become 'Dysartmoygh'. Whatever building stood on the site was destroyed in 1641, and tradition holds that King William ordered it to be rebuilt when he crossed the Bann in 1698. The place name 'Seapatrick' is thought to derive from the Irish Suide Padruic, meaning the place or residence of Patrick, though this name does not appear in records until a patent of 1610. It is considered possible that St Patrick founded a church here on his route from Armagh to Saul, though no early records confirm an association with his name.

Catholics ceased to use the church by 1630, though they continued to be buried in the graveyard until the early 19th century. In 1847 the old church building was sold to Frederick Hayes, proprietor of the nearby spinning mill, for £25; the proceeds were used to build a wall around the churchyard, the work carried out by James Watson, mason, using stone from the old church itself. The old church was formally abandoned in 1835 when Holy Trinity Church was built in Banbridge, then at the height of its prosperity as a centre of the linen trade. The gable wall of the early church survives and remains within the graveyard to the south of the present building.

The present structure began its life as a school. In 1813 the Vicar, the Reverend Francis Burrowes, offered one or two acres of his glebe in perpetuity for the purpose, and the school was built in 1815 with funds provided partly by William Hayes, proprietor of the local spinning mill, and partly by the Association for Discountenancing Vice. In 1817 an addition to the schoolhouse introduced instruction in weaving and spinning, bringing technical education to Banbridge — a reflection of the area's strong connection to the linen industry. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 shows the building captioned as 'School Ho[use]', with the 'Church' and graveyard to the south. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe it as a stone building, roughcast and whitewashed, measuring 44½ feet long and 18½ feet broad. The school received its income partly from the London Hibernian Society and partly from pupil fees. It had around 40 pupils in total, mostly under 15 years of age and all female; although associated with the Church of Ireland, pupils came from all three main denominations. The Townland Valuation records it as an Endowed School with an associated dwelling house, valued at £4 7s. Griffith's Valuation describes it as a Church Education Society School House valued at £3.

The growth in population around Seapatrick, driven by the success of the local spinning mill, created demand for a chapel-of-ease close to the site of the original parish church. The former school was taken over in 1879 and entirely remodelled for this purpose. The schoolhouse was enlarged by the addition of a chancel, vestry, and porch; the walls were raised; new windows were inserted; and an entirely new roof was constructed. The architect was Edward Nevill Banks, who also designed St Thomas's National School in Windsor Avenue, Belfast, and was principally known as an engineer responsible for water supply works in Bangor, Ballymena, and Belfast. He was a member of Belfast Corporation and worked, in the words of contemporaries, with enthusiasm and self-denial for the Church Missionary Society and the Protestant Orphan Society. The contractor, John Harkness of Banbridge, was noted in the Banbridge Chronicle for the tasteful manner in which he completed the work. The workmen who built the church were mill craftsmen.

The church opened for divine service in September 1879, when the sermon was preached by the Bishop of Ossory, better known to many as the Reverend Pakenham Walsh of Sandford Church near Dublin. The building could accommodate nearly 200 people and was fitted with open benches, lit by thirteen lancet windows. The east window was presented by the architect and the remaining windows by the Archdeacon of Dromore. The church was also intended to serve as a mortuary chapel, being more conveniently close to the graveyard than the parish church. The total cost of building was over £200, of which £100 was contributed by the Vestry; further contributions were made by the Archdeacon, Mrs W. Hayes, Reverend W. A. Hayes, Mr Richard Hayes, Mr Robert Joy, and Mrs O'Reilly. The church entered valuation records in 1880, valued at £15, and first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1903, captioned 'St Patrick's Church'. It was formally consecrated on 4th September 1882, after which it could be used for the sacramental rites of the Church of Ireland.

In 1965 a new organ was installed. In 1983 a new east window was fitted, depicting scenes from the life of St Patrick. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, renovations took place including re-roofing, re-rendering, damp-proofing, re-wiring, and new heating, together with the demolition of derelict outbuildings and the laying of tarmac for off-street parking.