St Patrick and St Colman's Church, The Point Road, Banbridge, Craigavon, Co. Down, BT63 6EA

St Patrick and St Colman's Church

A double-height cruciform plan Gothic style Roman Catholic Church pre-dating 1830, located at the junction of The Point Road and Holymount Road, adjacent to Lawrencetown bridge. The church was enlarged or significantly modified around 1966, and a bell tower was added in 1912.

The church has a pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, replacement uPVC fascia and soffits, and cast-iron and cast-aluminium rainwater goods. The walling is constructed from rubble masonry, partially rendered, with smooth rendered long-and-short quoins and cement repairs. The bell tower is built from squared coursed rubble masonry with cement dressing.

Windows throughout are Gothic timber lattice tracery with plain chamfered sandstone surrounds and projecting cills. The principal entrance is a diagonally sheeted square-headed double-leaf timber door with decorative strap hinges, long-and-short sandstone surrounds, and a shouldered lintel supporting a plain recessed tympanum within a Gothic arch.

The north-facing principal gable is symmetrically arranged with long-and-short quoins, moulded gable shoulders, and deep decorative coping. It is centrally abutted by a three-stage symmetrical bell tower with angled buttress rising to pinnacles. The tower entrance on the north face is accessed by concrete steps and features a plate-tracery window with bipartite Gothic lights surmounted by a quatrefoil cusped oculus. The second stage has paired string courses, and the third stage contains paired Gothic timber louvered openings. The tower rises to a corbelled parapet with Irish crenellation and a central cross over raked coping.

The east and west faces of the tower comprise tripartite lancet windows at first stage, a single Gothic window at second stage, and paired Gothic timber louvers at third stage.

The left (east) elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with two single Gothic windows on the right and a quatrefoil between. A gabled side altar and baptistery are positioned right of centre. The north face is rendered with a single traceried Gothic window with plain raised surrounds right of centre, featuring a rubble masonry gable. A distinct change in stonework marks the raising that occurred around 1966. A chamfered flat-roof projecting bay is centrally located at ground floor level, with a traceried Gothic window above and a blank oculus below the gable apex. The quoins and coping match the principal elevation, with a diminutive apex cross. Left of the side altar, the elevation continues in rubble masonry with evidence of raising at eaves, comprising two windows.

The altar gable faces south and is symmetrically arranged with matching quoins and coping. It features a square-headed tripartite lattice window at ground floor, a central Gothic lattice window at upper level flanked by diminished single matching windows, an oculus below the gable apex, and a diminutive apex cross.

The right (west) elevation largely mirrors the left elevation. From the right are two windows, with the right window altered to accommodate a door below. A single-storey flat-roofed abutment is located at the re-entrant of the blank north elevation of the side altar, continuing across the gable face to form a secondary entrance comprising a projecting porch with raked coping flanked by three diminutive elongated windows. The upper portions of the gable show evidence of raising. The north face of the side altar and remaining right elevation match those on the left elevation.

The site is bounded to the north and east by a rubble masonry wall, which formerly featured a brick arched opening near the corner, now infilled. Access is via cast-iron gated granite piers. The parochial house stands to the west, with a large graveyard to the south. Beyond the graveyard are modern detached houses.