St John's C of I Church, Church Street, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down

St John's Church of Ireland, Church Street, Rathfriland

This is a Church of Ireland parish church whose construction is said to have begun in 1730, superseding an earlier church in Drumgath townland of which no trace remains. It was consecrated on 13 September 1733. The building sits on the south side of Church Square, aligned west to east with its tower facing the end of the square, and together with other prominent buildings it forms an attractive enclosure around the square. A small enclosed churchyard lies to the front and a further churchyard to the rear. The rock on which the building stands — visible from the lane at the rear — is known as Ownie's Rock.

The church appears as a simple rectangle on the 1776 town plan of Rathfriland. It was extended in 1818, at which time the tower, transept, and vestry were presumably added; all three appear on the large-scale town plan of 1834. The 1834 Ordnance Survey Memoir describes it as "a simple building without a steeple but a belfry attached to the north side, able to accommodate about 300 persons." Lewis, writing in 1837, records it as "a small decent church, built and furnished with suitable ornaments by John and Robert Hawkins Magill Esqrs." The church was refurbished in 1892 by W. J. Watson of Newry, at which time most of the present interior fittings and the sanctuary were presumably installed; the sanctuary appears on the 1903 town map but not the 1860 edition. An early 20th-century postcard shows the building with two conical-topped roof vents and a smaller vestry with a small vernacular house abutting its west gable.

The main body of the church — the nave — is rectangular in plan. Its pitched roof is covered in natural slate with granite skews and granite pinnacles to the corners and apex. A green metal dome-topped ventilator sits at the centre of the ridge. Rafter tails are exposed and modern metal ogee rainwater goods are fitted. All walls are lined, rendered, and painted, with a chamfered base course.

The tower abuts the centre of the north (front) elevation, which also serves as the main entrance front. It is built in three instepped stages, each separated by an exposed granite platband. The first stage is tall, the second short, and the third slightly taller. The north face of the first stage contains the main entrance: a two-centred (pointed) arch, granite-dressed, with panelled jambs and a moulded head, beneath an eared drip mould. Four granite steps rise to a pair of modern sheeted timber doors with a modern leaded fanlight above. Set into the wall above the drip mould is a recessed rectangular panel, itself topped by an eared drip mould. The second stage is blank except for a small circular hole, possibly for a clock mechanism. The third stage forms the belfry, and on all four faces it has a large louvred two-centred (Gothic) headed opening with a granite cill and granite-dressed heads; the louvres are slate slabs. The east and west cheeks of the tower are blank at the first and second stages. The south face of the tower is abutted at first-stage level by the link block connecting it to the church, and is blank at the second stage. Above the belfry stage, the tower roof is flanked by four unpainted granite corner pinnacles with stepped and coped granite parapets between them and a granite platband below. A timber flagpole rises from the centre of the roof.

A small link block joins the tower to the main body of the church. It has a small pitched natural slate roof whose ridge sits below the eaves of the main church. Its walls are finished as the tower and are blank.

All windows to the church are Gothic-headed lancets in a variety of groupings; those to the rear and side elevations have security grilles. On the north wall of the nave, to either side of where the link block abuts, there is a single window opening left and right, each containing three narrow lancets with granite reveals, mullions, an eared drip mould, and a cill, with plain inset spandrels.

The east gable of the nave is abutted by the lower gabled Sanctuary and is otherwise blank. The Sanctuary has a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridges and skew tiles and exposed rafter tails, with a half-round metal gutter and downpipe to its north elevation. Its east-facing gable has three tall lancets — the central one slightly taller than the others — framed by a finely dressed stepped sandstone architrave with chamfered reveal and flush sloping cill, all painted. The north and south cheeks of the Sanctuary are narrow and blank.

The south (rear) elevation of the nave is abutted to the right by the Transept. The remaining walls are lime-rendered with a chamfered base course. There are two rectangular window openings, each containing three lancets in timber (matching those to the façade in form) with painted granite cills. At the left (west) corner, a small modern flat-roofed boiler house is accessed by three steps down to its door; its slender rendered chimney rises up the gable of the main building. The Transept has a pitched natural slate roof with skews to the gable. The window on its south gable has been sheeted over in galvanised metal. Each of its east and west cheeks has a single narrow lancet opening with a sloping cill.

The west gable of the main church is abutted by a lower return forming the Vestry; the remaining wall is blank. The Vestry has a pitched natural slate roof with granite pinnacles and skews to the gable, matching the main block. Its gable has a 2-over-2 sash window at first-floor level, and its south cheek has an identical window, also at first floor. Its north cheek and part of the gable are abutted by a later extension whose pitched natural slate roof cat-slides down from the front pitch of the Vestry roof. The south wall of this extension has a steel casement window serving a toilet. Its west cheek is blank. The north wall has two flat-headed window openings, each with a pair of narrow timber-framed lancets with stained glazing, stucco eared drip moulds, and painted cills. The east cheek of this extension has a tongued-and-grooved stained timber door reached by three steps up, with a modern timber handrail.

The small churchyard to the front is enclosed by a rendered dwarf wall with overhanging copings, supporting spear-headed wrought iron railings to the left of modern wrought metal gates, with modern railings to the right. The small churchyard to the rear is enclosed at the back by a rubble stone wall and contains two grave plots: one to the Fegan family, comprising a raised plot with an early 19th-century slate slab, and the other a 20th-century memorial to the Reverend Harte, who died on 14 October 1914 in the first local motor car accident. The parish records were destroyed in the Public Record Office fire in Dublin during the 1916 Rising.

The interior is almost completely late 19th century in character — the result of the 1892 refurbishment — and makes a positive contribution to the building as a whole.