Bannside Presbyterian Church, Castlewellan Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4AX

A double-height Italianate Presbyterian church erected 1866 to designs by John Boyd; rectangular plan form with adjoining hall to the rear. Located off Castlewellan Road south east of the town centre, adjacent to the River Bann. Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; cast-iron ogee moulded rainwater goods; masonry coping (leaded at front elevation); masonry corbelled eaves course. Stucco rusticated walling; projected plinth course; stucco mouldings. Round-arched leaded windows set into plain recesses; masonry cills. Round-arched double-leaf timber doors clad with 1960s artisan copper panels depicting Christian references; moulded surrounds. The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged. Dentilled pediment facade broken by double-height round-arched recess with moulded keystone encompassing paired windows with central moulded colonette; louvered oculus; moulded spandrels. Gable surmounted by a moulded gable bell; no bell. Central paired doors with single window either side. The left (south) elevation is asymmetrically arranged; five windows wide; blank recess and quoins to right. The rear (west) symmetrical elevation is abutted by a pitched roofed link block between the church and the adjoining hall. Exposed section has a central oculus at high level flanked by a recess encompassing an oculus at slightly lower level. The right (north) elevation is asymmetrically arranged; five windows wide; blank recess and quoins to left. Setting The main church is adjoined by various additions erected over different periods. Roughcast render gable ended hall c.1900 further abutted to the north and west by a single storey flat roofed extension c.1960. Two-storey block added 1996 adjoined by a glazed lobby. Beyond the church car park to the south is a basalt masonry mill building; River Bann to the west. The site is bounded to the west by a modern railing. Roofing: Natural slate Walling : Stucco Windows: Leaded RWG: Cast-iron