Knockbreda Parish Church, Church Road, Belfast, BT8 7AN

Knockbreda Parish Church, Church Road, Belfast

Knockbreda Parish Church is a free-standing, double-height, hall-and-tower type Church of Ireland church, built around 1737 to the designs of the celebrated architect Richard Cassels. It stands on an elevated site to the east of Church Road and to the north of Newtownbreda Road, and is the oldest church to survive in the Belfast area.

Historical Background

Knockbreda parish was formed from the union of the ancient Knock and Breda parishes, both of which had ruinous churches by 1657. In the early 1730s, the Hon. Arthur Hill — later Viscount Dungannon and grandfather of the Duke of Wellington — purchased land in the townlands of Ballylenaghan, Breda and Galwally, forming an estate that became known as Belvoir. Viscount Dungannon and his family are memorialised in the church, as are the subsequent owners of the estates, the Batesons. The church therefore served both as a chapel to the Belvoir estate and as the local parish church.

The building of the new church was proposed in 1733 by Arthur Hill's mother, Lady Middleton, who faced down local opposition that had favoured a site further west, closer to the joint parish of Dundonald but inconveniently distant from the Belvoir demesne. The church was eventually approved and built in 1737, with Lady Middleton's financial backing, on a site overlooking Belfast presented by Viscount Dungannon. The elevated position of the churchyard, combined with the closure of St George's graveyard in 1798, made Knockbreda a fashionable last resting place for prominent Belfast citizens.

Architect Richard Cassels (also known as Castle), a native of Hesse-Cassel in what is now Germany, was appointed to design the church, most likely on the strength of his reputation as the designer of substantial country houses such as Westport House, County Mayo and Powerscourt, County Wicklow. This was one of the first churches in Ireland to be designed by a professional architect, as would become more common later in the Georgian era. A prolific designer of domestic architecture in the Dublin hinterland and beyond, and the most important architect of his era, Cassels is known to have designed only five churches, two of which are of uncertain attribution and one of which was never built. The church was much admired on completion, being described by Harris in 1744 as "a Building the neatest and most compleat perhaps of this Kind in the Kingdom."

Architectural Character

The church is a fine example of an early Georgian parish church employing many of the neo-classical architectural devices in fashion at the time. It retains a wealth of original external and internal fabric. The interior volume of the nave forms a double cube — a proportion much favoured by Cassels and other Palladian architects for domestic interiors. The church displays several unusual features, including apsidal transepts, which are thought to have allowed Lady Middleton and her family to set themselves apart from the rest of the congregation, as was common practice for prominent families in the Georgian period; though the inspiration for the design itself is considered to derive from Cassels's grounding in European baroque. Most other churches of this era in Ireland were of a simple nave-and-tower or nave-and-bellcote design.

Exterior

The church is rectangular on plan, facing west, with apsidal transepts, and an apsidal chancel to the east added around 1883. There is a gabled projection (organ chamber) associated with the chancel works. To the south elevation is a gabled vestry, built around 1910, and a further flat-roofed accretion to the north elevation.

The roof is of natural slate with rolled lead ridges and lead valleys, semi-conical over the chancel and transepts. Cast-iron guttering is supported on a deeply moulded masonry eaves cornice, with cast-iron downpipes. The external walls are finished in ruled and lined render with a projecting rendered plinth course. Window openings are generally double-height and round-headed, with masonry sills and bipartite geometric tracery windows with leaded stained glazing.

A three-stage, square-plan rendered tower rises from the front elevation, forming a shallow breakfront, and is surmounted by an octagonal rendered spire with a lead-lined broached base and a metal ball and weather-vane finial. The bell stage has round-headed openings to the front and both side elevations, fitted with timber louvres.

The symmetrical three-bay front elevation has a slightly advanced entrance bay defined by a full pediment lined in lead, corresponding to the eaves cornice. The flanking bays have square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and multi-pane iron swivel windows. The central entrance has a square-headed door opening with a painted masonry Gibbs surround, pulvinated frieze, and full pediment over. The pair of replacement hardwood raised-and-fielded panelled doors, with roundels and lozenge panels, were inserted in 1937. They open onto a concrete platform approached by six curved concrete steps with a swept iron handrail, and there is a universal access ramp.

The north nave elevation is abutted by a central apsidal transept, a flat-roofed single-storey canted vestry to the west end, and a further gabled projection to the north face of the chancel. The south nave elevation is likewise abutted by a central apsidal transept and a single-storey gabled projection to the south face of the chancel, which has a flat-roofed porch to either cheek; this projection has round-headed window openings with fixed-pane timber frame windows. The apsidal rear elevation has three window openings of the same character as those described above.

Alterations and Additions

Some repairs and alterations were carried out in 1855 to the designs of William Turney Fullerton, including a new pulpit and reading table and the remodelling of the chancel. The chancel was, however, completely replaced in 1883 as part of works carried out by Sir Thomas Drew in his capacity as diocesan architect. Drew added the apsidal chancel with boiler room off, and a west gallery. The stained glass windows of the nave are a Victorian addition, possibly inserted at the same time, replacing the clear glass of the original building. According to Brett, the tracery of the nave windows may also have been altered at this time to match the new windows in the chancel. The mosaic pavement in the chancel was a gift from Thomas Bateson, Lord Deramore, in memory of his brother Samuel. A vestry was added to the north elevation in 1910 to the designs of Robert Inkerman Calwell.

Setting

The church sits on an elevated site approached from Church Road by a central tarmac footpath reached via a flight of stone steps and a pair of decorative cast-iron gates on tall, square-plan stone piers with pyramidal capstones, flanked by rubblestone quadrant walls. The churchyard contains notable stone grave markers and mausolea dating from the mid-18th century, and is enclosed on all four sides by rubblestone walling. The site is now encroached upon slightly by a large commercial development. The church has group value with three impressive mausolea on the site, and its interest is further enhanced by its entrance gate screen, steps and walling.