St. Mark's Church of Ireland, Ligoniel Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT14 8DN

St. Mark's Church of Ireland is a High Victorian Gothic Revival church built in rock-faced random-coursed basalt with sandstone dressings, situated on an elevated, prominent site on the north side of Ligoniel Road in the townland of Ballysillan Lower, Belfast. The building as it stands today is the result of three distinct construction phases carried out between 1854 and 1886, and is listed together with its gates and gate piers.

Origins and Historical Background

The church owes its existence to the rapid growth of the Ballysillan area in the mid-19th century. The industrial development of the village — including the construction of beetling mills, the laying out of numerous bleach greens, and the subsequent erection of workers' housing — created a substantial new residential suburb. The influx of labourers into Belfast following the Irish Famine further swelled the local population and created the need for a new place of worship. The land on which the church stands was granted by Elizabeth May, a local landowner and quarry owner.

The foundation stone was laid on 25th May 1854. Charles Brett attributed the design to Charles Lanyon, though Paul Larmour suggests the work was more likely that of Lanyon's chief assistant, William Henry Lynn. The Dictionary of Irish Architects records that Lanyon and Lynn formed their partnership in 1854 or 1855. Construction was carried out by the local firm of James Carlisle, and the church was consecrated on 1st May 1856.

Construction Phases

Phase One (1856): The original building, as shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857, was a simple rectangular structure. What now forms the transepts and tower constituted the original nave. This first phase is attributed to W. H. Lynn and was built in rock-faced, random-coursed basalt with grey sandstone dressings and quoins.

Phase Two (1866): A decade after its consecration, W. H. Lynn was engaged again to fundamentally re-orientate and enlarge the church. He added a new nave to the west, converting the original nave into transepts, and added the chancel to the east. Larmour describes this as renewing the plain original church in a High Victorian manner, with the addition of a red stone-banded nave and polygonal chancel. The new work was carried out by Belfast-based builder William McMaster, and the church was reopened on 2nd September 1866. This second phase is distinguishable on the exterior by its use of random-coursed rock-faced basalt with buff sandstone dressings and quoins, and red sandstone banding at impost and sill level.

Phase Three (1877 and 1885–1886): In 1877, the chancel was redecorated by James John Phillips (c.1841–1936), a local architect and watercolourist. This was the first recorded architectural contract by Phillips in the Dictionary of Irish Architects. Larmour notes that much of his stencilled work in the chancel has since disappeared, but the Gothic Revivalist painted dado survives, as do the elaborate wrought iron chancel rails. Phillips returned to the church between 1885 and 1886, extending the nave and the north transept, adding an organ chamber to the north side of the chancel, and furnishing the interior with a wooden baptistery screen and a polychrome iron cover to the font. The church was rededicated on 25th June 1886 following these final works.

Exterior Description

The church has a cruciform plan set on an east-west axis, with a square-plan tower to the south-east. The roof is pitched natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles, stone cruciform finials to the apex, and raised stone verges. Rainwater is collected in cast iron ogee guttering discharging to circular downpipes.

Principal (South) Elevation: The principal elevation faces south and comprises, from east to west, the tower, the gabled double-height south transept, the south elevation of the nave, and a gabled single-storey porch at the west end. The square-plan three-stage tower to the south-east has single-stage angled buttresses. Its south face has a pointed trefoil arch door opening with a double-leaf timber sheeted door with black iron door furniture, approached by a platform and five stone steps. A metal clock face is set into the second stage. The first stage on the east elevation has a small square-headed opening, with a trefoil opening to the second stage above. The belfry stage has paired pointed arch louvred openings to all four sides. The tower is topped by a broached stone spire with a metal weathervane. The south transept has three-part pointed arch windows with chamfered stone sills and a round arch above, and two windows to its west-facing elevation. The four-bay wide nave lies directly to the west. The projecting gabled single-storey porch at the south-west end has a two-part plate-traceried window with a central colonnette and moulded sill, with carved sandstone detail at high level to the gable. The pointed arch door opening to the west elevation of the porch has buff sandstone dressings and a double-leaf timber sheeted door with black iron door furniture, which appears to be a later addition.

West Elevation: The double-height gabled west elevation features a two-part pointed arch window with moulded sills and a plate-traceried rose window above, with a red sandstone pointed arch above the rose window.

North Elevation: The north elevation consists of the five-bay north elevation of the nave to the west and the projecting double-height gabled north transept. The transept has a three-part pointed arch window with a round arch above and a chamfered stone sill, and two windows to its west-facing elevation.

East Elevation: The east elevation has a three-sided hipped-roof chancel flanked by a single-storey three-sided hipped-roof outshot to the north and a single-storey lean-to outshot to the south, abutted by the tower at the south-east. The chancel has paired windows. The north outshot has a trefoil window, and the south outshot has two square-headed windows with clear glazing. A tall square-section stepped chimney with a red clay chimney pot rises from the south outshot.

Stained Glass

The church is particularly noted for the quality and variety of its stained glass windows. Most were installed as memorial windows to prominent members of the congregation, most notably the Ewart family, who operated the Glenbank Bleachgreen and The Mountain Spinning Mill in the area. Following the death of Lavens Mathewson Ewart of Glenbank House in 1898, his family erected a number of memorials throughout the church. In 1901 the family commissioned the stained glass windows at the west end of the nave. The most significant of these are the rose window and the pair of windows depicting St. George and St. John the Baptist, which were designed by Mayer and Co. of Munich — a world-famous stained glass design and manufacturing firm that was prominent across Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was a chief provider of stained glass to the Catholic Church during that period. The Dictionary of Irish Architects records that Mayer and Co. carried out at least 70 commissions on the island of Ireland between 1870 and the 1920s for both the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church. The Mayer windows are the only stained glass in St. Mark's that can be attributed to a named designer.

The majority of the stained glass windows on the south side of the nave, depicting the Evangelists, and those in the chancel, depicting the life and trials of Jesus, were installed in the late 19th century as memorials to parishioners. Five windows depicting saints were added to the north side of the nave in the first half of the 20th century, including one depicting St. David, installed in memory of members of the congregation who died in the Second World War. Two windows in the south transept depicting the Pentecost and St. Paul were installed in 1956 to mark the centenary of the consecration of the church. A window depicting the Annunciation was added to the north transept in 1966 to commemorate the centenary of the enlargement of the church.

Setting and Curtilage

The church occupies its own grounds on a prominent elevated site fronting Ligoniel Road. The grounds also contain a two-storey pitched-roof rendered vicarage to the east (of little architectural interest), the National School building to the west (listed separately), and a single-storey flat-roofed building to the north-west (of little architectural interest). The site is tarmacked and lawned, enclosed by random-coursed basalt walling. Two gateways from Ligoniel Road are supported on square-section stone piers with moulded caps. The main gateway to the north-west has a double timber gate with iron detailing, and a plain timber gate forms the pedestrian entrance to the north-east. The church has group value with the National School within the same grounds.