St. Aidan's Church of Ireland Church, Glenavy, Crumlin, County Antrim, BT29 4LY

St. Aidan's Church of Ireland Church, Glenavy

St. Aidan's is a stone Church of Ireland building erected around 1810 as a Board of First Fruits church, situated on the north side of Belfast Road in Glenavy. The church was destroyed by fire in 1938 and rebuilt in 1939 by architect D.W. Boyd.

The building is rectangular on plan with a three-stage western tower and flanking single-storey annexes. The chancel, slightly lower than the nave, sits at the east end and is abutted by a transept to the north and a vestry to the south. The roof is pitched natural slate with grey ridge tiles. Rainwater goods comprise replacement half-round gutters on projecting eaves course with cast-iron downpipes.

The walling is roughly coursed rubble stone over a slightly battered plinth. Diagonal buttresses with offsets flank the north transept and chancel. The three-stage tower features a crennellated parapet with four corner pinnacles.

The nave windows are lattice-glazed with Y-tracery, set in chamfered stepped ashlar sandstone reveals. The transept north gable contains an intersecting arrangement of tracery, while the chancel east gable has reticulated curvilinear stained glass. The remainder of the windows are pointed-arched lattice-headed openings.

The principal western entrance is set within the gable facing west, flanked by single-storey gabled annexes. The tower's first stage contains the main entrance: a double-leaf timber panelled door surmounted by a sandstone inscribed panel reading "CHURCH OF ST AIDANS / DESTROYED / BY FIRE A.D.1938 / REBUILT A.D.1939", set in a pointed-arched painted ashlar surround. Above the entrance is a blind oculus with moulded surround. The north and south elevations are flanked by single-storey gabled annexes, each surmounted by a blind oculus. The second stage of the tower contains a central clock to the north, west, and south faces, with a blind lunette to the east; all are surmounted by semi-circular ovolo label moulds. The third stage features pointed-arched louvered openings to the belfry on all sides, set in stepped ashlar sandstone reveals. The third stage is surmounted by a crennellated parapet and decorative crocket-enriched pinnacles with crop.

The single-storey annexes flanking the entrance each contain triple pointed-arched lattice-glazed windows within chamfered stepped ashlar sandstone reveals, surmounted by square-headed ovolo label moulds.

The north elevation is abutted at its left by a double-height north transept. The transept contains a central intersecting tracery window to its north gable, with single Y-tracery windows to the east and west. The east elevation is abutted by the slightly lower chancel. The internal angle between the chancel and north transept is abutted by a lean-to extension with similar detailing. A single-storey flat-roof extension (boiler house) at basement level, accessed by steps from the north, adjoins the north. The chancel is abutted to the south by a single-storey vestry with hipped roof containing two modern windows to the east and accessed by a single-leaf square-headed timber panelled entrance door to the west.

The church is set within a large cemetery site accessed through a decorative timber lych-gate to the south, dated 1943 and dedicated in memory of Archdeacon Charles Watson, a former Rector of the Parish. The lych-gate has a pitched rosemary tile roof and decorative bargeboards, and is flanked by roughcast-rendered walls with bolection coping. The graveyard comprises a range of plain stone grave markers and decorative burial grounds enclosed by cast-iron railings. The earliest discernible grave marker is inscribed "HERE LIETH / THE BODY OF MARTHA / HURDMAN DAUGHTER / TO GEORGE HURDMEN / WHO DIED 3 DAY OF / MARCH 1740 / AGED 19 YEARS".

The church grounds are accessed from Belfast Road at the north side of Glenavy town centre through an alcoved entrance comprising cast-metal gates mounted on paired painted square ashlar pillars with casement moulding, pyramidal caps, and stop chamfers, separated by modern mild-steel railings supported on a random rubble plinth wall with segmental coping. The out piers are flanked by roughcast-rendered rubble walling with soldier coping. A long, narrow tree-lined driveway leads to a car park and lych-gate access located to the south of the cemetery.