St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Ballymacricket, Glenavy, Crumlin, County Antrim, BT29 4LY

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church is a Gothic Revival building constructed around 1868 to designs by architect John O'Neill, situated on the north side of Chapel Road, Glenavy. Despite the loss of much of its original interior fabric during renovation works in 2006, the church remains a significant local landmark, retaining a well-proportioned and carefully detailed exterior and holding considerable social importance in the Glenavy area. The listing extends to the church itself, the front gate pillars, and the boundary walling.

EXTERIOR

The church is rectangular on plan, with the nave aligned east to west. A square, two-stage engaged tower with a splay-footed slated spire rises at the south end. A gabled sanctuary occupies the east end, with a single-storey extension to the north connecting to a similarly detailed side chapel added in 2006.

Roofs are pitched natural slate with grey ridge tiles. The verges are raised flat stone with stone cross finials at each apex, and moulded kneeler stones and a corbel table support replacement metal rainwater goods. Walls are roughly coursed, rock-faced basalt above a projecting sandstone plinth, with contrasting ashlar sandstone stepped quoins at the corners. Angle buttresses with weatherings are provided to both the nave and the sanctuary. Windows throughout are cusped-headed lancets with leaded stained glass and margin lights, set within stepped chamfered ashlar surrounds with rock-faced voussoirs above and flush ashlar splayed sills, with secondary glazing fitted to the exterior face.

PRINCIPAL SOUTH ELEVATION

The principal elevation faces south. To the left of centre it is abutted by the two-stage square tower with its splay-footed slated spire, and to the left of the tower's first stage by a single-storey pitched entrance porch of similar detailing. The exposed wall to the right is four windows wide.

The tower is detailed in the same manner as the nave, with a double projecting stepped plinth and angle buttresses at the south. The first stage of the tower's south elevation contains a lattice-glazed window, with a diminished window at a higher level on the west face. The second stage begins with two courses of contrasting ashlar with weathering to all corners, and each face contains a single louvred belfry opening set within a stepped chamfered ashlar surround with rock-faced voussoirs above and flush ashlar splayed sills. The tower is crowned by a splay-footed natural slate spire with slate-hung gabled lucarnes containing louvre boards to each facet. Both the lucarnes and the spire terminate with replacement metal crenellated ridges and finials.

The adjoining single-storey entrance porch has a decorative entrance to its south gable comprising replacement timber sheeted doors set in a Gothic-style ashlar surround. This surround takes the form of a recessed first-pointed arch with a continuous torus moulding, fronted by colonettes surmounted by crocketed capitals, with a pointed arched hoodmould and a label stop carved to resemble a human head. The right cheek of the porch contains a diminished cusped pointed arch-headed window. The west gable of the nave contains a group of five symmetrical, diminishing cusped lancet windows with leaded stained glass and margin lights, within stepped chamfered ashlar surrounds with rock-faced voussoirs above and flush ashlar splayed sills, with secondary glazing to the exterior.

NORTH AND EAST ELEVATIONS

The north elevation is six windows wide. At the east end, the north elevation of the sanctuary is abutted by a double-height, lower-pitched sacristy of similar detailing, whose north gable contains a central window. This is in turn abutted by a later, similarly detailed lean-to extension, which connects to a modern glazed extension running north to south and providing access to the side chapel at the north.

The east gable is abutted by the lower sanctuary of similar detailing. It contains a geometric tracery window with leaded stained glass, comprising two cinquefoils surmounted by a central quatrefoil. There are two windows to the left cheek, while the right cheek is abutted by the double-height sacristy.

SETTING

The church is set within a churchyard containing grave markers ranging from the early 19th century to the present day. The site is bounded to the road at the south and east by roughly coursed rubble walling with a soldier coping supporting replacement mild steel railings. At the south entrance, square-plan ashlar piers with cross-gabled caps surmounted by stone cross finials support replacement mild steel gates. Replacement square-plan piers with plain square caps provide access to the cemetery and a small car park at the east. The adjacent side chapel, built as part of the 2006 extension, is of similar external detailing to the main church.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

An earlier building predated the current church on this site. On the Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33, the site shows an oblong building recorded as an 'R. C. Chapel' with a small office building at the entrance to the church grounds. The Townland Valuation describes it as a small first-class chapel measuring 64 feet by 34 feet and only 16 feet in height, valued at £8 3s 4d. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1835–36 describe St. Joseph's as "a neat Roman Catholic Chapel situated near the road from Glenavy to Moira… built in 1802." That chapel had replaced an earlier building burned down during the rebellion of 1798, cost between £350 and £400 to construct, and could accommodate 225 people. The building fund was raised by subscription and a number of collections. The Memoirs record that the chapel was "built at various periods" and that its interior was "extremely neat," always decorated with ivy and featuring a picture of the Crucifixion above the communion table, which the writer judged was "not a very masterly production." The priest was supported entirely by his congregation.

The earlier chapel on this site had itself replaced a still older building that, according to local historical records, had stood since the 18th century. It was burned down in 1798 by a group of seven or eight local men, part of a series of reprisal attacks on Roman Catholic chapels across the parish in the wake of the rebellion — others at the Rock, Derryaghy, Aghagallon, and Ballinderry were similarly destroyed. The church was seen as a contentious symbol of an insurrection which some mistakenly viewed as a solely Catholic uprising. Until 1802, Mass was said amongst the ruins of the old chapel. The 1802 chapel was built by a Father Crangle.

By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, two out-offices had been added close to the chapel, one apparently replacing the earlier small building near the entrance. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records a burial ground adjoining the chapel grounds and values the chapel itself at £13.

The current church was built in the latter part of the 19th century. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901 records a much larger building corresponding to the current layout, by then described as 'St. Josephs R. C. Church.' According to Fr. James O'Laverty, writing in 1880, the new church was built along the foundations of the 1802 structure by architect John O'Neill, who was notable as a builder of Catholic churches and monuments. The building was erected under Fr. George Pye, parish priest from 1848 to 1890, and was consecrated on 13th September 1868. Valuation records show no change to the church's assessed value until 1912, when it increased by £1 with the addition of new offices, and there was no subsequent change by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

There was little change to the church building over the following century. The baptismal font was added in 1928 at a cost of £100. The burial ground was opened in 1930, and the Parochial Hall was added at Easter 1957. The church was listed on 12th October 1991, described at that time as "a good example of the Gothic Revival style with careful attention to massing and detail."

On 28th May 2006 the church was reopened following extension and renovation works to accommodate its growing congregation. The interior was substantially refurbished, with a new floor and pews installed. However, this restoration resulted in the loss of very few original internal features remaining, including the original stained glass windows. The adjacent side chapel was constructed as part of the same project.