Granshaw Presbyterian Church, 54 Gransha Road, Comber, County Down, BT23 5QA

Gransha Presbyterian Church, 54 Gransha Road, Comber, County Down

Gransha Presbyterian Church is a Gothic Revival building of pink sandstone, constructed between 1878 and 1879 to designs by architect Henry Chappell. It replaced an earlier meeting house on the same site dating from 1801, and sits on an elevated position to the north of the Gransha Road in the borough of Castlereagh. The church retains the great majority of its original fabric, both inside and out, and displays a good quality of architectural detail throughout.

Origins and Historical Background

The congregation has its roots in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion, when a dissenting group of 25 loyalist families from the parishes of Castlereagh and Moneyrea petitioned the Presbytery of Down for services. Worship began, most likely in Lisnabreeny townland, under probationer Mr James Harvey. When the original meeting house was built at Gransha in 1801 — the spelling of the name has historically varied between Gransha and Granshaw, with the latter now the settled form — the congregation took the name of the place. A minister was ordained in 1803 and remained in post until 1857.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 captions the early building as a "Meeting House" near the mill complex of Gransha Mills, apparently occupying the same footprint as the present church. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 describe the original meeting house as 73 feet in length and 30 feet in breadth: "a modern, plain, whitewashed and slated building capable of accommodating about 400." It was valued at £6, together with 30 perches of land used as a graveyard. Griffith's Valuation records the land as leased from Hugh Miskelly at a yearly rent of £1 11s 6d, and notes that the valuation was subsequently raised to £9 following the addition of an old courthouse. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, a graveyard had been formally captioned and trees had been planted around the church.

The new church was built under the ministry of Reverend Isaac Vance, who had been ordained at Gransha in 1860 and had already built a new manse in 1863. The foundation stone was laid on 7th October 1878 by Mr H L Mulholland, standing in for his father, John Mulholland Esq MP of Ballywalter Park, who was unavoidably absent. At that point the building was already at an advanced stage, described as "almost ready for the roof." The new church entered valuation records in 1879 at a valuation of £49 10s.

The opening services were held on 1st June 1879, when the Reverend McCaw of Manchester preached to crowded congregations at both morning and evening services. The Belfast Newsletter reported enthusiastically: "It occupies an excellent position and from its neat and artistic design together with the taste and comfort which are everywhere apparent inside, it will form an ornament to the neighbourhood and sufficiently meet the wants of the growing congregation." In his sermon, Reverend McCaw described the building as "a model sanctuary" for "chasteness of design, excellence in the execution, comfort and commodiousness," and praised Reverend Vance's efforts in bringing it about. The Irish Builder noted that "the extreme moderation in cost created considerable surprise," commenting that everything had been "carried out in the most sound, substantial and workmanlike manner, with materials the very best of their several kinds and the workmanship equally good." The total cost was £1,500, against which a debt of £800 remained at opening, despite generous contributions from a congregation facing hard times in the farming economy.

The church was described at opening as being in the "second pointed style," built of Scrabo stone "the masonry being of a superior description," with dressings of Dundonald stone "finely chiselled." The interior was tiled with Minton's tiles, and Mrs Vance gifted the finial surmounting the tower. The stonework was by Mr Horner of Belfast, the glazing by Mr Crozier of Belfast, and the contractor was Mr Hutcheson Keith. Accommodation was provided for 400, though nearly 600 were seated without inconvenience at the opening services.

The Irish Builder published an engraving of the church as designed, which reveals that a planned "west wing" to the rear of the church was never built — a filled-in doorway on the western façade was intended to connect to it. The engraving also shows columns supporting the lucarne features on the spire, which have since been removed.

Later additions and alterations include: the addition of two roods of land to the graveyard in 1890; installation of an organ in 1923, replaced by a Compton organ in 1968; new windows installed in the late 1970s; conversion of the stables to the rear into a minor hall and minister's room in 1956; and the creation of a covered way between that building and the church in 1965.

Exterior Description

The church is a free-standing, double-height Gothic Revival building of rock-faced ashlar pink sandstone laid in rough courses, oriented on an east-west axis with a square bell-tower at the southeast corner. The plan is rectangular, with buttressed pinnacles to three sides. A single- and two-storey modern extension abuts the rear.

The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, raised stone verges, and finials. The eaves are cavetto moulded and carry cast-iron ogee rainwater goods with square downpipes. The walling has a high chamfered plinth with a string course between stages. Buttressed pinnacles have masonry offsets.

Windows throughout are paired leaded and stained glass lancets with ogee heads set in Gothic surrounds with chamfered sills. The east and west elevations have geometrical bar-tracery windows.

The east-facing gabled vestibule projects at the east end, with the square bell-tower rising at the southeast corner. The vestibule has two geometrical bar-tracery windows at gallery level and a double-leaf timber-sheeted entrance door flanked by paired lancets at ground level, with a trefoil window opening to the apex. The entrance door is set in a Gothic surround with two semi-engaged colonnettes and a pitted stone medallion to a recessed panel above the door, surmounted by a hood mould with foliated finial and carved label stops. The pinnacle at the northeast corner has an octagonal cornice to the finial and paired Gothic hood moulds to a square base, with slender slots to the shaft on angled buttresses with offsets and plinth.

The bell-tower is arranged in stages: three narrow lancets to the first stage, with a trefoil aperture in a Gothic surround to the south elevation; elongated paired lancets to the second stage; paired louvered openings to the belfry. The spire carries decorative projecting stone pinnacles to four sides. A marble memorial plaque of approximately 1915 is set into the south elevation of the tower.

The south elevation is four bays wide, each bay containing paired windows divided by buttresses. The west (rear) elevation has a paired geometrical bar-tracery window at gallery level; to the right at ground level the outline of a former door surround is visible, and to the left a single-storey flat-roofed modern porch abuts the single- and two-storey extension described as being of little architectural interest. The north elevation is also four bays wide with paired windows divided by buttresses, and has a modern half-panelled double-leaf timber door with ramped access to the left.

Setting

The church is prominently sited on an elevated plot to the north of the Gransha Road, with a cemetery to the south and east. The boundary along the road to the south is a low rubble stone wall with hedgerow. Cast-iron gates with square piers and finial-head railings mark a splayed entrance at the southeast, with a cast-iron pedestrian gate at a southwest entrance. A tarmacadamed pathway leads to a large car park, beyond which a modern double-height church hall stands to the east. The cemetery contains a variety of tombs and headstones dating from the latter part of the 19th century. The church occupies a mature, unspoiled site in an attractive rural location.