St. John's Church of Ireland, 23 Banbridge Road, Dromara, County Down, BT25 2NA

St. John's Church of Ireland is a double-height rubble-stone parish church with a three-stage entrance tower and later additions, dated 1811 and situated west of the junction of Banbridge Road and Woodford Avenue on the outskirts of the village of Dromara. The listing extends to the church itself, its gates, gate piers, and boundary walling.

The building is set on an east-west axis with transepts and a later chancel. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles. Cast-iron rainwater goods sit on a projecting brick course. The walls are rubble stone on a masonry plinth with quoins, with smooth render applied to the later chancel. Windows throughout are leaded stained glass lancets with Y-tracery set in ashlar surrounds with projecting sills.

The principal elevation faces west: a gable with a window to either side of the three-stage entrance tower. The tower's uppermost stage is a belfry carrying a clock to the south face and vented quatrefoil openings to the other three sides, surmounted by tall decorative pinnacles. The second stage has segmental-headed multi-paned windows in ashlar surrounds with a keyblock. The entrance at ground level is a replacement double-leaf timber door with a stained and leaded glass transom light, set in a segmental-headed ashlar surround with a keyblock and accessed by a single stone step.

The north elevation has a window to the right. To the left is a transept wing with a lattice Y-tracery window, abutted on its left by a modern vestry extension with ramped access. The east elevation is abutted by a lower chancel extension lit by a simple round-headed Y-tracery window to the gable. The south elevation has a single window lighting the choir, an interlocking Y-tracery window to the transept wing, and a single opening lighting the nave to the left.

The interior detailing is simple and has been sympathetically restored in recent years.

The church is set within a semi-rural graveyard containing headstones dating from the 18th century. The graveyard is enclosed by a rubble-stone wall to the west, with an entrance formed by a raised wall with saddleback coping stones, gate piers with ball finials, and large cast-iron gates leading to a tarmacadamed pathway.

The building has a lengthy and well-documented history. A medieval church existed in the parish until 1622, when it fell into ruin. It lay derelict by 1641 and was ravaged during the 1641 Rebellion. The Parish of Dromara was not properly restored until 1744. By 1794 the church built at that time was already in need of extensive repairs, but the high cost of materials during the Napoleonic Wars delayed work until 1811. According to Brett, the church was rebuilt rather than merely restored in that year, a fact supported by an inscription above the main door reading "Reconstruction A.D. 1811 T. Percy; H. E. Boyd." Long records that this reconstruction involved raising the walls, installing a new slate roof, and building a new chancel. The church bell was purchased at this time by the Reverend Francis Burrow, a rector, at a cost of ten guineas.

The church appears on the first Ordnance Survey map for the Dromara area in 1833 as an oblong structure recorded simply as "Church," situated just north of the village. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s recorded it as a building measuring 58 feet by 26 feet by 14 feet high, with a steeple of 47 feet, and valued it at £5 10s. The valuer described it as "well circumstanced." The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 describe the church as "a neat, rectangular building with a square tower and clock, all in good repair," built in 1811 at a cost of £600 "raised by assessment on the lands of the parish." The incumbent minister in 1837 was the Reverend Hannington Elijah Boyd, who also resided at Dromara's Glebe House slightly to the west. The church was built to accommodate a congregation of over 250, though average attendance was 150; only around 200 members of the established church were resident in Dromara at that time.

In 1828 a small gallery was installed at a cost of £31, but it was later removed in 1888 as it was found to limit space rather than provide extra seating. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map shows that a transept was added to the north side of the church before 1859, with the building's valuation rising to £12 in Griffith's Valuation of 1861, which also recorded the addition of a sexton's house. The church at that time was let by the Marquis of Downshire; the sexton was a Mr William White, who lived in the small house provided. This valuation of £12 remained unchanged until the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

During the mid-19th century, bodysnatching appears to have been prevalent in the parish, and Long records that the vestry discussed plans to erect a watchtower in the church grounds to protect the deceased from desecration, though it is unclear whether such a structure was ever built.

In 1885 the parishes of Dromara and Garvaghy were joined together, with Sunday services alternating between the two church buildings. In 1896 a new transept and a pine roof were installed at a cost of £400. On 15 February 1896 the church was rededicated to St. John the Evangelist by the Bishop of Down. Later editions of the Ordnance Survey map record the church under that name and depict it as a cruciform structure. Further additions included a marble font installed in 1903, a water heating system in 1906, and a pipe organ in 1907 at a cost of £250.

By the mid-1920s the church was experiencing financial difficulties, prompting a number of vestry meetings. In 1939 evening services were moved to the nearby Rectory, which was easier to black out against potential Luftwaffe attacks during the Second World War. The Church Hall was opened in 1957 at a cost of £5,000. In 1964 the baptismal font was moved to open up extra room for the congregation. The church was reroofed in 1968, oil heating was installed in 1969, and a new electric lighting system was added in 1976. In 1974 a stained glass window was added to the south transept, dedicated to Mr James Pollock who had served as church organist for over 60 years. In 1978 a second stained glass window was gifted to the church and dedicated to Mr and Mrs Robert Thompson by their son Robert.

St. John's Church was listed in 1992. In more recent years wheelchair access was installed, and in 2000 the vestry was extended to provide toilet facilities for disabled parishioners. The current rector at the time of listing was the Reverend Canon Charlie Leeke, installed in September 2008.