Loughinisland C of I parish church, Newcastle Road, Seaforde, Naghan, Downpatrick, BT30 8PL

Loughinisland Church of Ireland Parish Church

This is a well-proportioned and relatively simple single-storey gothic church set on a slight rise at the end of a tree-lined drive on the east side of Newcastle Road, just north of Seaforde. The site is believed to have originally been occupied by a medieval or early Christian church. The building is surrounded by a graveyard and the listing extends to the gates, gate screen and walling.

The church comprises a tower and nave of 1720, a spire of circa 1820, and transepts and chancel of the 1860s designed by the diocesan architects Welland and Gillespie.

The three-storey tower is centred on the west face. At the base of the west side is a timber door set within a simple pointed arch opening with moulded dripstone and label stops. The six-panel timber door has Y-gothic tracery to the framing and chamfered stone dressings. To the first and second floors are single pointed arch openings each with Y tracery framing. The first floor opening contains small diamond panes while the second floor has timber louvers. The south face of the tower is identical to the west face, while the north face is similar but omits the ground floor door. The east face abuts the main gable and is mostly obscured, with only a louvered window opening to the second floor visible. The tower top is castellated with a minaret feature with crockets to each corner, and an octagonal copper-clad spire surmounts the tower. The exposed cheeks of the main west gable are blank.

The south elevation has two pairs of tall lancet windows. The pair to the left contains small diamond panes with hopper ventilators, while the right pair has stained glass. At the far right is the projecting gable of the south transept, centred on which are two tall lancet windows (slightly shorter and more widely spaced than those to the main elevation) with stained glass. A small glazed trefoil feature surmounts these lancet windows. The exposed west face of the transept is blank.

The east elevation is complex. Centred on the main gable is a gabled chancel extension with a large semicircular-headed leaded window, flanked by a small buttress to either side. To the left of the chancel extension is a further gabled extension housing the vestry, centred on which is a pointed arch-headed door with chamfered stone dressings and a plain sheeted door with strap hinges. A small glazed trefoil feature surmounts the door. To the far left of the vestry extension's south face are a pair of lancet windows with diamond panes. The chancel extension's south face is blank.

The north elevation is broadly similar to the south. Two minor extensions have been added: a small lean-to porch was added to the east face of the north transept, and a very small lean-to extension was added to the left of centre of the north face of the same transept.

The roofs are covered with Bangor Blue slate and rainwater goods are cast iron. The gables have stone parapets. The roofs to the transepts are slightly lower than the main roof, the chancel roof is slightly lower again, and the vestry roof is lower still. The walls are finished with plain unpainted render.

To the roadside are wrought iron gates set between sandstone pillars surmounted by shallow pyramidal caps, with curved railings, two further smaller rendered pillars and a wrought iron pedestrian gate to the north side.

Historical Context

The church was built in 1720 by local landowners, the Forde family. Before this, both Protestant and Catholic congregations used the old (circa 15th century) north church at Loughinisland. According to local tradition, one particularly wet Sunday around 1720, Catholic worshippers remained in the old church after Mass to shelter from rain, thereby keeping their Protestant counterparts outside. This incident so annoyed the Forde family members that they had the old church largely dismantled, using its roof timbers for this new church at Seaforde.

The original 1720 building apparently consisted only of the nave and tower. The spire was added in the early 1800s; the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1836 describe it as being "of recent construction". The transepts and chancel date from the 1860s and represent the work of the diocesan architects Welland and Gillespie. The original 1720 roof timbers from the older parish church have since been replaced.

The building of this church marks the beginning of the modern village of Seaforde (originally known as Naghan), as one year after its construction the Fordes obtained a patent from King George I enabling a market to be held in the village, with many leases of plots along the two main streets dating from the 1720s onwards.