St Mary's RC Church, Castlewellan Rd, Cabra, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5RA

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Cabra, County Down

This is a medium-sized cruciform-plan church, originally constructed between 1820 and 1839, sitting within a graveyard on the north side of Castlewellan Road. The building is oriented west to east and is topped by a bellcote. Although the church retains much of its external character, it has been extensively altered internally, with modern furnishings replacing earlier fittings, and has lost a significant element of its architectural and historic interest as a result.

The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, leaded valleys, and modern flush ventilators to the north side of the main pitch (not visible from the road). Rainwater is carried by modern profiled metal gutters resting on plain corbels, with cast iron circular-section downpipes. The walls are unpainted lined cement render applied over granite rubble, with an advanced base course. All dressings are in punched granite blockwork. Each corner is reinforced by a broad clasping buttress on a chamfered plinth, tapering flush into the wall at three-quarter height. Each gable has a moulded granite kneeler, raised granite skews, and a decorative gable above the kneeler, all lead-flashed. All window openings are lancets with cusped heads, splayed reveals, and canted flush cills, all granite dressed. Glazing and frames vary as described below.

The following description begins at the west gable and proceeds around the building in an anti-clockwise direction.

West Gable (Main Entrance)

The main entrance is centred on the west gable. A single granite step leads to a pair of modern stained timber doors filling a Gothic opening, fitted with modern black iron handles. These sit within a Gothic-headed doorcase with a chamfered reveal and a moulded hood on cube stops, rising from spring-of-arch level. Two modern light fittings are mounted on the wall above the door. Above this are three window openings: the central one is taller and set slightly higher in the gable than the flanking two. All three are glazed with modern rectangular quarry glass with blue margins. At the gable apex is a small shamrock-shaped vent set within a circular granite panel. Rising from the gable is a large bellcote built in squared unrendered granite. Its sides step inward in three pitched stages, then rise vertically with chamfered corners to a gabled, leaded granite roof, terminated by a decorative granite cross. The bellcote is pierced by a trefoil-headed opening from which the church bell hangs on plain granite corbels.

South Wall of Nave

The south wall of the nave has four window openings. The three on the left are modern, glazed with yellow glass rectangular quarries with red and blue margins, inset with red and blue Celtic crosses. The fourth window, to the right, has cast iron diamond glazing with margin panes.

South Transept

The south transept projects to the right of the nave. Its entrance is centred on the south gable and consists of a pair of modern sheeted timber doors — matching those at the west end — set within a shouldered arched doorway and Gothic doorcase. The shouldered head is decorated, and the doorcase matches the west entrance, except that the arch head is infilled with a plain tympanum panel. Modern light fittings are mounted on this panel and above the door. The gable above contains three windows matching those at the west end in form, but glazed differently: all have yellow glass rectangular quarries with blue margins, and the central window additionally features a lozenge panel depicting the Sacred Heart pierced from above by a sword. The apex contains a small trefoil vent set in a circular panel, and the gable is finished with a decorative cross finial. The west cheek of the south transept has two windows, each with cast iron framed diamond quarries. The east cheek also has two windows, both containing figurative stained glass (see interior).

East End and Sanctuary

The narrow south cheek of the sanctuary — which forms an eastward extension of the nave and projects beyond the east side of the south transept — has a single stained glass window, smaller than those on the nave and transepts but with a higher cill. The east gable is abutted by a single-storey sacristy. The wall above the sacristy contains three stained glass windows matching those at the west end in form, but clustered together and given decorative hoods on moulded brackets. There is a trefoil vent in the apex and a cross finial, as elsewhere.

Sacristy

The sacristy is single storey with a basement. Its pitched natural slate roof has modern flush vents on each pitch, and its rainwater goods and wall construction match the main block. On the sacristy's south elevation, a modern door at basement level is reached by concrete steps enclosed by a plain modern wrought iron railing and matching gate. At ground floor level, a pair of small rectangular cast iron casements with diamond quarries are set into a single opening. The east gable of the sacristy has two similarly detailed narrow lancet windows. The north elevation is blank and is abutted by a porch linking it to the east gable of the main block. This porch has a lean-to natural slate roof pitched against the east gable of the main block and tying into the north pitch of the sacristy roof, but at a lower ridge. Three steps on the east cheek of the porch rise to a modern sheeted timber door, the head of which is at eaves level. The porch's north wall has a pair of rectangular cast iron framed casements.

North Side

The north cheek of the sanctuary has a single stained glass window matching that on the south cheek. To its right, the north transept advances and is identical to the south transept, with the following exceptions: all windows in the north transept are cast iron framed with diamond quarries, except those on the east cheek, which contain figurative stained glass (see interior). A modern disabled access ramp abuts the north entrance, constructed of squared uncoursed granite walling with a chamfered plinth and a tubular metal handrail. The north wall of the nave has four window openings. The leftmost contains a figurative painted glass window (see interior), while the remaining three are modern, glazed with yellow glass rectangular quarries with red and blue margins and inset with red and blue Celtic crosses.

Setting and Boundary

The ground immediately surrounding the church is paved in tarmac running right up to its walls. The boundary with the road is formed by a cement rendered dwarf wall with an overhanging granite coping, above which decorative wrought iron railings are mounted on cast iron ball cushions, with foliated cast iron spearheads. Approximately at the centre of this boundary, the main gates are set into a concave recess. The pair of gates match the railings in detailing and bear a maker's stamp reading "B. Lindsay." They hang on broad ashlar granite posts with chamfered plinths and moulded overhanging pyramidal caps; the base of the left-hand post is incised with an Ordnance Survey benchmark. At the far left end of the boundary stands a two-storey pebble-dashed outbuilding with a small plain pedestrian gate; at the far right is a pair of vehicle gates matching the main entrance gates in design. From the main gates, a path and two flights of granite steps lead up to the south door of the church. The areas to either side of the steps are lawned. To the right is the Gothic Revival McMullan Mausoleum, dating from around 1841 to 1842. To the north and west of the church lies the graveyard, which has a retaining wall where it approaches the west end of the building. The graveyard contains a variety of memorials; the earliest date from the 1830s and 1840s and are in roughly dressed granite or slate, the slate examples often decorated with naive carved angels. To the east of the church stands the plain parish house of around 1900, with bay windows and plastic double-glazed windows. To its rear are a 1970s toilet block and car park.

Historical Development

The Ordnance Survey Memoir of 1836 records a plain rectangular building of T-plan on this site, with principal dimensions given as 80 feet by 77 feet. It also notes that a church was first erected here in 1783, but was rebuilt with additions in 1832. A T-plan church is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834. By the time of the second edition map of 1859, the building had become cruciform in plan — indicating the addition of the sanctuary — and both the outbuilding to the front and the McMullan Mausoleum are also shown. The church cleaner records that the building was refurbished in 1998, with work including stone cleaning, re-rendering, re-roofing, and redecoration, completed by November of that year.