St John's RC Church, Castlewellan Road, Hilltown, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5UY

St John's Roman Catholic Church is a mid-19th century cruciform-plan church in a classical style, situated on the east side of Castlewellan Road outside Hilltown, on the east bank of the River Bann. Construction began around 1840, was interrupted during the Famine years, and was not completed until around 1850. The church appears on the 1859 Ordnance Survey six-inch map. At the turn of the 20th century a Baroque-style tower was added and the building modernised. Further alterations, including terrazzo floors and ceilings, were carried out between the wars. In 1997 the church received a Heritage Lottery Grant for repair works, completed by November 1998. Although few original internal details now survive, these successive layers of alteration have given the building a rich, multi-layered character of special historic and architectural interest. The church presents a particularly imposing vista from the east.

The roof is a pitched, naturally slated cruciform form with terracotta ridge tiles and large box-section gutters resting on the eaves cornice. The north, west and south gables each have a raised blocking course above the pediment, finished with an ashlar granite cross. The east gable is plainer.

The principal west-facing elevation is constructed in stugged ashlar granite. Three modern granite steps lead up to a modern entrance plinth running the full width of the front, paved in granite setts and incorporating a flowerbed and two modern bollard lamps. Modern polished granite bollards with incised crosses on each face stand at either end of the top step. The west elevation is divided into three equal bays by four advanced pilasters rising from a common advanced base course, terminating in moulded Ionic capitals and supporting a three-course ashlar frieze beneath a blank gabled pediment with moulded architrave and raised gables. The central bay contains the main entrance: a pair of horizontal-sheeted doors with a matching sheeted transom, all set within a tapering, eared granite architrave of Egyptian character, with plain frieze and advanced moulded cornice. Above the doorway and between the pilasters is a blank recessed rectangular granite plaque. The left and right bays are identical to one another, each containing a tall semicircular-headed stained glass window with a moulded granite architrave resting on a broad cill approximately two metres high, which continues to either side to meet the pilasters.

The north elevation of the nave is four bays wide, divided by five pilasters rising from a common base course matching the façade, with frieze and cornice over. The wall panels between the pilasters are of squared, roughly dressed granite blocks brought to courses. The rightmost bay contains an infilled doorway with architrave; the remaining three bays each have a window matching those on the west elevation. The north transept projects at the left end. Its north gable is identical in composition to the west elevation of the nave, though it is abutted by a modern wheelchair ramp rising from the left, with steps to the right, all in ashlar granite with an overhanging chamfered coping and tubular metal handrail, and flat iron handrails attached to the wall. The west cheek of the north transept has two bays with pilasters and windows as elsewhere. The east cheek is similar but with broader pilasters and unmoulded window architraves; the left window is infilled and abutted by the Sacristy extension.

At the junction between the transept and the east gable of the sanctuary is a modern cement-rendered chimney stack with cement coping and a single pot. The east gable advances slightly and is abutted by a two-storey Sanctuary extension and a single-storey Sacristy extension; the remaining wall faces to left and right are ashlar granite and blank. The gable pediment above is blank with a plain advanced frame and is topped by an empty bellcote with a semicircular head, cross finial, and a semicircular-headed opening.

The Sacristy extension appears to date from the early 20th century but has been re-rendered and had its windows replaced. It is symmetrical in plan with flat concrete roofs to its ground-floor and first-floor portions. All roofs have a coped blocking course, except the east face of the ground-floor portion, which drains directly into cast iron gutters. The walls are lined and cement rendered. Ground-floor windows are one-over-one sashes — two single and two pairs — with modern fixed security grilles and new polished granite cills. There is one modern horizontal-sheeted timber door on the east face and one on the north face. The first-floor portion is narrower than the ground floor and blank to the east; its south and north cheeks each have a small semicircular-headed stained glass window lighting the sanctuary.

The south transept is identical to the north in all details, except that its south gable door retains its original three granite steps, and its walls between the pilasters are cement rendered. The south elevation of the nave is four bays wide, divided by five pilasters, with the tower abutting the leftmost bay. The remaining three bays are cement rendered, each containing a stained glass window matching those elsewhere in the church.

The tower is a four-stage, square-plan structure abutting the western corner of the south wall of the nave, constructed throughout in finely dressed ashlar granite blocks. Its north wall at the first and second stages abuts the south wall of the nave.

The first stage has a plain advanced base course continuing that of the church, and a second base course with cyma-recta moulding rising two courses above it. The west face shares the modern entrance plinth with the church and is set with a deeply recessed doorway containing a modern horizontal-sheeted door with a semicircular-headed plain fanlight. The architrave is elaborately moulded with a keystone and rises from the second base course. To its left and right are plain recessed, bolection-moulded, eared spandrel panels, from which patera pendants hang below the spring of the arch. The south face of the first stage has a blank recessed central panel. The east face is identical but with a rectangular leaded light inset into the panel. Dividing the first and second stages is an advanced moulded cornice following the line of the indented panels on the south and east faces.

The second stage is shorter than the first. Each face has a recessed central panel flanked by band-rusticated ashlar work. The lintel above each recessed panel is supported by closely spaced corbels advancing in line with the band rustication. Over is a moulded abacus with plain frieze and an advanced moulded cornice aligned with the eaves cornice of the church. Additionally, on the west face above the doorway, a carved decorative pediment with cross finial is set into the recessed panel, resting on the first-stage cornice. It is decorated with a heart and cross from which shamrocks and arabesques radiate. The south and east faces of the second stage each have a narrower slot window with coloured leaded glazing inset into the wall panel.

The third stage rises above the main body of the church and is identical on all four faces. It is taller than the two preceding stages and has a recessed central panel in each face. Each panel contains a tall rectangular coloured glass window with a moulded cill on corbels and an eared architrave. Above is a narrow frieze flanked by inverted corbels and topped with an advanced semicircular-headed pediment. Paired pilasters with Ionic capitals frame the panels and support an abacus, a narrow frieze and a moulded cornice. Above the cornice is a plain blocking course broken at the centre of each face by three square-section balusters, with a moulded coping above terminating this stage.

The fourth and topmost stage broaches from square to octagonal, with each corner angle filled by an inverted scrolled corbel sweeping up to form the angle panels of the broached section. The four cardinal faces (north, south, east and west) each have a tall semicircular-headed opening with plain architraves and an advanced keystone, each containing a timber louvred panel. Above is an abacus, a plain frieze and a moulded cornice, over which rises an octagonal bell-profile copper roof terminating in a small plain glazed octagonal lantern. Above the lantern is a smaller copper roof of similar form, with a ball finial surmounted on a cross.

The boundary to the west is a cement-rendered wall with cushion-moulded coping, broken at the centre by a convex sweep of railings and gates. The railings are held on granite piers with inset panels and Moorish cushion-moulded copings, and have cast iron foliated spikes resting on occasional ball cushions on the wall top. The gates match the railings. Within the churchyard, a circular tarmac drive edged with lawn surrounds a central area divided by cruciform granite sett pathways with steps rising to the church front, all lined with modern bollard lights and polished granite bollards. To the north of the church is a graveyard containing no monuments of particular merit. To the immediate north-east is a small grotto in rock-faced granite containing two modern statues. At the north-east corner is a small single-storey plant room with a pitched natural slate roof and granite dressings that mimic the pilasters and gables of the main church. To the south is a car park, and beyond it within the grounds stands the modern parish house.