Warrenpoint Parish Church, Church Street, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2AH

Warrenpoint Parish Church

This is an early 19th-century cruciform church with a prominent tower positioned at the front gable, located in a churchyard on the north side of Church Street.

The tower is three-staged with corner buttresses rising to the base of the third stage. The walls are line rendered with a chamfered base course. The buttresses feature pitched granite copings between stages and a two-stage base course, with stepped quoins to the upper section of the third stage. Moulded string courses run at the level of the first and second stage buttresses, with a third between the second and third stages, and a fourth to the upper section of the third stage.

The right (south-east) face of the tower contains the main entrance at first stage (ground floor). This consists of a finely dressed coved doorcase with a depressed Gothic head and hood mould. Within it are a pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted doors with Gothic strap hinges, escutcheon and door pull, with an infilled transom above (probably once glazed) and a concrete step to the threshold. Between the first and second stage is a flush shield-shaped granite plaque reading "THIS CHAPEL / WAS ENDOWNED / BY REV / JOHN DAVIS / 1825". The second stage has a lancet window with chamfered granite architrave and cast-iron quarry framed glazing. The third stage is the belfry, containing a large Gothic opening with chamfered granite architrave and rendered head, within which are two cusped lancets with a quatrefoil in their common spandrel, filled with scalloped timber louvres. The tower roof is flat with an overhanging eave (with rendered or concrete edge) and above which is a stepped and embattled ashlar granite parapet with octagonal corner pinnacles.

The front (south-west) face of the tower has a Gothic window at first stage (detailed as that to the belfry but narrower) with a rendered hood mould continuing to the left and right buttresses as a string course. The second stage has a modern circular clock face with Roman numerals set in a circular recess, with the string course at this level rising over it as a hood mould. The third stage is detailed as the south-east elevation. The left (north-west) elevation is blank to the first and second stages, with the belfry detailed as before. Below its opening are three advanced rendered roundel panels. The rear (north-east) elevation is abutted at first and second stage level by the south-west gable of the nave, with the exposed third (belfry) stage detailed as the others.

The church has a pitched natural slate roof with a slightly lower ridge level to the transepts. Half-round metal gutters rest on advanced granite eaves, with matching granite skews to each gable. All walls are cement wet dashed. Each corner has a two-staged angled buttress in ashlar granite.

The front (south-west) gable of the church is abutted at its centre by the tower. The exposed walling to each side is blank with a smooth base course and platband, which returns around from the eaves line of the side walls. Only the windows on the south-east side have hood moulds. Each side wall of the nave has three lancet windows detailed as the window on the front face of the first stage of the tower. A similar lancet appears on the front-facing (south-west) wall of each transept.

Between the south-west wall of the transept and the north-west wall of the nave is a small single-storey porch with a monopitched artificial slate roof sloping from the nave, with skews. Its eaves and walls match the main block. The right (south-west) facing cheek has a four-panelled door with bolection mouldings and a narrow transom over, all set within a finely dressed granite surround with a shouldered head. The left (north-west) cheek has a single lancet window with cast-iron quarry glazing, and to its right on the corner is a single-staged (non-angled) buttress.

The gable of the north-west transept has a large Gothic window with granite architrave, within which are three Y-tracery lancets. In the gable above is a blind Gothic trefoil. The rear elevation (north-east) of this transept is blank and abutted by a single-storey vestry, which also abuts the north-west cheek of the chancel (also blank). The vestry has a pitched natural slate roof tying into the rear pitch of the transept but with a lower eaves level. Its end gable faces north-east, detailed as the church but with irregular stepped granite quoins and no buttresses. The gable has three lancet windows with cast-iron quarry glazing grouped together under a common granite hood mould. Its north-west cheek has a modern timber door to the right-hand side with an infilled Gothic fanlight set in a dressed granite architrave, and to its left a pair of small lancet lights with cast-iron quarry glazing, all in a dressed granite architrave. Its south-east cheek abuts the chancel.

The chancel has a steeply pitched natural slate roof, steeper than the gable of the nave roof. The rear gable of the nave has granite skews and a small granite chimney pot finial (serving the vestry). The chancel roof has granite skews and its eaves have exposed timber rafter tails. The walls match the main church with matching buttresses to its end (north-east) gable. This gable has a large Gothic window containing three cusped lancets with three multi-foil rose windows in the head above, with sandstone mullions and leaded lights. The left (south-east) cheek of the chancel is blank and abutted almost completely by the organ room.

The organ room also abuts the north-east elevation of the south-east transept (also blank). It is detailed as the chancel but is lower and narrower, with no buttresses. Its end (north-east) gable has a single lancet window with granite dressed architrave and hood mould. Its left (south-east) cheek is blank. The rear north-east wall of the south-east transept is blank. The south-east gable of the south-east transept has a large Gothic window with granite architrave, within which are three Y-tracery lancets, with a blind Gothic trefoil in the gable above and a sandstone hood mould.

The church is set back from the street within a linear rectangular plot which backs on to Summer Hill. The boundary to Church Street is enclosed by an ashlar granite dwarf wall with chamfered coping carrying decorative cast-iron railings terminated at both ends by a granite pier. Similar piers at the centre support a pair of gates. The piers are square in section ashlar granite with a chamfered base course, shallow gabled coping and cast-iron finial. The railings are in Gothic style, comprising a quatrefoil repeat bottom frieze (which forms the top of the dog bars on the gates), Gothic cusped tracery arches spanning the top of each bar, and spearhead finials. The dog bars of the gates have decorative Gothic tracery arches each crowned by a spearhead finial. The front of the church has a driveway, with the sides landscaped with shrubs and trimmed bushes. To the rear is an avenue to Summer Hill flanked by mature beech trees, with the rear boundary enclosed by an irregularly coped rubble granite wall with gates at the centre.