St Patrick's Church (C of I), Church Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2AH

St Patrick's Church (Church of Ireland) is a nave church built in Newry granite, occupying an imposing hilltop position north of Church Street and east of High Street. It is considered to be of national significance on account of its classic simplicity, commanding situation and historic importance. The listing covers the church itself together with the surrounding graveyard walls and gates. Although the building has been renovated and rebuilt at various points across its long history, it retains some original features and a simple, elegant character. Together with the walled graveyard, it forms a complete composition.

The original church is thought to have been erected by Sir Nicholas Bagnall in the 1570s. His coat of arms, dated 1578, is embedded on the inside wall of the tower. This was moved to its present position from the south wall of the building in 1915, having first been placed on the south wall in 1830 during renovations. If the 16th-century date is accepted, St Patrick's would be the first post-Reformation Protestant church in Ireland, though the earliest surviving vestry minutes date only from 1775. The church was ruinous by 1641 but was renovated between 1720 and 1729, when a gallery was inserted. By the early 19th century it was again in poor repair, and the congregation began constructing St Mary's Church nearby as a replacement in 1810. St Mary's opened in 1819, and many memorials were transferred from St Patrick's at that time. Despite St Mary's becoming the parish church, the congregation repaired St Patrick's and it reopened as a Chapel of Ease in 1819. The north transept was added sometime between 1835 and 1861. In 1869 St Patrick's became a separate parish and resumed its role as a parish church in its own right. Between 1879 and 1886 the chancel was extended, the contractor being Alex Wheelan of Newry; also added at this time were an organ and associated loft, a lectern and pulpit, new choir stalls, a brass communion rail and a heating apparatus, and the pews were refitted. A small annex appears to have been added at the north-east corner of the north transept by 1906. The present clock was installed in 1905, though the bell dates from approximately 1828.

The building comprises a nave with a square tower abutting its west end, with transepts and an apse added to the east end. The four-stage tower is wet-dashed throughout except for squared granite rubble piers to the top two stages; all dressings and openings are of finely dressed granite. Three granite steps lead to the main entrance on the west elevation of the tower. The doorway consists of a pair of painted tongue-and-groove leaves below a modern obscured glass Gothic transom, set within a Gothic opening with a chamfered head and jambs and a label-stopped granite hood mould over. A modern metal handrail is positioned to the right of the door. The second stage of this elevation contains a single cast-iron lattice window set within a chamfered dressed Gothic-headed opening, with a metal light fitting carrying a modern globe immediately below the sill. A splayed granite string course delineates the third stage, whose walls, along with those of the stage above, are recessed slightly behind the corner piers. This stage contains a clock face set within a moulded granite diamond surround; the clock has a circular white face, black Roman numerals and black-painted decorative spandrels. A further splayed string course marks the fourth, belfry stage, which contains a Y-tracery timber louvre set within a tall lancet opening in a chamfered dressed granite reveal. A splayed string course runs below the parapet, which has gabled-coped and stepped crenellations. Each corner pier is surmounted by an oversailing pyramidal cap above which is a pinnacle topped with a stone cross. The tower roof, visible only from inside, is monopitched and slopes down towards the nave.

The south face of the tower is identical to the west elevation except that the ground-floor doorway is fronted by granite block paving, has no transom, and the door has decorative strap hinges. The north face of the tower mirrors the west elevation except that there is no ground-floor door and the second-stage opening is infilled with timber louvres; a metal downpipe from the roof gutter runs on this face. On the east face the fourth stage rises clear of the nave and is identical to that on the west.

The nave and transept roofs are pitched; the apse roof is hipped and finialled. All are covered in natural slates with terracotta ridge tiles, granite-coped verges and moulded kneelers. All rainwater goods are half-round metal. The west gable of the nave is almost entirely occupied by the tower, with the remaining exposed portions wet-dashed as is the rest of the building.

On the north elevation, the nave wall to the right of the north transept contains four Gothic-headed openings with cast-iron lattice windows in multi-coloured glass. Below the first window from the left is a modern oil tank; below the second is a small granite wall with stone steps leading to a modern sheeted metal door to the basement, with a small metal gate at the top of the stairs. The north transept has a rendered chimney rising from the centre of its ridge and a small granite ashlar finial of square cross-section at the gable end. Its walls are of unrendered granite rubble brought to courses. The gable has a large tracery window consisting of a cinquefoil window over three lancets, with the middle panel lower than the flanking ones; the tracery and chamfered reveal are in sandstone, over which sit granite voussoirs. The window is stained glass with a transparent plastic security panel over it. The right cheek of the transept contains a cast-iron lattice window in a chamfered granite reveal, also with a plastic panel over. The left cheek is partially abutted by a later extension; above the extension the infilled head of a window similar to that on the right cheek is visible, and the remainder of the wall is plain. The extension, which contains a vestry, projects slightly beyond the north transept gable and has a hipped natural slate roof with ogee cast-metal rainwater goods supported on granite brackets. Its walls are of rubble as in the transept but heavily pointed in cement. On the gable's east-facing elevation, three concrete steps with a steel handrail lead to a tongue-and-groove door with fake strap hinges, set within a chamfered Tudor-arched opening. The left cheek of the return is plain; the right cheek has a single segmental-headed opening containing a margin-paned cast-iron lattice window with a metal grille over it. The exposed section of gable wall beside the abutment to the transept is blank.

The apse walls are of roughly squared granite rubble with finely dressed sandstone moulded sill course and quoins. The east, middle cant has four hood-moulded Gothic openings, each containing a single stained glass window protected by plastic panels and metal grilles within chamfered reveals. Identical but single windows appear on the cants to either side. At the junction of the apse and transepts is a wet-dashed buttress with stepped and dressed copings.

The south transept walls are wet-dashed. The gable end is surmounted by a square finial identical to that on the north transept. The gable wall is blank except for a flat-headed render hood mould with label stops. The right cheek has a single cast-iron lattice window similar to those on the nave. The left cheek is partially abutted by a lower, modern gabled extension containing toilets; the remaining section of wall is blank. This extension has a pitched natural slate roof, coped verges and half-round metal rainwater goods. Its walls are dashed with cement finished with granite chippings over a raised smooth-rendered base course. The west-facing gable has a small modern timber Gothic stained glass window, and the right cheek has a pair of similar windows. The left cheek has a grained tongue-and-groove timber door within a Gothic opening; this door appears to be considerably older than the extension and is probably reused from an earlier porch at this location, with a modern electric light fitting over the door. The south wall of the nave is identical to the north side, except that the window at the right end, immediately before the transept, has been replaced with a stained glass window in timber tracery.

The church is surrounded by a graveyard enclosed by a high random rubble wall and containing some monuments of note. The approach from Church Street passes through a pair of dog-barred gates set within rubble granite piers with projecting caps, along a path flanked by random rubble granite walls capped with rounded pebbles set in cement. The High Street entrance comprises a pair of wrought-iron gates flanked by ashlar granite piers with oversailing pyramidal caps; each cap carries a metal post, probably for a gas light standard, of which only the bases now survive. The left pier, as viewed from High Street, is inscribed "Erected by subscription AD 1835", and the right post reads "Dan Bagot DM. Chaplain. John Corbelt Church Warden". A flight of ten granite steps leads up to the path towards the church, flanked by granite-coped cement-rendered walls with modern metal handrails.