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About Aghalee Holy Trinity (Soldierstown)
Aghalee Holy Trinity (Soldierstown) is a Church of Ireland church in Aghalee, County Antrim. It is in the Diocese of Down & Dromore.
History
Holy Trinity, Soldierstown, dates from 1667. It was built on the Hertford Estate on land granted by Lord Conway, and replaced four earlier churches in the area that now comprises the parish, Old Aghalee, Old Aghagallon, Maghernagaw and Magheramesk, which fell into disrepair between the dissolution of the monasteries in about 1536 and the Ulster Rebellion of 1641. A chancel and spire were added in the early nineteenth century. The hamlet of Soldierstown takes its name from a seventeenth-century military garrison.
Aghalee Parish Heritage Project was launched in 2018 and approved in April 2020, with a grant of £185,400 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund against an estimated total project cost of £275,000. Restoration of the church building was carried out between February 2021 and March 2023, and the church was re-dedicated on 26 March 2023.
The building
The church is a barn-style building with a square tower, built in the Caroline style of the seventeenth century. It stands overlooking the Broadwater section of the Lagan Navigation.
The work carried out between 2021 and 2023 removed the internal and external wall render and replaced it with a lime mortar, installed a French drain around the church, stitched cracks in the chancel walls, replaced the floor and partly rewired the building. The heating system was renewed and an audio-visual system installed.
Notable features
The church contains several gothic-style stained-glass windows of the 1890s and a silver chalice which the parish records as believed to have been donated by the Williamite army on its way to the Boyne. The west gallery holds a two-manual Evans & Barr pipe organ, dedicated in 1922 to the parish members who served and who gave their lives during the Great War; it was restored to mark its centenary.
The bell in the bell tower was cast by Henry Paris in 1699 and bears the inscription 'Henry Paris made me a right good sounding bell to bea'. The parish describes it as one of the few examples of this bell-maker's work still remaining in Ireland. Richard Owen, the engineer who oversaw the construction of the Lagan Navigation, is buried in the graveyard.
Clergy
- Incumbent Rev Paul McAdam
