The Church of Coole

Francis Joseph Bigger was keenly interested in the history of Belfast and surrounding areas.
This is from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology Vol XV 1909 pp65-69

The Church of Coole or Carnmony,

With some References to other South Antrim Churches.

The south of Antrim bordering on carrig-Fergus Bay or Belfast Lough breaks into a series of glens, not so deep or wildly romantic as the glens of Antrim, but still with much interest and beauty of their own. They are, geographically speaking, the first of the glens of Antrim, but have now quite a different appearance, on account of the growth of Belfast, to what they had at the time about which I am writing. These glens had each its own church, about two miles or so from the shore. The first one was Sean-cill, an ancient church dedicated to saint Patrick, situated on what is now the Shankill road, Belfast. No portion of the church remains, but the graveyard is still in use. This church was built in what was doubtless a wooded glen, on the banks of a little river, which rose on the slopes of the Squire's hill, and wandered through Edenderry (telling of oak woods) and the Old park, past the old church. it was then utilised by the old mill of Belfast, near the mill-field, and flowed down the centre of the High street of Belfast. This was the Belfast river - the Fearsat - on which st. Patrick's church was built.
Leaving Belfast and journeying due north, the next glen was Glen-gormlaithe (Glengormley), in the parish of Carnmoney. The Glass-a-bradan (the stream of the salmon), and near its banks was built the ancient church of Coole. The site of the old church was in the centre of the old graveyard, and on it was reared at a later date one of those rude square reformation churches with which we are all familiar. They were built, and they have all the appearance of such erection, merely to satisfy legal requirements. there were few or no English church people in the parish until recent years, the district having been planted with Scotch presbyterians, so its use was not very great and its ornament was nil. There were no catholics left in the parish. The old church was removed in 1856, when the present handsome building was consecrated, largely through the generosity of the Smythe family, and the old site given as burial-places to newcomers into the parish, the Valentines, Fitz-simons, Dixons, Torrens, Blands, Graingers, etc. The difference between their monuments and the older stones still clearly denote the site of the old church. The views here given of the old church came to me from the old archdeacon Smythe; he and his father had been vicars of Carnmoney for nearly one hundred years. The building had no windows on the north side, a somewhat usual custom, nor were there any graves there originally, but they were crowded close up to the east end and south wall. My own people's graves were close against the latter. A law came into force that no burials should take place within ten feet of the church under a penalty of ten pounds. This law was broken and the penalty sometimes exacted. The door was in the tower at the west end, where sir Hugh Cairns' enclosure now is; there was no vestry. A former rector stabled his horse in this porch, and afterwards donned his black gown at the prayer-desk, which stood below the pulpit against the south wall. This may have been Thomas Merrifield, who was vicar in 1758, as he resided in High street, Belfast; or it may have been his successor, Mathew Garnet, who was the son of lord Donegall's schoolmaster in the old Latin school in Church lane. The nomination was with the Donegall family, who appointed hangers-on of the family, for I find that Garnet was also "constable of Belfast castle." Edward Patterson succeeded Garnet, and during his tenure of the post he assisted at st. Anne's on Sunday afternoon. He too, doubtless, had a horse, and so local tradition holds good. Merrifield was non-resident, for no sooner was he appointed in 1758 than he at once advertised to let "the glebe lands of the parish of Carnmony, containing 51 acres arable pasture and meadow, wherein there is plenty of turf and limestone." - Apply to the rev. Thomas Merrifield at his house in Belfast.

Mathew Garnet came in about 1767, when lord Donegall, the absentee, returned to Belfast, and created the land agitation carried out by that early Ulster land reforming society known as the Hearts of Steel. All Carnmoney, Ballylinney, and Templepatrick was controlled by this body for well nigh twenty years, so Garnet as the nominee of Donegall had a poor time of it. About this time the gross value of the "living" was about £575 per annum, with no duties save the legal ones. John Winder, the friend and successor of Jonathan Swift at Kilroot, held the vicarage about 1697. He, doubtless, used the old Irish highway to Carrick in his travels back and forward. A portion of this road is still used between the Tobar-ban (Whitewell) and the church, crossing the Glash-a-bradan. There are no local traditions whatever about any of these old clergy, so they were considered simply as "comers and goers" and tithe collectors.
        The inside of the church was as plain and bare as the outside. There were six square pews on the south side with the "three decker," and seven on the north side. The pulpit had no canopy, nor was there any stove, so that on a cold bleak Sunday the few attenders often adjourned to the surrounding glebe where prayers were said around the drawing-room fire. The windows were wide and slightly pointed, with plain wooden sash frames, the east one being similar, with the communion table below it. A pathway led to the church door from the old road on the north side. The existing road along the south side is more modern. The only fragment of the old church that I know of is the circular stone window-casing from the tower, which is now built over a well on the glebe avenue.
      The present condition of the graveyard is creditable to no one. It is invariably out of order and badly kept. Gravestones have been broken, cast aside, and used up for other "jobs." Cumbrous and obstructive iron railings have been erected everywhere, quite blocking the passages. These were largely erected quite recently by a former sexton as a contractor, with the permit of the vicar and his vestry, in order to make the sexton money, quite regardless of the fitness of things. Enormous amounts of money must have been gathered in by former vicars for tithes and dues and grave-lettings, and yet no proper provision has been made for the decent care of the graveyard. Collections are now taken up for the purpose, and some work done occasionally, but it is quite inadequate to keep the place as it should be kept. Anyway vandalism should and must cease forthwith. Graves don't belong to the living but to the dead, and the trust is a sacred one. On an old stone in Bangor is the following inscription:-
                                                                            Posterity are desired to take care
                                                                            that the ASHES of the DEAD in
                                                                            This Burial place May not be
                                                                            Disturbed by strangers.
(This notice might be served yearly on the parochial authorities of Carnmoney.) Many beautiful and interesting monuments stand in the churchyard, more especially the Smythe Celtic high cross, with its Irish inscription, second to no modern cross in Ireland; many noted and historic people are buried there; surely then every effort should be made to keep the place decent and comely.
      After Glengormley, on the north side of Carnmoney hill, is another glen. On the slopes of the Knockagh, facing south, a little stream rises and runs into the river in its centre, which finds its way into the sea at Whiteabbey. I cannot trace the proper name of this river or glen, although I feel sure they must be recorded on some of the old deeds or maps. On the banks of this stream was the ancient church of Cill-na-managh, now Monkstown, situated quite similarly to that of Sean-cill and Carnmoney. Still further north in the Woodburn glen, on a similar site, on the banks of a stream falling into the Woodburn river, are the remains of the ancient church of Cillian (the church at the river) at Duncrue. Within half a mile east of it is another church, known as saint Nicholas of Carn Rawsie, at Burleigh Hill.
          At the foot of each of these glens, bordering on the sea, was another ecclesiastical building. At Belfast ford was the old church on the site of the present saint George's. At Cloch-castle, or Greencastle, close to the old castle, was another church. The White abbey was also close to the sea, as was the fine old abbey at Woodburn.