THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Lisburn cathedral is reopens after much needed repairs

The Cathedral of Down and Connor at Lisburn was re-opened having been closed for some considerable time to allow extensive “and much-needed repairs” to be carried out on the building.

The News Letter reported: “The beautiful appearance it now presents is a striking contrast to what it was before the alterations were made.”

The old ceiling of the cathedral had been removed and the roof opened up to the top and a ceiling of pitch-pine put in its place, which added “greatly to the beauty of the building”.

The walls of the building had been newly cemented and the galleries had been made much narrower giving much more space in the centre of the building as before.

The old pulpit had been removed from its old-fashioned position in the middle of the cathedral and now stood to the side “leaving the space between the chancel and the body of the church open”.

Meanwhile the pews of the cathedral had been newly stained and varnished and hot water pipes had been installed to provide heating for the building.

One of the most notable features in the renovated building was a beautiful monument which had been erected by the Orangemen of Lisburn in memory of Canon Hartley Hodson, the late rector of the parish, who had taken “a warm and active interest in the Orange Institution”.

In all, noted the News Letter, “the improvements generally have been so great that the church now looks more like a new one that the old one repaired”.