Survey Data

Reg No

40303013


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social


Original Use

Church/chapel


In Use As

Church/chapel


Date

1885 - 1890


Coordinates

267635, 296453


Date Recorded

31/07/2012


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Freestanding Gothic Revival gable-fronted Presbyterian church, built 1887, having five-bay nave, breakfront surmounted by turret, advanced gabled portal in lean-to entrance porch, vestry to rear against south-east gable. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles and limestone barge coping, copper spirelet rising from apex of front elevation over corbelled and gabled arch, stone chimneystack to rear gable, cast-iron rainwater goods on profiled brick eaves. Hipped slate roof to vestry. Rock-faced coursed and squared rubble stone walls with punch-dressed limestone quoins. Wall buttresses between nave bays, end buttress flush to front gable. Pointed arch window openings with yellow brick block-and-start surrounds to nave, chamfered limestone sills, and replacement uPVC windows. One stained glass window to each side elevation protected by storm glazing. Graduated triple lancet windows to front gable with limestone block-and-start surrounds and replacement uPVC windows. No chancel window. Triangular-headed window openings to vestry with chamfered yellow brick surrounds and stone sills. Pointed arch door opening to porch with chamfered limestone surround and timber double doors with decorative iron hinges and timber trefoil overpanel. Open-trussed roof with flat ceiling at tie beam to interior, having angled braces beneath over arch braces rising from wall corbels. Pews arranged in three rows with side aisles. Timber dado to side walls, panelled to altar end, below central blind pointed arch with hood moulding. Central reading desk flaked by pulpit and organ. Set back at angle to road, with double-leaf wrought-iron gates in cast-iron panelled piers with pyramidal caps and lantern finials flanked by splayed rubble stone boundary walls with moulded render copings.

Appraisal

A small, carefully detailed, Gothic Revival church, built in the late nineteenth century on a site donated by Isaac Bloom of nearby Tanderagee House. The simple form of this church is enlivened by the highly quality ashlar detailing to the nave and porch. The plain exterior is enriched by the yellow brick detailing to the window surrounds and eaves, which provide an aesthetic contrast to the rustic detail of the stone walling. The church and hall form an interesting ensemble that is an important part of the town’s social and architectural heritage.