St Joseph’s Church (R C)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The church is T-plan form sited close to the county road and much below it as the ground falls away to the bogland beyond. Walls are smooth rendered and painted with fenestration of pointed lancets, some paired with plain sandstone surrounds, pitched slated roofs with eaves and barge overhangs. There are three entrances without porches, one in the gable of the nave and the others each in the lateral walls of the transepts, all facing the road. Over the main entrance there is a tripartite arrangement of lancets lighting the nave gallery and hood mouldings over all the openings. The sacristy is to the rear placed off centre so as not to overshadow the pointed windows on either side of the altar.

Around the church a well-filled graveyard, although many headstones have been disturbed in past building alterations. There is an external bell on a four column open cast-iron belfry now operated electrically.

Historical information

The church is a curacy in the Parish of Cumber. The site of an earlier church can be discerned some 300 yards east of the present. No walls remain and it measured 25 feet by 15 with thatched roof.

The present church was begun in 1822 as a rectangular building i.e. the present transepts, and for nine years or so it served as a church and school. It cost 200 pounds and the site was leased from Lord Beresford who gave 20 pounds and Robert Ogilby 10 pounds. It had no seats and could hold 500 persons. The teacher was Brendan O'Friel and there were 20 pupils.

Around 1853 the church was enlarged and substantially rebuilt in its present form. In the early 1970s it was renovated, re-roofed, replastered and the sanctuary altered to meet the liturgical requirements of Vatican Council II. Architects White & Hegarty. Bell erected in 1911 and bell cast by Murphy of Dublin. Graveyard extended twice. Since second survey visit church has been restored (1998) by McCormick, Tracey, Mullarkey architects. Work funded by the Heritage Lottery Board.

References:
Primary sources:
1. OS Map 1st Edition 1830 Co Londonderry 24.
2. 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.28. Parishes of County Londonderry X', ed Angelique Day & Patrick McWilliams (QUB, 1995) p 8
3. McCormick Tracey Mullarkey.

Secondary Sources:
1. S Lewis A topographical Dictionary of Ireland Vol 1

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Pre-emancipation T-form chapel with gothic detailing. A good illustratuion of the evolution of T-plan form. Well restored.