LOWER CUMBER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Gothic style five-bay Presbyterian church with hall on lower level, built c. 1884 to designs by John Kennedy of Derry. Entrance elevation faces east with angled steps leading up to main doors set in slim gabled projecting doorcase with tympanum. Pitched slated roof with clay ridge, modern ventilators and raised skews covered in lead. Stone finials to each gable. Cast iron rainwater goods, ogee shaped cast-iron gutters set on stone corbel. Walls of un-coursed rubble local Schist with tooled sandstone dressings and two stage stepped buttresses. Strap pointing to stonework. Pointed arch openings to side elevations with geometrical stone tracery with plain and coloured glass in diamond and square pane designs; various window and door openings to lower level. Church is situated on an elevated site to the north of the Glenshane Road, north-west of the village of Claudy.

East elevation contains the main entrance located at the top of an angled flight of stone steps. Two timber diagonally sheeted entrance doors with ornamental cast-iron hinge decoration are set within gabled projecting doorcase with engaged columns to architrave and trumeau, topped with finial and with archivolt springing from the deep base; short buttresses to front face of projection. Tympanum contains circular recessed mouldings with ‘Cumber Presbyterian Church’ and the date ‘1884’. Lantern style light fitting between door openings. Lancet arched windows to either side of doorcase with plain and coloured glass in diamond and square pane designs. Pointed arch openings at upper level with geometrical tracery and similar glass.

North elevation is five-bay with 5 no. pointed arched windows as before to upper level and various square-headed window and door openings to lower level. Stepped stone chimneystack rising at eaves level between 2nd and 3rd bay. Small modern rooflight to roof. New ramp to door opening at eastern end of elevation accessing ground floor level. External steps lead down to doors which access the lower ground floor.

West elevation is smooth rendered with large rose window with dressed stone surround, slightly recessed and stone trefoil tracery. Two storey extension to lower level. Extension in un-coursed stone with leaded arched window openings; two on the south elevation of the return, one on the east elevation and one on the north elevation. Metal ventilator grills to base of wall.

South elevation as north elevation but with paired lancet arched windows to lower level. Double-height gabled projection with finial to eastern end of elevation with lancet arched window to upper level and angle-buttresses to corners.

Pitched slated roof with clay ridge, modern ventilators and raised skews covered in lead. Stone finials to each gable. Cast iron rainwater goods, ogee shaped cast-iron gutters set on stone corbel. Single storey extension has natural slate hipped roof with clay ridges and cast-iron rainwater goods on projecting eaves course.

The site is bounded by a low stone wall to north-east and west. The walls to the south and lower end of the north-east boundaries have stone piers and painted spear-headed wrought- and cast-iron railings. Wrought- and cast-iron spear-headed gates set between stone gate pillars with acanthus-leafed cornices and pyramidal caps are located at the east end of the south boundary. The entrance doors are reached by a flight of angled stone steps with painted cast-iron handrails.

Materials:
Roof: Natural slate
RWGs: Cast iron
Walling: Schist and Sandstone
Windows: Geometrical tracery

Setting:
Church is situated on an elevated site to the north of the Glenshane Road and north-west of the village of Claudy. Brackfield Bawn, a scheduled monument (LDY023:014) lies to the south-west, the former school building to the north-east (HB01/02/036 record only) and a farmyard with outbuildings to the west.

Historical information

This congregation was originally part of Glendermott, but became a congregation in its own right in the early eighteenth century. Major Murray (Major being his forename) was ordained the first minister of Cumber on 15 April 1718. A meeting house was built at Brackfield, beside the ruins of an early seventeenth-century bawn of the Skinners’ Company of London, which is shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 as a T-plan structure.

By the early 1880s the need for a new church was apparent to many within the congregation, especially its minister, Rev. Hugh Morrison. Following a sermon delivered by him on the first Sunday in May 1883 on Haggai 1.4 (Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?), his flock was left in no doubt of the need to begin work on a new meeting house and lecture hall.

The new church was built on the same site as its predecessor. Its architect was John Kennedy of Derry and the contractor was Matthew McClelland, also of Derry. Kennedy was the architect of a number of fine buildings in the North-west, including the recently completed Church of Ireland churches in Strabane and Dunnamanagh.

The foundation stone was laid on 13 July 1883 by Lady Reid, the wife of Sir Edward Reid, a prominent figure in Derry’s commercial and municipal life. The casket in the foundation stone contained, among other things, a description of the new church by the architect. Among the principal subscribers of the new church were members of the Irwin family who gave some £600.

The contract price was £2565 15s. 10d. McClelland was allowed £103 for the materials of the old church and he charged £40 for a temporary place of worship. Storm damage during the building work added another £340 to the cost, bringing the final figure to around £3,000 (quoted in the Belfast Newsletter).

Because of the limitations of the site, the new church was built as a two-storey structure with the lecture hall on the lower ground floor. The remainder of the lower ground floor was taken up by a committee room, cloak room and coal cellar. The interior woodwork of the church was in pitch pine. The main seating area, including the gallery, could accommodate 750 persons. Even at the time, this was far greater seating than was required.

The Valuation Revision Books show that in 1885 the new church was given a valuation of £60 (compared with £8 for the previous church). Around 1900 a wall with ornamental railings was built around the church.

References - Primary Sources
1. PRONI Valuation Revision Books, 1860-1929 – VAL/12/B/32/4A-F
2. PRONI Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/22/1
3. PRONI Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1904-32 – OS/6/5/22/3
4. NIEA First Survey record – HB01/02/005
5. NIEA HB Records – HB01/02/005

References - Secondary Sources
1. Belfast Newsletter, 15 February 1888
2. J. Rutherford, Cumber Presbyterian Church and Parish (Londonderry, 1939)
3. Alistair J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979)
4. History of Congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (Belfast, 1982)

Online sources
Dictionary or Irish Architects: www.dia.ie (listed under Killaloo)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

A well-proportioned, five-bay Gothic style Presbyterian Church with additional hall on lower level, built c. 1884 to designs by John Kennedy of Derry. Situated on a corner elevated site to the north of the Glenshane Road, north-west of the village of Claudy, it is the main focus of a number of structures including Brackfield Bawn (LDY023:014), the original church school (HB01/02/036 Record Only) and a farmyard with outbuildings to the north-west. Constructed of un-coursed rubble local Schist with sandstone detailing, the prominent entrance is accessed by angled steps leading up to the main doors, which are set in a gabled projecting doorcase with tympanum. The church is a prominent building in the area owing to its scale, style and proportion and one that has social importance for the local community.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R-Age, S-Authenticity & T-Historic Importance