St Patricks RC Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical cruciform plan Gothic style rendered Roman Catholic church, built c.1817, with three-stage entrance bell tower. Facing south-west and located on the west side of Church Street, Claudy set within a large graveyard which extends to the east and south. Undergoing major refurbishment works at time of survey.

Cruciform natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and lead valleys set behind slightly raised gables with replacement saddleback cement coping terminated in gableted cement kneelers. Stone Celtic cross to the apex of the north-west gable and replacement rendered profiled chimneystack to the apex of the north-east gable. Replacement cast-iron guttering to rendered eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Painted rendered walling (c.2014). Gothic arched window openings with replacement smooth rendered surrounds, hood mouldings, splayed sills, Y-tracery and leaded coloured glazing with leaded celtic knotwork (restored c.2014).

Principal (south-west) elevation abutted by square-plan three-stage entrance/bell tower with crenellated parapet and tapered pinnacles to the corners rising from angle buttresses. Paired Gothic arched openings to the bell-stage with copper-lined louvres. Oculi to the middle-stage with hood mouldings and plain stone surrounds. Gothic arched window opening to the lower stage (south-east) and Gothic arched door openings to north-west and south-east elevations with replacement double-leaf timber doors having leaded coloured glass fanlights. (Tower was obscured by scaffolding at time of survey).

Gabled north-west elevation with single central window opening set within Gothic arched recess.

Gabled north-east elevation with a flat-roofed extension to the north-west cheek having a single window opening facing north-west and a camber-headed door opening facing north-east with hood moulding and replacement timber door. The south gable has a quatrefoil opening above a single Gothic arched opening at ground floor level.

Gabled south-east elevation as per north-west elevation.

Setting:
Located on its own site on the east side of Church Street with upstanding stone and marble grave markers enclosed to the north, east and south by rubblestone walls with stacked coping. Site accessed via bitmac driveway to the south opening into car park with replacement 1960s R.C. Church to the north-west.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Painted cement render
Windows Replacement Y-tracery with leaded coloured glazing

Historical information

This church was built in the late 1810s on a site granted to the parish priest, Fr McFeely (d. 1824), by the local landowner, James Ross, in 1817. According to one account, the Fishmongers’ Company of London had offered to build a church on condition that it was erected west of Dungorkin Bridge on its estate, but this was rejected as not being in a sufficiently central location. The church is represented on the Ordnance Survey map of 1830 as being cruciform in plan. The Ordnance Survey Memoir of the parish of Cumber from the 1830s contains the following description of the building:

‘The Catholic chapel is cruciform and measures 69 feet by 33. The window frames are in the pointed Gothic style, but built up at the top so as to admit light through the rectangular part alone. The eastern arm of the transept is walled off and used as a sacristy. In the western arm there is a small gallery which contains the only seats in the building. This edifice, which is but indifferently built, cost 300 pounds, raised by subscription, and was opened in 1820. It can accommodate 600 persons.’

The Primary Valuation ‘house book’ of 1856 provides the following dimensions for the church:

Building Length Breadth Height
Chapel 65 35 16
Chapel 24 13 16
Chapel 12 24 16
Chapel 8 13 12

In the early 1930s the church underwent significant renovations including re-roofing and the construction of new galleries. With the construction of a new church, St Patrick’s closed in 1980. In 1996 there were plans to restore the church through seeking a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, though these do not seem to have been taken forward. In 2011 there were further plans to restore the church.

References

Primary sources
1. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/23/1
2. PRONI, Valuation map, 1856 – VAL/2/A/5/23A-B
3. PRONI, Primary Valuation ‘house book’, 1856, VAL/2/B/5/50
4. PRONI, Valuation map, 1895-c.1915, VAL/12/D/5/29E
5. Angélique Day and Patrick McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, vol. 28 (Belfast, 1995)
6. NIEA, First Survey Card
7. NIEA, HB Records

Secondary sources
Alistair J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979)

Online sources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects: www.dia.ie
2. Church website: www.parishofclaudy.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical cruciform plan Gothic style rendered Roman Catholic church, built c.1817, with three-stage entrance bell tower. The church underwent significant renovations in the early 1930s including re-roofing and the construction of new galleries. With the construction of a new church to the north-west, St Patrick’s closed in 1980. Despite current renovations and change of use to a pastoral centre, the building retains its early nineteenth-century cruciform plan and Gothic appearance and is a good example of its type.

General comments

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