Faughanvale Presbyterian Church Killylane Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Gothic-style church with nave of 6 bays with entrance porch within 1st bay; built c.1894 (Architect not known); rear porch constructed in 1923 along with repairs by Robinson and Davidson. Entrance elevation faces North-West with a wide flight of steps leading up to main doors set within a recessed door case with Geometric tracery light and hood mould over. Pitched artificial slated roof with two-hole crested ridge tiles, modern ventilators; pointed copings to raised skews with kneeler stones and rendered finials to each gable. Cast aluminium rainwater goods, ogee shaped cast-aluminium guttering set on corbel brackets terminating to circular and square section downpipes throughout. Walling is of rendered painted finish with line markings and two and three-stage stepped buttresses, all set on a slightly projecting smooth rendered painted plinth. Pointed arch openings to all elevations with a large geometrical stone tracery window with plain and coloured glass in diamond and square pane designs to front elevation; large circular window to rear (SE) elevation with a rendered band surround. Church is situated on an elevated site to the South-East side of the Killylane Road, North-East of the village of Eglinton with views of the River Foyle to the North.

North-West (front) elevation contains the main entrance located at the top of a long flight of stone steps with two half landings having decorative iron railings and a disabled access ramp to the right side set behind a rendered painted wall with painted metal railings above. Two timber diagonally sheeted entrance doors set within a pointed segmental-arch door case with Geometric stone tracey light above having coloured diamond-pane leaded glass topped with archivolt over; large Geometric stone tracery pointed Gothic arch window with five lancet windows and two small quatrefoil cusps and one larger cinquefoil cusp above having coloured square and diamond-pane leaded glass, all set above main door case with hood mould over terminating onto foliated label stops; three-stage buttresses to either side of gabled front entrance. Paired trefoiled lancet windows with a quatrefoil above to either side of gabled front entrance with coloured squared and diamond-pane leaded glass and hood mould over terminating onto foliated label stops.

North-East elevation is 6 bays wide with paired-lancet windows to 5 bays and a single lancet pointed arch window to the 1st bay entrance porch; the porch bay projects beyond the main church body and has three-stage buttresses to each corner rising to gablets and a finial above. Windows have coloured square and diamond-pane leaded glass. The 5 bays are divided by two-stage stepped buttresses; gable-end at South-East left side of elevation having a small quatrefoil cusp window with a rendered painted band surround above double lancet below. Copings to gable skews have kneeler stones topped by painted rendered finials. Corbel brackets to eaves supporting cast-aluminium guttering terminating to square-section downpipes.

South-East elevation (rear gable) is of rendered painted finish with line markings; large centrally located rose window with a rendered band surround and slightly recessed stone tracery of four quatrefoils set behind a secondary glazed pane. Single storey return to lower level has a hipped artificial slate roof with black clay ridge tiles. Extension is of rendered painted finish with corbel brackets to eaves level; square-headed window openings and door opening to the NE side. South-West side of extension is abutted by a cement rendered boiler house, half above ground level, accessed via a set of concrete steps. On the rear wall at ground floor level, to either side of the extension, is a tracery window comprised of paired trefoiled lancet windows with a quatrefoil above. At high level on the rear wall is a centrally placed lancet opening with vented infill.

South-West elevation as North-East elevation with paired lancet arched windows to 5 bays and a single lancet to 1st bay entrance porch. Double-height gabled projection with finial to right side (south east end of elevation) with a small quatrefoil cusp window to upper level, gable has angle-buttresses either side.

Materials:
Roof: Artificial Slate
RWGs: Cast aluminium
Walling: Render painted
Windows: Geometrical tracery

Setting:
The Church is situated on an elevated site to the South-East of the Killylane Road and North-East of the plantation village of Eglinton with views of the River Foyle to the North. The site is bounded by a low rendered painted wall with painted spear-headed cast-iron railings above to North-West side with gate pillars having pyramidal caps. There are a further 2 wrought iron gates on interest and to the rear of the church is a tall wall surmounted by cast iron railings that match those at the roadside. The entrance doors are approached by a flight of stone steps with painted cast-iron handrails and a disabled access ramp to the right side. A two-storey house is located to the south side of the church on higher ground, and behind that again is a graveyard on sloping ground. On the west side of the church is Faughanvale Presbyterian Church Hall.

Historical information

This congregation was originally part of Glendermott and was known as Muff, the old name for Eglinton. In 1731 the congregation acquired a minister of its own. Nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps show the meeting house to have been a T-plan structure standing in the centre of a yard set back slightly from the county road. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, during the ministry of Rev. Samuel Semple, a decision was made to rebuild the meeting house.

On 7 July 1893 the foundation stone of the new church was laid by Rev. Professor Petticrew. A report of this event was published in the Belfast Newsletter:

"The edifice is already so far advanced in construction that some idea of its completed effect can be gained. The pointed style of architecture has been observed and the design is one which judiciously combines grace with simplicity. The imposing front is admirably broken up by buttresses of the Dungiven cut stone, which, used also in the window dressings, affords a pleasing relief to the cement facing of the exterior. Flank buttresses, terminating in finials, tend to remove all tendency towards a suggestion of plainness, and a handsome large five- light traceried window over the entrance porch furnishes an additional feature of the frontage. Sixty-two feet long by forty-two feet broad, the building has an extreme height of fifty feet, and a height to the centre of the half opened timbered roof of twenty-nine feet, diminishing at the sides to twenty feet. An end gallery is lighted by the frontage window corresponding to which is a window of wheel design over the opposite or platform end, while ample light is supplied to the body of the church by means of five double windows on each side filled with tinted glass."

It is believed that the stones from the old church were used in the foundations of the new. The church was completed in the following year at a cost of £2,202. 7s. 8d. The new building did not stand immediately on top of its predecessor, but on a site adjoining it and closer to the county road. In 1900, boundary walls, gates and railings were erected at a cost of £300 under the direction of Matthew Alexander Robinson. In 1923 Robinson and Davidson were responsible for carrying out repairs to the church.

References

Primary sources
1. Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/15/1
2. Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1853 – OS/6/5/15/2
3. Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1905 – OS/6/5/15/3
4. Belfast Newsletter, 8 July 1893

Secondary sources
1. Alistair J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979)
2. Donald Houston, Faughanvale 250: A history of the congregation (c. 1980)
3. History of Congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (Belfast, 1982)

Online sources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects: www.dia.ie
2. Church website: www.faughanvalepresbyterian.org

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A six-bay rendered Gothic-style Presbyterian church with pitched roof built c.1894 (architect unknown), located on an elevated site to the South-East of the Killylane Road, north-east of the village of Eglinton in Co. Londonderry with views of the River Foyle to the North. A graveyard is located on the south side of the church. The grounds are entered through rendered piers with gabled coping stones with a trefoil motif, leading to a wide flight of steps to the main doors. The symmetrical gabled front elevation has a large geometrical stone tracery window within a pointed arched opening above the recessed pointed segmental-arch door case. Flanking each side is a paired trefoiled lancet window with quatrefoil above. Two and three-stage buttresses are used to divide the window bays on the front elevation and along each nave wall. Internally the nave remains relatively intact and a tracery rose window is located at high level on the SE wall. A porch was added in 1923 along with further repairs by Robinson and Davidson. The church is enhanced by the fine cast and wrought iron gates, railings and walling and is of significant social importance to the surrounding community.