GORTNESSY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An early Victorian 5-bay church dating from 1841, following a petition of 1839 to the Glendermott Presbytery. The church is located on the north side of Kilnappy Road and aligned NE-SW.

Simple gabled form with natural slates to pitched roof, rough cast rendered walls with stucco dressings to tall round-arched window openings; toothed quoins to all four corners.

The front elevation faces south-west and is symmetrical with a central door and a single window to left and right sides. Round-arched entrance containing a pair of five-panelled varnish stained hardwood doors below a semicircular fan light with radial multi-panes. The door is flanked by a pair of Doric pilasters with moulding to architrave above impost level and fielded and pitched key stone. Windows are tall timber sliding sash, multiple paned with margin lights; architrave surrounds are lugged, with same moulding and keystone as door. Date plaque ‘1841’ placed centrally above door directly below a circular motif in reconstituted stone in the form of a blind opening near to apex. The outer corners of the building are finished with rendered quoins in a contrasting colour. Raised verge to both gable ends, with stone capping.

The north-west side elevation is 5 bays wide with window surrounds of the same detail as those to the front. The windows have been replaced with timber framed casments with glazing bars sealed between the panes of double glazing. The pattern differs to that of the front elevation windows. The eaves is rendered and projects to cast aluminium gutter which is supported on drive through brackets.
The north-east rear elevation is again symmetrical with a pair of timber sliding sash windows which flank a central chimney. The chimney encloses the flue from the sunken boiler room which is accessed via a set of steps concealed behind a rendered wall to the rear.

The south east side elevation is a mirror image of the north-west with same replacement windows.

Materials
Roof: Natural Slate
RWG: Cast aluminium
Walls: Rough-cast render, painted
Windows: Multi-paned sliding sash to front and back; timber casement double glazed to sides.

Setting: The Church is set back from the road which runs NW – SE. The principal entrance is aligned with a pair of cast iron gates on the boundary hung on a pair of substantial square rendered pillars with pyramidal caps, flanked by neat hedging. Entrance approached by concrete paved path with gravel to sides. Church set within a grave yard to both sides and rear. A two storey domestic scale double-hipped roof building (HB01.06.002) is set to the north west with rough-cast rendered walls, fenestrated perpendicular to the Church although it shares the same formal symmetry. The latter is rough-cast rendered (painted) with artificial slates to roof, sliding sash Georgian-style windows having six-over-six lights and a semi-circular fanlight above a central six-panelled front door. A modern church hall complex is set to the back of the car park which is to the south west.

Historical information

In February 1839 over 150 Presbyterians living around Gortnessy petitioned the Glendermott Presbytery to be allowed to form a congregation of their own. The Presbytery agreed to this request and the first communion service of the new congregation was observed on 4 August 1839. To begin with, the congregation met in the local schoolhouse. The Grocers’ Company of London, the landlord of the townland of Gortnessy, provided a small site on which to build a church. The foundation stone of a new meeting house was laid on 13 August 1841 (1841 appears on the front of the church). It is recorded that members of the congregation carted stones and other materials to the site free of charge. On the Ordnance Survey map of 1853 the church is represented as an oblong building. In Griffith’s Valuation of 1858 the church was given a valuation of £11 15s. In 1877 the congregation received title deeds for the property.

References

Primary sources

1. PRONI, Griffith’s Valuation, 1858
2. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1830 – OS/6/5/14/1
3. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1853 – OS/6/5/14/2

Secondary sources
1. Alistair J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979)
2. History of Congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (Belfast, 1982)

Online sources
1. Church website: www.gortnessy.com

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
S. Authenticity
R. Age
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

An early Victorian 5-bay rough cast rendered church of simple gabled form, located on the north side of Kilnappy Road, Gortnessey. It is a good example of a rural church from this period reflecting Presbyterian values in order and simplicity. A date stone inscribed 1841 sits above the entrance, with stucco surround that, together with toothed quoins and stucco dressings to round-arched openings are painted in contrast to the walling and provide the only decoration. Although the windows are replaced, the church retains sufficient character to remain of interest and the modest exterior is matched inside by orderly rows of timber box pews to both the main worship space and the tiered gallery. Set back from the road behind substantial square pillars, between a small domestic building to the northwest, fenestrated perpendicular to the church and sharing the same formal symmetry, a modern hall to the southwest and a graveyard to the east; it is visually striking within the immediate rural setting. Important also from a social perspective given its continued use as a church since the time of construction.