Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A simple hall church, 8 bays long with an additional ½ bay at each end, projecting west porch, polygonal sanctuary, pitched roofs and gabled, sacristy return, in a Lombard Romanesque style.

The west gable has flanking pilasters, corbelled arcading following the barge lines with crisp bargestone overhang and surmounted by a thin metal cross. Central in the gable a large oculus subdivided as a quatrefoil with moulded reveals, horizontal cill and semicircle moulded hood. A low gabled pitched roof projects from the west front a small entrance porch with the doors on the north side. The porch gable is framed by pilasters and overhanging bargestone in a plain manner. The apex of barges surmounted by a cross. The entire façade is finished smooth rendered and painted. Simulated kneelers terminate the barges on each gable.

The north façade expresses the 8 bays with wide shallow pilasters dividing the wall into panels with 2 narrower panels at each end. The top of each panel has semi-circular corbelled arcading just under the meagre fascia which is really the metal gutter. In each full panel a tall slender round headed lancet lights the interior. A plinth is defined by a slight projection with the pilaster likewise projected at base and the whole finished as west gable in smooth rendering and painted.

The east end has a projecting polygonal sanctuary or chancel with hipped roofs meeting in an apex on the nave gable. 3 sides of the chancel each has a round headed lancet not quite as tall as those or the nave. The east nave gable is perfectly plain without pilaster framing on barge arcading, another thin metal cross sticks out of the gable apex.

The south façade is a repeat of the north except that a sacristy return projects from the end 2 panels. As the ground falls space occurs under it for a boiler room. Access to the sacristy is by a flight of steps to door in the east side. Square headed windows provide daylight to this return.

The slated roofs are plain, that on the sacristy hipped with chimney stack on ridge. The metal ogee gutters form the only overhangs and there is a minimum of metal downpipes.

The building is sited close and parallel to the old line of the Foreglen Road. A graveyard is laid out on the south sloping side. There is a boundary wall, piers and gates on the north side at the back of the footpath.

Historical information

The present church of S.S. Peter and Paul replaced an early one sited in the old graveyard nearby. The foundation stone was laid on 13th July 1924 by Bishop Charles McHugh and dedicated on 9th September 1925 by the new bishop elect Dr. Bernard O’Kane. The Derry Journal described it as “a spectacle of celestial beauty and chasteness” and that it is designed in a Celtic Romanesque style. The architect was W.J. O’Doherty MRIAI and the builder James Deeny of Ballyrory and the parish priest Rev. Anthony O’Neill. The church was renovated in 1991, when the statues of Peter and Paul were omitted and the sanctuary reorganised.

References

Primary Sources
1. Commemorative Plaque in Porch.

Secondary Sources
1. D Donnelly Parish of Banagher p126, 127

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

An example of a late Celtic revival small hall church of the 1920s in a lombardic romanesque style. It has lost some of its wooden sanctuary fittings and the profile of the sanctuary steps has been altered. It was renovated in 1991. Externally, it is painted, though originally this was not the case. The building, altered and dating from 1925 is considered too recent to meet the criteria of special architectural and historic interest.