St Mary’s New Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A square plan colour rendered structure with pyramidal roof with apex offset and finished with lantern light and with a projecting apse and main entrance at one corner.

The entrance façade is asymmetrical with the entrance at the W corner recessed with covered porch and the roof corner supported by 2 pairs of circular steel columns. The remainder of the façade has a collection of various sized windows dispersed along it at high and low level. The roof edge finishes in a metal box gutter with large overhang. Slates are asbestos with glazed lantern at top of offset roof apex.

The entrance doors are set back in a re-entrant square, the ceiling of which is formed by the main roof overhang. 2 tall 4 pane narrow windows provide light to the inner triangular porch.

The NW façade has 5 high level 4 pane square windows set under the eaves. The NE façade has a recess from which projects a diminutive apse which has single windows on its flanking walls. The rear wall of the apse is splayed to terminate in an obtuse angle point. 2 square windows light the shrine and font areas. One of those contain the quatrefoil from the old church. The apse is separately roofed at a lower level than the main roof which oversails it.

The SE façade is similar to the NW except that instead of the main entrance there is a secondary entrance. The boiler room is located at a lower level under the E corner of the church with external access to the NE side.

The apex of the roof being offset means that the NE slope is much steeper than the others and the NW and SE slopes steeper than the SW.

Guttering and downpipes aluminium stove enamelled.

Walls are rendered in coloured plaster with a smooth plinth of lighter tone.

The building is sited well back from the Gortnahey Road adjacent to a small housing estate. Car parking is a sea of bitmac to front and side and a new graveyard has been established around the church. The grounds are grassed and adequately planted with trees and shrubs which when mature will soften the landscape.

Historical information

The Church replaced the old church of St Mary’s ½ a mile to the SE. The structure was erected in 1990 and opened by Bishop E Daly. The builder was Dillon of Dungiven. It seats 400 persons.

References

Primary Sources
1. Foundation Plaque

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A contemporary church design in the modern idiom replacing a previous church on a nearby site of 1830. While the layout is predominantly symmetrical, the main entrance is incongruously placed in a corner.