Former Gelvin Church & School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 4 bay long former church building, later a school, now being converted to a store and part local history centre, gabled, slated with an extension being erected at S gable.

Entrance in N gable now built up, wall rendered. W wall, 4 bays long, windows built up, cills remain. The smooth rendered built up window openings to the front have had window frames painted on. S gable has an extension added built of concrete blocks, pitched roof and gable with separate entrance in gable. E wall is unfinished. It is 4 bays long, original windows built up and new large vehicular entrance constructed. There is also a pedestrian door. Roofs have been reslated in natural Welsh slates. Maltese cross retained on N gable.

The wall fronting the site to the road has been rebuilt in concrete block faced with local rubble.

Historical information

A church or mass house was built here in 1845 replacing an older mass house in Gortgarn of 1802 of which nothing remains. The church had 4 square headed windows to the road and 2 widely spaced windows in the wall opposite. The altar may have been on the long wall to begin with. The walls were rendered and whitewashed and there was a diminutive Maltese cross on the N gable (similar to those on Gortnahey and Muldonagh churches). The building ceased as a church when the new church of St Matthew at Drumsurn opened in 1902.

The building became a school taking the pupils from the nearby Ballymacallion school, which then closed. It continued as a school until June 1967 when it became a local parish/community hall. In the last 2 years the Diocesan Trust sold the property but retained the graveyard.

The present owner is converting the hall to a store and the added extension will be a local history centre The centre is now called the Binn Chapel, this being the original local name. ("binn"= behind, ie binn or behind the ditch. ) This work has been funded in part by the N.I. Dept. of Agriculture scheme for assistance to rural areas.

References

Primary Sources
1. O.S. map 1st Edition 1832 Londonderry sh. 25
2. O.S. Memoirs of Ireland – Parishes of Co Londonderry IV 1824, 1833-5
Ed. by Angélique Day and Patrick McWilliams (Q.U.B. 1992) p. 8

Secondary Sources
1. John McCluskey – Statistical Reports of Six Derry Parishes 1821 p. 89
Ed. David O’Kane, Ballinascreen Historical Society 1983.
2. Benbradagh 1997
3. J J Tracey – Church Building Activities, Diocese of Derry 1829 – 1939 unpublished.
4. Members of Gelvin Community Association.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A former Catholic Church of 1845 succeeding a pre Emancipation Church of 1802 with little architectural pretension but of historical and social interest together with the adjacent graveyard (see HB02/07/006). The present owner is retaining the basic form of the church. It is also an interesting example of a structure having 4 changes of use.