Dr. Adam Clarke Memorial Methodist Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A free-standing blackstone rubble Methodist church in Gothic-Revival style, built c.1860 to designs by W.J Barre and located at the junction of Heathmount and Upper Heathmount in Portstewart town centre. Cruciform plan with transepts to north and south; porch to southwest; chancel to east and vestry with modern extension to northeast.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and raised stone verges with decorative Gothic gablet to kneeler stones; Gothic ashlar pinnacles topped by crockets flanking transept gables. Plastic rainwater goods. Walling is random quarry-faced blackstone rubble with sandstone dressings; buttresses and diagonal buttresses rising to sandstone offsets. Transepts and west gable have triple or quadruple geometrical cusped-tracery sandstone windows with leaded lattice casements and hood mould with carved stops; chancel window to east is a leaded-and-stained glass triple bar-tracery window; nave lit by paired cusped-headed plate tracery windows with quatrefoils; all with voussoirs, sandstone surrounds and chamfered sills.

The principal elevation faces south; to centre is gabled transept with three-light geometrical cusped-tracery window. Tracery window to right; projecting gabled entrance porch to left containing pointed-headed timber-sheeted door in splayed sandstone reveal, accessed via two stone steps with modern metal handrails.

The west elevation has a four-light geometrical bar-tracery window.

The north elevation has gabled transept to centre with triple geometrical bar-tracery window; leaded-and-stained glass tracery window to right and abutted at re-entrant angle by the single-storey vestry. Vestry has a square-headed bipartite mullioned window to west elevation, and enclosed stone steps to basement, accessed via a battened timber door; extended to east in blackstone rubble with slated roof, rendered chimneystack to gable and modern timber entrance door in sandstone surround; abutted at right by single-storey flat-roof extension.

The east elevation is abutted by the chancel (lower) which has a three-light tracery window and cusped headed lancets with voussoirs to left and right cheeks.

Setting:

Situated on an elevated site in a largely residential area directly north of Portstewart Presbyterian Church (HB03/09/001), with views over the Irish Sea to west. Three-storey modern apartment buildings and detached two-storey late twentieth-century dwelling to north, bounded by a blackstone rubble wall with stone coping. Lawned to three sides with pathway laid in concrete and enclosed by roughcast rendered wall with rendered coping. Square sandstone and blackstone gate piers with pointed caps supporting wrought-iron gates to south and west (those to south have flat caps).

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Random quarry-faced blackstone rubble
Windows: Mainly tracery with leaded lattice casements
RWG: Plastic

Historical information

The Dr. Adam Clarke Memorial Methodist Church in Portstewart, a Gothic-revivalist church by W. J. Barre, was constructed in 1861 and underwent a major alteration to its exterior in 1914 when many of its unique original features were removed. The church was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1861 which valued the ‘Methodist Chapel and yard’ at £35; the building was not depicted on the Ordnance Survey maps until the third edition in 1904 which depicted the church as an oblong-shaped building simply captioned ‘ch[urch].’

The church was erected in memory of Dr. Adam Clarke (c. 1760-1832), a local Methodist Theologian who authored a number of works that became primary Methodist texts. Born in the parish of Kilcronaghan, Co. Londonderry, he moved to Ballyaghran parish as a young man, forever associating himself with the area. Dr. Clarke’s most famed work was undoubtedly his commentary on the bible which took him 40 years to complete and numbered approximately 6,000 pages in length, recognised as one of the largest scholarly undertakings attempted by one man at the time. A firm supporter of Wesley, whom he met on one of his many visits to Ireland, Clarke opposed a Calvinistic interpretation of salvation; however he attracted controversy from fellow Methodists for his views concerning the divinity of Jesus Christ. Clarke died of Cholera in 1832; the memorial church in Portstewart was erected on land that Clarke had purchased with the intention of constructing a retirement home (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

The Builder states Dr. Adam Clarke Memorial Church was designed by William Joseph Barre and that construction of the church took between 1859 and 1861; the builder approached to undertake Barre’s design was a Mr. Joseph Johnston of Cookstown. Barre (c. 1826-1867), a Newry and Belfast-based architect, moved to Belfast in 1860 (after winning the competition to design the Ulster Hall on Bedford Street) after which point his career flourished; the Dr. Adam Clarke Memorial Church was one of Barre’s earlier works and when completed stood as an excellent example of Barre’s eclectic style (Barre was known as ‘the evangelist of the decorated Gothic’). The foundation stone of the Methodist church was laid in September 1859 and the church, built of uncoursed Basalt and sandstone, opened on 4th July 1861 (Builder, p. 584; Dictionary of Irish Architects). There was no further alteration to the value of the church in the later Annual Revisions, despite radical changes to the layout of the church in the late-19th and early-20th century.

The original church exterior appeared quite different to the current facade; photographs of Victorian Portstewart show that the now quite simple and plainly designed building, once possessed a number of unique features including gothic pinnacles, battlements, flying buttresses, multi-angled bartizan and a Scots Baronial tower, giving the building a striking and exciting appearance; Rowan described the building as Barre’s ‘most jagged Gothic design ... unfortunately now shorn of all its power’ (Rowan, p. 65). In December 1884 a number of the pinnacles and their supports were blown down during a storm, leaving a scarred appearance to the church. The damaged house of worship remained in this state of disrepair for two decades during which time no restoration work was attempted; in 1914 the decision was made, not to repair the damaged pinnacles, but to completely remove the remaining pinnacles as well as all buttresses, bartizan and the Scots Baronial tower. The result was the formalisation of the church into its current simplified layout, retaining a Gothic feel but lacking the eclectic features that characterised Barre’s style (Girvan, p. 35; Pollock, p. 25).

A decade after Dr. Adam Clarke’s Memorial was stripped of its unique architectural features, the interior of the church underwent a complete renovation at the hands of James John Phillips (c. 1841-1936), one of the Belfast-based architects final contracts before his retirement (Irish Builder; Dictionary of Irish Architects). Later changes included the addition of a new Manse in c. 1955 and a further redecoration of the interior which ‘greatly enhanced the value, and appearance of the property ... the interior design with its beautiful chancel [giving it] an atmosphere if reverence in worship’ (The Methodist Churches).

Dr. Adam Clarke’s Memorial Methodist Church was listed in 1977 and since that time has retained the simple Gothic character resulting from the alterations of 1914; the church continues to be utilised as a house of worship for the Methodist congregation of Portstewart.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/3/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/3/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map c. 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/5/3/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/3/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1922-32
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/5/3 – Townland Valuation Map c. 1830
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/ 539A-B – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/10 – Griffith’s Valuation 1857
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17A – Annual Revisions 1859-1863
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17B – Annual Revisions 1874-1876
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17C – Annual Revisions 1877-1887
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17D – Annual Revisions 1888-1894
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17E – Annual Revisions 1895-1905
13. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17F – Annual Revisions 1906-1917
14. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17G – Annual Revisions 1918-1929
15. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Londonderry, Vol. 33 No. XII (1835)
16. The Builder, Vol. 15, (10 Oct 1857)
17. The Irish Builder, Vol. 64 (1 Jul 1922)
18. Ordnance Survey Map – 5-16 SW (1979)
19. First Survey Record – HB03/09/002 (1973)
20. First Survey Image – HB03/09/002 (1973)

Secondary Sources

1. ‘The Methodist Churches: Coleraine, Ballymoney and Portstewart’ 1958.
2. Girvan, W. D., ‘Historic Buildings in Coleraine and Portstewart’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.
3. Pollock, V; Parkhill, T., ‘Coleraine and the Causeway Coast: Britain in old photographs’ Sutton: Sutton publishing, 2000.
4. Rowan, A., ‘North-west Ulster: The Counties of Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone’ Yale: Yale University Press, 1979.

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5483

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A simple free-standing blackstone rubble Methodist church in Gothic-Revival style, built c.1860 to designs by W.J Barre and located at the junction of Heathmount and Upper Heathmount in Portstewart town centre. Although a little altered from its original state, this is a good example of a small mid-Victorian Gothic Revival church with proportions and detailing typical of the style and period. Prominently situated on a corner site overlooking the Irish sea and adjacent to Portrush Presbyterian Church (HB03/09/001). It is of social interest to the local community.

General comments

Listing criteria R - Age and S - Authenticity also apply.