CHRIST CHURCH

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A free-standing double-height blackstone Parish church with attached square-plan bell-tower; built c.1870 in the Victorian Gothic style to designs by F.W. Porter and located to the south side of Main Street in the centre of Castlerock. Rectangular plan with apsidal end to east, north and south transepts each having square-plan abutments to east, and square-plan bell-tower with broach spire to northwest corner.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles; cast-iron ogee rainwater on bracketted sandstone eaves. Walling is uncoursed rock-faced blackstone on a battered plinth, with sandstone quoins, sandstone kneelers and finials to gables; sandstone string course to sill and lintel level; buttresses rising to sandstone offsets. Windows are variety of leaded-and-stained glass lancets in sandstone surrounds with chamfered sills and blackstone voussoirs. Bipartite cusped plate tracery windows to chancel and cusped lattice lancets to tower.

Two-stage square-plan bell-tower with ashlar broach spire rising from bracketted overhanging eaves with dog-tooth detail to narrow stone fascia and carved gargoyles to each corner. Spire is topped by metal finial and has openwork clock face (dating from 1909) at each side. Gabletted angle buttresses to ground floor; clasping buttresses rise from string course between stages. Belfry-stage has double inset lancet with chamfered sandstone surrounds having semi-engaged colonettes and louvered openings. Lower stage is double height; cusped lattice lancets over rectangular window to west face and sandstone doorcase to north and east face. Timber-sheeted double-leaf doors to east face in chamfered surround accessed by a single stone step and surmounted by hood mould with carved stops. Fixed sandstone tympanum has dog-tooth ornamentation incised with groups of three circles, supported on two sandstone corbels. That to north is used as the main entrance and comprises replacement double-leaf timber doors in chamfered reveal as at east entrance. Door is flanked by semi-engaged colonettes and surmounted by fixed sandstone tympanum inscribed “AD 1870” and detailed as at east entrance.

North nave elevation has two lancets divided by a buttress; transept at left has three staged lancets and trefoil oculus to apex of gable. Right cheek is blank, left cheek is abutted by the square-plan abutment housing the vestry. Vestry has hipped roof and timber-sheeted door in shouldered sandstone surround having heavy cast-iron handle and accessed via a set of four stone steps. Two square headed lattice windows to east elevation.

The apsidal east end has plate tracery window to each face.

South nave elevation has three lancets divided by buttresses; transept at right has three staged lancets and trefoil oculus to apex of gable. Left cheek is blank. Right cheek is abutted by the square-plan abutment. Abutment as at north elevation but with rectangular windows to south and east elevations.

The west gable has three staged lancets with trefoil oculus to apex of gable.

Setting:

Set within a square plot to the south side of Main Street. Lawned to four sides and enclosed by blackstone rubble boundary wall with two sets of ashlar sandstone piers to north having chamfered pointed caps and supporting replacement timber gates. To east is a modern church hall and to south a twentieth-century housing development.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Rock-faced blackstone with sandstone dressings
Windows: Generally replacement leaded-and-stained glass lancets
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Christ Church, Castlerock, was built between 1868 and 1870 to designs by Frederick William Porter, architect and surveyor to the Clothworkers' Company on whose estates the church was built. The supervising architect was William Hunter and the church formed part of the development of the resort following the opening of a railway halt in 1853 (McCutcheon; Irish Builder). This, along with active promotion by the railway company, who offered cheap tickets to those who would build or buy villas (Girvan), led to the growth of a bathing resort in an area which had previously been open countryside. The church was built on the Clothworkers' Company estates but Sir Henry Hervey Bruce, the local landlord, took a particular interest in the development of Castlerock. He was instrumental in the building of Christ Church, offering an endowment towards its construction. A new church was felt to be necessary once the expanding congregation had outgrown St Paul’s in Articlave and while the building was being completed the Episcopal congregation used the nearby bathing lodge, Rock Ryan, as a place of worship. (Eccles)

The contractors were George and Robert Ferguson and the church is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1904 captioned ‘Christ Ch[urch]’ with a ‘Vicarage’ to the west. The church was built of local granite with white Glasgow sandstone trimmings. According to the Irish Builder, visitors to the seaside were ‘at once struck with the external beauty of the building’. The internal walls were lined with Belfast brick with a gap between the lining and the stone of the outer building in order to protect against damp. Although there were some who found the brick not to their taste it was said to have a favourable effect on the tone of the organ and the choir. The nave passages were laid with red and black Staffordshire tiles and ‘Maw’s’ encaustic tiles were used in the chancel. Lady Bruce paid for stained glass windows in the chancel, one of which was a memorial to her late uncle, General Sir Arthur Benjamin Clifton. A Caen stone pulpit was presented by Sir John Musgrove Bart, a member of the Clothworkers’ Company, and two Glastonbury chairs were presented by Lady Bruce who had carved them herself. The pews and roof were of stained memel and a Scottish freestone font was placed in the west of the building. The incumbent, Rev James Armstrong assisted with the carving of the oak reading desk. Pews in the north transept were set aside for members of the Clothworkers’ Company and those in the south transept for Sir Hervey Bruce and his family. The church was said to have cost £3,000 not including the cost of the ‘handsome parsonage’ that was built at the same time. (Irish Builder)

The church was consecrated on 21st September 1870 by the Lord Bishop of the Diocese, the Belfast Newsletter commenting on the ‘picturesque marine beauty’ of Castlerock, asserting that ‘it will year by year grow into importance and size’. The church was urgently required to cater for the large number of visitors in the summer months. A consecration hymn was written for the occasion by Mrs Alexander, writer of ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ and ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ and wife of the Lord Bishop. The service was attended by numerous local gentry and clergy who were entertained at Downhill following the ceremony, by Sir Hervey and Lady Bruce. (Belfast Newsletter)

The church was provided with a Gray and Davidson organ which the incumbent, Rev Mr Armstrong, played himself, being an ‘excellent musician’ so that no organist was required. (Belfast Newsletter) The bellows of the organ was originally driven by a water engine using a cistern situated behind the terrace known as the ‘Twelve Apostles’ on the hill behind the church. When water was short, as it often was, the organ had to be pumped by hand with a pump that is still in existence today. The water engine was recently refurbished by Harry Caskey and can be seen in the church. (http://castlerock.derry.anglican.org)

F W Porter was a London architect who built for the Clothworker’s company and Christ Church, Castlerock is said to be his ‘most distinguished design’ , being typical of the High Victorian interpretation of the Early English Gothic style. (Girvan) The church enters valuation records in 1868-80 at a valuation of £30 and 10s for the yard. There is no change in the valuation during the period covered by Annual Revisions but valuer’s notes of the 1930s give a plan of the building showing nave, tower, transepts and chancel with a choir and vestry adjoining the transepts on each side. Porter’s original drawings for the church are held by the Representative Church Body and show that the building was constructed exactly as conceived and has undergone little alteration since. (Dixon) The sombre atmosphere of the chancel is thought to reflect the influence of Pugin, an impression which is heightened by the‘exceptionally high quality’ of the church furniture, such as candelabra, lectern, altar rail and pulpit, tiles, organ pipes and ‘richly hued’ stained glass windows. (Girvan)

Eight bells by Messrs Taylor and Co of Loughborough were fitted in the bell tower in 1891 as a memorial to Sir Hervey and Lady Bruce. In the same year a triple lancet window by Wailes and Strang of Newcastle-on-Tyne in memory of Lady Bruce was inserted in the west elevation. (www.dia.ie)

A watercolour painted by Lady Ellen Bruce c1907 shows Christ Church before the present clock was inserted in the spire. (Eccles) The clock was made by W Potts and Sons Ltd of Leeds and was installed in 1909. The clock and its faces were restored in 1997 at a cost of £4,500 and in the same year the bells were also restored at a cost of £3,500. (http://castlerock.derry.anglican.org)

The church was listed in 1977 and in 1978 windows were replaced in the tower, vestry and organ loft. 2012 saw the provision of a ramp at the front porch. (HB file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/2/1 First Edition OS Map 1831
2. PRONI OS/6/5/2/2 Second Edition OS map 1848
3. PRONI OS/6/5/2/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/2/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/10A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
1. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
2. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/H/5 First General Revaluation 1933-57
6. HB file – 03/12/001
7. Belfast Newsletter 23rd September 1870
8. Irish Builder Vol 12, 1st July 1870

Secondary Sources

1. Dixon, H “Ulster Architecture 1800-1900” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1973
2. Eccles, J “Downhill, A Scrapbook of People and Place” London: Bath Press, 1996
3. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in North Derry including Limavady, Ballykelly, Castlerock, Downhill and Magilligan” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1975
4. McCutcheon, W.A. “The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland,” London: HMSO, 1980.
5. www.dia.ie
6. http://castlerock.derry.anglican.org

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A free-standing double-height rubble-stone Parish church with engaged square-plan bell-tower; built c.1870 in the Victorian Gothic style to designs by F.W. Porter and located to the south side of Main Street in the centre of Castlerock. Architectural detailing is largely intact, with high quality windows dating from the early part of the twentieth century and some fine examples of carved stonework typically associated with the Victorian Gothic style. Housing a relatively intact late-Victorian interior with several elements of high craft value, Christ Church is one of the better preserved examples of its type in the district and makes an important contribution to the architectural quality and character of Castlerock. Christ Church is also of significant social importance and local interest to the surrounding community.