St. Paul's Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing double-height rubblestone hall and tower type Church of Ireland Church, built c.1690. Rectangular on plan and set on an east-west axis with square-plan bell-tower to the west gable. Set back from St. Paul’s Road to the north within burial ground enclosed by rubblestone walls. Extensively renovated c.1835 and c.1991.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles set behind slightly raised gables with cement over tooled stone coping to the west gable. Cement coping with lead flashing and moulded cement kneeler stones to the east gable surmounted by a cement rendered block. Cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets to tooled stone eaves course. Random rubblestone walling with cement pointing (unless otherwise stated). Pointed-arched window openings with voussoired stone heads tooled sandstone sills.

Two-stage square-plan bell-tower with full-height shallow clasping corner buttresses surmounted by four tooled sandstone ashlar pinnacles and crenelated parapet wall. Cut stone platband between lower and upper stages with further projecting cut stone string course to the base of parapet and blind loops to the buttresses. Pointed-headed openings to the bell-stage on the north, west and south elevations with timber Y-tracery frames and timber louvers. To the lower stage on the west elevation is a further pointed-headed window opening with smooth rendered surround and original pointed-headed bipartite latticed wrought-iron window having a floral light to the head and storm glazing.

South nave elevation is three windows wide with a pointed-headed door opening to the west end formed in voussoired stone and a replacement hardwood door and hardwood overpanel. Above the door opening is an oculus formed in stone with replacement leaded light. Adjacent to the door opening is a wall-mounted slate sundial with Roman numerals inscribed..‘TIS GREATLY WISE TO TALK WITH OUR PAST HOURS, AND ASK THEM WHAT REPORT THEY BORE TO HEAVEN A.D. 1832’. Window openings to south elevation have replacement hardwood frames with leaded coloured glazing and storm glazing dating from the late twentieth-century.

West gable abutted by bell-tower.

North nave elevation is three windows wide with rough-cast rendered walling. The window openings have smooth rendered surrounds and original wrought-iron latticed windows as per tower with a pair of stained glass panels to the centre of each window. To the west end is a diminutive square-headed window opening with a four-light timber casement window.

East gable has rough-cast rendered walling with a central pointed-headed east window with smooth render surround having replacement tripartite Gothic tracery hardwood frame, leaded coloured glazing and storm glazing.

Setting:

Located on the north side of St. Paul’s Road within the village of Articlave and set back from the road encircled by a lawned burial ground with several grave-markers, tombs and monuments dating from the seventeenth-century to the present day. Site enclosed to the road by rubblestone walls with stacked coping and a pair of rubblestone piers and wrought-iron gates with bitmac path to church entrance. One pier has a stone plaque with lettering stating; ‘DUNBOE PARISH CHURCH 1691’. Further pair of sandstone ashlar piers to the northwest corner and bitmac footpath providing access to car park.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Random rubblestone
Windows Pointed-headed bipartite wrought-iron latticed

Historical information

Dunboe parish church, St Paul’s dates from 1691 and is situated in the village of Articlave. The church was built on land granted by a Captain Jackson, consent was given by Bishop Hopkins and Bishop King consecrated the church on 2nd June 1691. St Paul’s replaced an earlier building on a site a mile and a half to the north west at Downhill. It is thought that Articlave was the first settlement on the Clothworkers’ Company estates in 1611 and it was chosen because of the nearby river. When a new church came to be built, Articlave was preferred to the old church site because of the newly-established settlement. (http://castlerock.derry.anglican.org)

The church is shown on the first edition OS map of 1830 as a simple nave and tower and the building has remained essentially unaltered in plan form since that time. The church is listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828-40 at a valuation of £6.6s and although this rises to £19.10s in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) there are no further significant changes in valuation in the period covered by annual revisions. The First General Revaluation of the early 1930s notes that although old, the church is ‘still in a fair condition due to frequent repairing’.

The ruins of the original parish church in Dunboe are to be found within Downhill demesne. This early church is said to have been founded by St Patrick and there is documentary evidence of a building here in 1291. Walter McQuillan was slain and Conor O’Kane burned in the church in 1532 by the sons of Donal O’Kane, the cleric. The Clothworkers’ Company are known to have had the church ‘well repaired’ in 1622 and the building continued to be used until 1691 when the church at Articlave was built. (Girvan)

On the south wall beside the entrance door is a slate sundial dated 1823 and inscribed, ‘Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours and ask them what report they bore to heav’n’. (Girvan)

OS Memoirs give a very full description of the church in 1835 when it was undergoing renovations at the expense of the Board of First Fruits. The church was to be ‘repaired and the windows renewed and altered in their positions so as to give a thorough light, which is not the case at present as there are no windows on the north side’. The pews had also been removed and the pulpit and reading desk were to be altered. The church was heated by two stoves in the centre at this time and the expense of installing these was met by Sir James Bruce, the second baronet Downhill and the archdeacon who also supplied candles and fuel. The four pinnacles atop the church each had a weathercock. There was a vestry room at the west end of the church and the nave was flagged with freestone. Sir James Bruce and his family occupied a double pew with a canopy overhead as did another family, the Barnetts of Banbrook [sic]. Further pews were reserved for the archdeacon and his family and ‘any strange lady or gentleman who may come to worship in the church’ as well as for ‘Alick’ Alexander Esquire, the proprietor of the ground on which the church was built. The pulpit and reading desk were in the centre of the south wall and a ‘globe with five branches’ lit the church at evening service in winter. (OS Memoirs)

A gallery was added to the church at some time after the OS Memoirs noted a need in 1835. (OS Memoirs) However, the chancel is formed by the insertion of a shallow arch at the eastern end of the nave, rather than by an addition to the church.

St Paul’s saw the admission of William Alexander to the priesthood in 1848, Alexander later becoming Bishop of Derry and Raphoe (1867) and in due course Primate of all Ireland (1896). His wife Cecil Frances Humphreys became a celebrated hymn writer, author of such hymns as ‘There is a green hill far away’ and ‘All things bright and beautiful’. (http://castlerock.derry.anglican.org)

The church was listed in 1977 and given a complete renovation in 1991 in commemoration of its tercentenary. (http://castlerock.derry.anglican.org; HB file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/7/1 First Edition OS Map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/7/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-50
3. PRONI OS/6/5/7/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/7/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/55B Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI Printed Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/3A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/C/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57
10. HB file – 03/12/027

Secondary Sources

1. Day, A., P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Londonderry III, 1831-5, Vol. 11.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1991.
2. 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
3. http://castlerock.derry.anglican.org

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
U. Historic Associations

Evaluation

Free-standing double-height rubblestone hall and tower type Church of Ireland Church, built c.1690. Rectangular on plan and set on an east-west axis with square-plan bell-tower to the west gable. Set back from St. Paul’s Road to the north within burial ground enclosed by rubblestone walls. Extensively renovated c.1835 and c.1991. Built to replace a thirteenth-century church in Downhill (see HB03/12/017), this modest stone building was established in the late seventeenth-century but owes much of its current appearance to renovations in the early nineteenth-century. A site of great historic interest and importance to the local community, St. Paul’s church adds to the architectural interest of the Castlerock and Articlave area.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R-Age, S- Authenticity, T- Historic Importance & U- Historic Associations.