First Dunboe Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A freestanding pebble-dash and red-brick early twentieth-century Presbyterian Church with two-stage square tower; dated 1935 and extensively refurbished in 1994; situated to the north side of St Pauls Road in the village of Articlave. Rectangular plan with projecting porch to ecclesiastical south, transepts to ecclesiastical east and west and chancel to ecclesiastical north. Chancel abutted to east by presbytery and to west by vestry with full-length basement incorporating chancel.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled terracotta ridge tiles; sandstone verges and kneelers to gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods with square downpipes and cast-iron hoppers. Walling is pebbledash over concrete block construction on a stretcher-bonded red-brick plinth, having chamfered sandstone coping, red-brick dressings including eaves band, and sandstone ashlar platbands to gables. Windows are variety of leaded glass lancets dating from the early and late part of the twentieth-century in block sandstone surrounds with chamfered sills (unless otherwise stated).

South-facing entrance gable with projecting gabled porch. Carved datestone reads “1936” to apex, over diminutive bipartite mullioned square-headed rectangular window; group of three lancets to gallery. Tripartite mullioned windows in shared square-headed surround with spandrel panels to either side of central porch. Porch has diagonal buttresses with sandstone caps, raised sandstone verges with kneelers; sandstone platband and mid-level red-brick string-course to gable. Entrance comprises original pointed-headed timber-sheeted entrance door with ornate cast-iron strap-hinges in ashlar sandstone chamfered reveal. Two-stage tower to left has angle buttresses rising to concave parapet and pyramidal Westmoreland slate roof topped by weathervane. Second stage comprises stylised mock machicolations above Y-tracery lancet window with hood mould. First stage with square-headed bipartite mullioned window over square-headed four-paned mullioned window, and a rectangular segmental-headed window to ground floor of south face only.

The west elevation has four evenly-spaced lancets divided by butresses; abutted at left by the west transept, having two tall lancets to gable and a lancet to south cheek.

The north gable is abutted by apsidal chancel (lower) having gabled presbytery to left cheek and gabled vestry to right cheek, all over smooth rendered basement level. Gable has bipartite mullioned window to apex with sandstone string course; flanked by chimneystacks to mid-level gable. Three lancets to apsidal chancel; basement level with windows flanking modern timber door. Presbytery has square-headed tripartite mullioned window at right and window to left over modern timber door and three square-headed windows; gable has bipartite mullioned window and modern timber door to left, accessed via a set of concrete steps with modern handrail. Vestry identical to the presbytery.

The east elevation is detailed the west elevation.

Setting: Situated on a large plot set back from the main road (A2) in the centre of the village. Surrounded by largely late twentieth-century housing developments and facing the church hall (Mark Memorial Hall). To east is a graveyard with variety of headstones dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Lawned to front with turning circle. Site is bounded by mid-height pebbledash wall with smooth base and sandstone coping. To front are alcoved entrance walls with corner piers and gate piers having tall sandstone pyramidal caps. Gate piers are taller and support original cast-iron gates. Similar gate piers also providing access to graveyard.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Pebbledash & red brick
Windows: Leaded-and-stained glass lancets
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

First Dunboe Presbyterian Church was built in 1935-6 to designs by James Sherriff Kennedy, replacing an earlier meeting house on an adjacent site of 1785. The church is not shown on OS maps until the edition dating from the 1960s/70s.

Articlave has been a settled village since it was founded in the early 17th century by the Clothworkers’ Guild (Girvan), remaining for centuries a compact settlement which has only recently begun to burgeon with new estates appearing on all sides (OS maps).

The congregation at First Dunboe is thought to date back to the mid-seventeenth century when the Rev Thomas Fulton, and then the Rev James Blair were appointed ministers. Details of the earliest meeting house in the area are not known but in 1785 a new meeting house was built, which was raised in 1830 in order to accommodate a gallery around three sides. This building is listed in the Townland and Griffith’s Valuations at £9 and £21 respectively and was still present on the site at the time of the First General Revaluation in the early 1930s when further details were given of its size and construction, including plans of ancillary outbuildings (now gone), used as stabling by the congregation. (History of Congregations)

The congregation has a unique history of emigration, starting in 1718 when Rev James Woodside led 160 people from the church in a pioneering wave of Ulster Scots emigration aboard the ‘McCallum’ to Boston, the emigrants later settling in Merrymeeting Bay in Brunswick Maine. A group of emigrants from First Dunboe Presbyterian meeting in the mid-nineteenth century, perhaps fleeing famine and disease, are known to have founded a church in Pennsylvania known as the Maunch Chunk Presbyterian Church. (www.angelfire.com) In 1861, another emigrant, John Thompson from Articlave wrote the only eye witness account of the start of the American Civil War which was sent in a letter home to his father. (www.causewaycoastalroute.com) Rev John Mark (1867-1906) was a supporter of the tenant right movement and the church hall, which was opened in 1908 was built in his memory. (Kirkpatrick)

When, in the mid-1920s repairs to the old church uncovered serious defects, it was decided to erect an entirely new church building on an adjacent site, to the north-west of the earlier meeting house. The minister Rev James Mark raised £3,000 in the USA and two former members of the congregation John and David Crawford of Parkersburg USA made significant donations, allowing the debt on the building to be cleared. (History of Congregations)

The new church was built in 1935-6 to designs by J S Kennedy, the contractor was J W Crawford and the cost £7,300. Girvan suggests that the church in a ‘very bleak gothic idiom’ may owe something to Vincent Craig’s work at Portstewart and Ballywatt and commends the ‘good modest light oak pews and chancel furniture’. (Girvan) Rowan describes the church as ‘cruciform last-gasp Gothic with brick quoins and a vaguely Dutch air’. (Rowan) Most of the stained glass is by Clokey of Belfast. (HB file)

James Kennedy of Coleraine was active from c1907 to c1938 and was a pupil of F H Tulloch in Belfast becoming engineer to Limavady board of Guardians and Limavady Rural District Council until 1937. His output was largely domestic and the Articlave church appears to have been his only ecclesiastical commission. (www.dia.ie)

The church was listed in 1990 and extensively renovated in 1994. Its current congregation numbers around 336 families some of whom can trace back their roots in the area several centuries. (HB file; www.presbyterianireland.org)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/6/1 First Edition OS Map 1831
2. PRONI OS/6/5/6/2 Second Edition OS map 1849
3. PRONI OS/6/5/6/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/6/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923-4
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 – 03/12/034
11. Irish Builder Vol 77, 13 Jul 1935, p598

Secondary Sources

1. “A History of Congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland 1610-1982” authorised by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Belfast: Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, 1982 (available at www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com)
2. Day, A., P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Londonderry III, 1831-5, Vol. 11.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1991.
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. Kirkpatrick, L “Presbyterians in Ireland” Booklink, 2006
5. Rowan, A “The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster” Penguin, 1979
6. www.angelfire.com
7. www.causewaycoastalroute.com
8. www.dia.ie
9. www.presbyterianireland.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

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

Evaluation

A freestanding pebble-dash and red-brick early twentieth-century Presbyterian Church with two-stage square tower; dated 1935 and extensively refurbished in 1994; situated to the north side of St Pauls Road in the village of Articlave. Well-proportioned with good stonework detailing, in a style associated with nineteenth-century church architecture but with modern materials consistent with 1930s design, the eclectic style of the church is of interest. First Dunboe Presbyterian makes an important contribution to the architectural variety and character of the surrounding area and is of significant social importance and local interest to the community.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply R - Age & S - Authenticity.