LAYDE PARISH CHURCH, GATES AND WALLING

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing single-cell double-height rubblestone gable-fronted Gothic-style Church of Ireland church, built 1831-1832 with chancel projection and vestry block. Rectangular on plan facing north and set within its own extensive grounds on the south side of Mill Street with associated graveyard within the grounds.

Pitched natural slate roof with rolled lead ridge, steel ventilation lanterns and set behind slightly raised front gable. Moulded cast-iron guttering on drive-through iron brackets with box hoppers, square-profile cast-iron downpipes and trefoil brackets. Coursed and snecked rubble red sandstone walling and projecting red sandstone ashlar plinth course with lime pointing. Lancet window openings with rough-hewn squared relieving arches formed in chamfered red sandstone ashlar surrounds with latticed cast-iron windows or leaded coloured glazing and steel mesh guards.

Gabled front elevation has a lower gable-fronted pinnacled entrance porch and flanked by clasping corner piers rising as octagonal piers supporting pinnacles. The front gable rises above the roof with saddle-back red sandstone coping surmounted by tooled red sandstone bellcote. Bellcote has a depressed arch opening housing a bronze bell and surmounted by a pinnacle. Hood mouldings to three window openings to the front gable. The entrance porch is framed by diagonal buttresses rising as octagonal piers supporting pinnacles and a further pinnacle to the apex with blind cartouche to the base. To the left cheek of the porch is a square-headed door opening with chamfered tooled red sandstone surround and vertically-sheeted double-leaf hardwood door.

East side elevation is three windows wide with lean-to organ chamber projection to the left. The windows have bipartite tracery frames with cinquefoil heads, the central and right window having leaded stained glass with that to the left having latticed iron quarry glazing.

The gabled rear elevation has a further gabled chancel projection and small lean-to projection to the east. Raking stone coping to both gables with trefoil kneeler stones to the chanel. Large pointed-headed window opening to the chancel with red sandstone ashlar reticulated tracery frame and leaded coloured glazing.

The west side elevation has a diminutive gabled vestry block to the right with paired lancets to the south and a pointed-headed door opening to the west having chamfered red sandstone surround and vertically-sheeted hardwood door with iron furniture onto two stone steps.

Setting:
Located on an extensive site and set back on the south side of Mill Street with upstanding stone and polished granite grave markers. Gravel footpaths within the site and a cobblelock front drive opens onto the road via pair of decorative cast-iron gates hung on square plan tooled sandstone piers with pyramidal capstones. The front of the site is enclosed by matching iron railings set on low rubblestone wall with saddleback coping. The remainder of the site is enclosed by tall rubblestone walls with concrete coping. To the rear is a diminutive red sandstone structure with slate roof.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Red sandstone rubble
Windows Bipartite latticed iron / leaded coloured glazing

Historical information

Layde Parish Church, a late-Georgian Gothic-Revival style church located on Mill Street to the south west side of Cushendall, was erected 1831-32. The building is the third church to have been constructed for the parish of Layd; under the revised census of 1825 the parish possessed 600 members of the Established Church. The first Parish Church was erected prior to the 13th century in the townland of Moneyvart (located to the north-east of the village) with the first
references to the church (‘Ecclesia de Leyde’) made in 1288. Following the Nine Years War (1594-1603) the church lay in a ruined condition and in 1683 Richard Dobbs wrote: ‘the church of Layd harde by without roofe, seems to have been a handsome country church with a square steeple about 30 foot high, stands in a bottome near the sea, noe howse within a quarter of a mile [sic].’ The medieval church was rebuilt in 1696 (the date is inscribed on the east wall) and continued to be used as the Parish Church until c. 1790. The building had fallen into a state of ruin by c. 1800 which was noted by the Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1830-38): ‘there is another ruin … which is called the Old Church, around which is situated the chief burial ground of the parish. There is nothing to be seen here but the walls and a few tombstones. Divine service was performed in it until 45 years ago’ (OSM, p. 41).

The second Parish Church was erected in the townland of Cushendall (one mile to the north-west of the village) in 1800. Mason states that the church was built under the Rev. Richard Stewart Dobbs but that the building was too small for the congregation and received no assistance from the Board of First Fruits ‘who declined giving money unless the old church was in ruins for 20 years.’ The new church was depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1832) as a simple rectangular-shaped structure however, according to Lewis, this building had also fallen into a state of ruin by 1830 (Mason, p. 21; Lewis; Brett, p. 14).

The current Gothic-Revival Layde Parish Church was constructed on Mill Street in 1831 to replace the inadequate church of c. 1800 (which was subsequently demolished by the 1850s). The larger church was depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map along a simple rectangular layout and was valued at £13 under the contemporary Townland Valuations (1834). The contemporary Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1830-38) described the church in the following terms: ‘It is an uncommonly neat, stone building, handsomely finished both internally and externally. It has a small, cut stone spire about 12 feet high, erected on its northern gable, and the windows and doorways are also of cut stone. The roof is metal, and there are more comfortable places of worship. It is 64 feet long by 30 feet wide and would accommodate 250 persons. It was erected in 1831 at an expense of 900 pounds’ (OSM, p. 41). The architect of the church is not known with certainty. The Natural Stone Database notes that locally quarried Devonian Sandstone (Cross Slieve Group) was employed in the masonry of the building (NSD).

There was little change made to the building between 1832 and the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 which continued to depict the church along a rectangular layout. The church was increased in value to £15 and 10 shillings. The Annual Revisions note that the current entrance porch and vestry were added to Layde Parish Church in 1865 increasing the value of the church to £17 at which it remained until the 1930s. The Dictionary of Irish Architects note that the additions to the church were designed by Welland & Gillespie who had been appointed as joint architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1860 (DIA). Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of the church was increased to £60, however this was further raised to £96 by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1972 the UAHS publication for the Glens of Antrim described Layde Parish Church as ‘a really pretty little building, in a lovely if modest setting; built of reddish sandstone with three sharp little pinnacles on its façade, and three more on the porch. The ‘metal roof’ referred to by [the OSM] is in fact a slated roof carried on most attractive hooped iron roof trusses’ (UAHS, p. 37). Layde Parish Church was listed in 1976. NIEA HB Records note that remedial work was carried out to the church in 1993 which included repointing stonework and roof repairs (NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1903)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1921)
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/1/20 – Townland Valuation Map (c. 1830)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/148 – Townland Valuations (1834)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/40A-B – Griffith’s Valuation (c. 1859)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/7A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/12A– Annual Revisions (1923-29)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/14 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/10 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
12. William Shaw Mason: Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland (1819)
13. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Antrim IV, Vol. 13 (1830-38)
14. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
15. First Survey Record – HB05/02/011 (1971)
16. NIEA HB Record – HB05/02/011

Secondary Sources
1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings and areas of architectural importance in the Glens of Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Co. Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1996.
3. ‘Cushendall Village Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1975.
4. ‘Cushendall Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1993.

Online Resources
1. Natural Stone Database - http://www.stonedatabase.com/
2. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Free-standing single-cell rubblestone gable-fronted Church of Ireland church, constructed in 1831, located on the south side of Mill Street behind decorative iron gates and railings on sandstone walls with piers. Stone boundaries and a small freestanding stone building to the south of the church are also of interest. The site is bounded to the south side by the River Dall and the grounds contain a graveyard. It is the third church to have been constructed for the parish of Layd, this building exemplifying the rural Gothic-style of the early 19th C. It retains much internal and external historic character and detail including sandstone pinnacles and bellcote to the front elevation. The current entrance porch and vestry were added in 1865 to designs by Welland & Gillespie who had been appointed as joint architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1860. The church has a strong social role in the village and has a fine setting on the edge of the village.