Armoy Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey Presbyterian church with tower, built in 1841 but extended and embellished along vaguely Arts & Crafts / Art-Noveau lines in 1903, possibly to designs by Vincent Craig. The church is set between Church Road and Drones Road, on the south side of the village of Armoy. [For the purposes of this description SW will be read as W etc.]

The symmetrical front elevation faces W and is constructed in semi-coursed squared basalt rubble with raised lime mortar pointing, and a sandstone-like [?composite] stone as dressings to the openings, quoins, buttress caps etc. To the centre of the elevation is a shallow bay, which rises above the gable to form a short square tower. This bay was originally a tower, with three faces fully exposed, however as part of the 1903 remodelling, the line of the front gable was brought forward and the tower largely integrated with it.

The lower stage of the bay is broader and has tall, but relatively shallow buttresses. Extending from the buttresses are low walls which support a lych-gate like porch with oversailing slated roof, moulded barges with end panels, an incised tie-beam and torch bracket-like finial. Within the porch there is a flat-arched doorway with a panelled timber door. Directly above the porch is a relatively small pointed arch window with leaded glazing. A moulded string course separates the lower and upper stages of the bay. The upper stage of the is slightly narrower and has in-out quoins. To the base of the upper stage, just above the string course, there is a small date panel which reads ‘Founded 1762 rebuilt 1841’. Above roof level, where the bay becomes a tower, there is a pointed arch window to the N, S and W faces, each with a three-pane timber frame and patterned glazing. The tower is topped with a short, slender lead-clad spire with decorative ship weathervane. The spire is set behind an open parapet, with octagonal finial-like corner piers and a four-centred arch set between.

To either side of the bay (on the main gable as it were) there is a three-light window with a cusped head and leaded panes to each light, with stone mullions separating each. Above both windows there is a triangular relieving arch. The gable ends have buttresses with small end piers to the gable coping.

A small left hand portion of the S face of the building (i.e. the portion which was added in 1903) is finished as the front gable. This portion is bordered by two tall buttresses and set between these there is a tall almost full-height canted bay with a slated hipped roof and a high-level window with made up of three tall, high-level flat-arch lights with timber frames and leaded glazing. The rest of the S face is finished in dry dash render with a cement render base course, and has three tall narrow segmental-headed windows with Perpendicular style tracery and plain cement render surrounds. The window to the left is slightly taller and incorporates some decorative panels (which hide the line of the gallery floor- see interior description). Between the windows are large rubble-constructed buttresses, with another taller buttress to the right hand side. The very right hand edge of the S face is finished in rubble, as the front gable. The N face of the church is a mirrored version of the S face.

To the ground floor of the E gable there is a full-width single-storey projection. This projection is gabled to the centre, with flat-roofed flanking sections. It is finished in dry dash render with a cement render base course and wall edging, with concrete coping to the parapet. To the E face of this projection there are nine windows, symmetrically arranged in three groups of three, with those to the centre larger. All of these windows have metal frames with leaded panes, cement render surrounds and bevelled concrete cills. To the S face of the projection there is a flat-arch doorway with moulded surround and panelled timber door. To the N face there another doorway with cement render surround and timber door. To the right of this there are two windows, same as the smaller windows to the E face.

The main E gable is finished in dry dash render with full-height projecting rubble piers to the wall edges. There are two high-level windows similar to those to the main N and S faces, but much shorter. A moulded string course follows the outline of the heads of the windows in the fashion of drip moulding.

The gabled roof of the church is slated and has an overhang to the E gable, supported on large timber brackets. The rainwater goods consist of cast-iron gutters supported on distinctive curled wrought-iron brackets, and square downspouts. The gabled section of the roof of the projection is covered in an artificial ‘slate’, with asphalt to the flat portions.

The church forecourt is covered in tarmac, as are the narrow paths to the N and S of the building. The forecourt and paths are enclosed by a relatively low rendered wall with a broad pedestrian gateway to W with square rendered piers with pyramidal caps, and decorative wrought-iron gates. To the N and E of the church there is a graveyard, with a large car park to S.

Historical information

The date stone on the front of this building would appear to indicate that the Presbyterian congregation of Armoy was founded in 1762. As such, it is likely that the original church / meeting house was built in this year or shortly afterwards. This original structure is described in the OS Memoirs of 1835 as ‘a very old building 64 feet long by 21 feet wide…not in good repair or sufficiently commodious’ which was, at that point, due to be demolished and replaced by a new church. This new church duly followed in 1841, a roughly square gabled structure with two-stage pinnacled tower to the front. This building survived in this form until 1903, when it was extended and remodelled, work which, (judging from photographic evidence), involved the construction of a new front gable in line with the tower, the addition of the spire, parapet and open porch to the latter, and the application of fashionable Art-Noveau influenced detailing. It has been suggested that this work was carried out to designs by Vincent Craig, but, (as far as this writer knows), there seems to be no documentary evidence to confirm this. The building is certainly indicative of Craig’s style however.

Although the session room projection appears to have been added in 1903 also, its present detailing suggests it was extensively renovated in the mid 1900s.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/1/13/1 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 13 (1832)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/130 First valuation, Armoy parish [Cary Barony] (1834)
3 OS Memoirs, Parish of Armoy, (1832-38), reprinted in ‘Ordnance Survey memoirs of Ireland…’ ed Angelique Day, Patrick McWilliams and Noirin Dobson (Belfast, QUB, 1994), p.4
4 PRONI OS/6/1/13/2 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 13 (1857)
5 PRONI VAL/2D/1/20d Valuation plan of Armoy (1859)
6 PRONI VAL/2B/1/23a Second valuation, Armoy parish [Cary Barony] (1859)
7 PRONI VAL/2B/1/23b Second valuation, Armoy parish [Cary Barony] (1859)
8 PRONI VAL/2B/1/37 Second valuation, Armoy parish [Upper Dunluce Barony] (1859)
9 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1a Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1864-78)
10 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1b Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1878-85)
11 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1c Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1885-1900)
12 Bassett, George Henry, ‘The Book of County Antrim’ (Dublin, 1888), p.87
13 EHS (MBR) Photograph showing Armoy Presbyterian church, (c.1900)
14 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1d Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1901-12)
15 PRONI VAL/12E/5/1/1 Valuation plan of Armoy (1906-35)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1e Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1912-29)
17 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
18 PRONI VAL/3B/1/4 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle RD (1935)
19 PRONI VAL/3G/3/1/1 Valuation plan of Armoy (1935-56)
20 PRONI VAL/3C/1/4 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland [annual revisions], Ballycastle RD (1936-57) [This valuation book is currently closed ‘according to the criteria set out in the White Paper on Open Government’.]
21 PRONI VAL/4B/1/9 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland [annual revisions], Ballycastle RD (1957-72)

Secondary sources
1 Girvan, W.D., ‘Historic Buildings…North Antrim’ (Belfast, 1972), p.36
2 Brett, C.E.B., ‘The Buildings of County Antrim’, (Belfast, 1996), p.59
3 Waddell, H.C., ‘Armoy Presbyterian Church’ (ND) [The writer has not been able to consult this particular publication, however some of the information quoted by Brett appears to come from this source.]

Other
references
1 EHS HB05/05/002 First Survey report (6 February 1973)
2 EHS HB05/05/002 Photograph (February 1973)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-storey Presbyterian church with tower, built in 1841 but extended and embellished along vaguely Arts & Crafts / Art-Noveau lines in 1903, possibly to designs by Vincent Craig. This church has attractive external details which are very much of the early 1900s, however the interior, although largely original, is of less interest than the exterior.