St James's (C of I) Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single-storey gothic C of I parish church, built in 1848, possibly to a design by William Welland. The church is set close to the junction of Novally Road and Ramoan Road, with a graveyard to the north, south and east sides.

[Actual compass points have been used.]
The church is roughly rectangular in plan, with a porch and aisle projection to the S, chancel to E and a small vestry projection to the northeast corner. The walls are constructed in roughly squared rock-faced rubble with dressed sandstone to the openings and as parapets and quoins. All sides are punctuated by reducing buttresses with similar buttresses set diagonally to some of the corners. There is a sandstone string course at cill level with sandstone also used as ‘coping’ for the bevelled base course. Almost all of the windows have pointed arch heads and stained glass.

The long, lean-to like aisle projection covers the full length of the S elevation of the ‘nave’. To the left (W) end of this projection there is a further projection- a gabled porch. To the front (S) gable of the porch there is a pointed arch doorway with timber studded door with strap hinges set within a splayed moulded reveal. Over the doorway is a moulded (sandstone) drip stone with carved human heads as stops (that to left wearing a coronet, that to right a bishop with mitre- both somewhat weathered). To the W face of the porch there is a small pointed arch window, with an identical window to the E face.

To the left of the porch (on the aisle projection) there is a pair pointed arch windows, with two more pairs to the right.

The W elevation consist of the W gable of the nave with the side of the aisle projection to the right (S). On the former there is a a high level pair of tall pointed arch windows, with a small roundel window directly over these and a (relatively) small trefoil window set close to the gable apex. The gable is topped with a Sandstone bellcote. There is a small pointed arch window to the side of the aisle projection.

The E elevation consists of the gabled of the chancel with the side of the aisle projection to left. To right, but set back, is the small (lean-to) vestry projection. The gable of the chancel has a high level grouping of three tall pointed arch windows, with that to the middle taller. To the side of the aisle projection there is a pair of pointed arch windows with a small quatrefoil above. To the E face of the vestry projection there is a pair of pointed arch windows. To the immediate right (N) of these there is a small flat-roofed boiler house projection. To the S face of the latter there is a doorway with panelled timber door and a small flat-arch window, with modern timber frame. This boiler house projection ‘overlooks’ a sunken stone staircase which ascends below ground level to a small flat-arch doorway (with timber-sheeted door), to the N face of the chancel. The boiler house is, as one would expect, a later addition, and its quoins are fashioned from a more reddish, roughly-dressed, sandstone.

The N elevation consists of the chancel and vestry to left and the nave to right. To the chancel there is a single pointed arch window, with a pair of small pointed arch windows to the vestry. To the nave there are three pairs of pointed arch windows, with each pair surmounted by a small quatrefoil. Between the second and third windows (from left) there is a doorway, as that to the porch, but without the drip stone. Above the doorway there is a small quatrefoil.

The steeply pitched roof and that of the chancel are slated, as is the gabled roof of the porch and the lean-to roofs of the aisle and vestry projections. Each of these roofs has sandstone parapets with small ‘gable’ features to the ends. There is a small final to the gable of the porch and that of the chancel. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

The churchyard is entered via a modest pedestrian gate to the W (at the junction of the Novally and Ramoan roads). The gate itself is of plain wrought-iron, with slightly more decorative (but still quite simple) cast-iron pillars. There is a similar gate set into the low rubble wall which encloses the churchyard to the SE. There is a similar enclosing wall to the E, with a hedge to the W. To the NW there is a carriage gateway with square sandstone pillars with (mainly) bevelled corners and two-stage pyramidal caps and decorative cast-iron gates. To the NW corner of the site (relatively close to the church itself) there are some mature trees.

Historical information

This church was built in 1848 as a replacement for the church which stood in the old Ramoan graveyard a short distance to the southwest of this site.

C.E.B Brett states that the heads on the drip stone over the entrance are believed to represent the Earl of Antrim and Bishop Mant. The fact that one is wearing a coronet and the other a mitre suggests their may be some truth to this, or that people simply placed their own interpretation upon what were ‘stock’ figures representing the clergy and nobility.

The old Ramoan Church this building superseded is believed to have been built in 1506, but replaced by a slightly smaller structure in 1812, which is described in the OS Memoirs of 1838-39 as ‘a plain oblong edifice 1-storey high and slated…[with] an arched door on the west gable…3 gothic windows on the south side and 1 large gothic window on the east gable’.

References- Primary sources
1 OS Memoirs, Parish of Ramoan, (1831-39), reprinted in ‘Ordnance Survey memoirs of Ireland…’ ed Angelique Day, Patrick McWilliams and Noirin Dobson (Belfast, QUB, 1994), p.92 etc
2 PRONI OS/6/1/8/1 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 8 (1832)
3 PRONI VAL/1B/135 First valuation, Ramoan parish (1834)
4 PRONI OS/6/1/8/2 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 8 (1856)
5 PRONI VAL/2B/1/28c Second valuation, Ramoan parish (1859)
6 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3a Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1862-64)
7 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3b Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1865-76)
8 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3c Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1876-84)
9 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3d Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1884-93)
10 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3e Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1892/3-98)
11 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3f Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1898-1907)
12 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3g Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1908-21)
23 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5a Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North and South Wards (1921-27)
14 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5b Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North Ward (1927-30)
15 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5c Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD South Ward (1927-30)
16 PRONI VAL/3B/1/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD, 1935
17 PRONI VAL/3C/1/6 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1936-57
18 PRONI VAL/4B/1/12 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD (1956-72)

Secondary sources
1 Brett, C.E.B., ‘Historic Buildings…The Glens of Antrim’ (Belfast, 1971)

Other
references
1 EHS HB05/15/024 First Survey report (18 July 1972)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Single-storey gothic C of I parish church, built in 1848, possibly to a design by William Welland. A good, relatively understated, example of early Victorian Gothic Revivalism.