Ballycarry Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A rectangular church with rendered walls and gabled slated roof. Gabled porch contains entrance which is set in an aedicule surround of panelled pilasters with a cornice and bracket arrangement to the head supporting a plain pediment slightly raised from the wall surface. Frieze inscribed with date MDCCCXXX (ie 1830). Eaves cornice to sides continues under front gable as a corbel table. Floriated details to apex of both porch and main church gables to front, later additions, in manner of later 19th century work. Windows set in semi-circular headed openings.

Setting: the building stands facing the main road which passes through the village, in a rural area, with its main entrance set back slightly from the road behind a gatescreen and railings of scrolling wrought ironwork with ornamental cast iron posts.

Historical information

Appears on OS map of 1831. Built in 1830 at a cost of £600 raised by subscription; described at the time as being “a very neat, plain edifice ... comfortably fitted up internally ... 66 feet long by 20 wide and would accommodate 300 persons”. Extensively renovated in 1931 with new windows, a new floor, and a new pipe organ installed, and two side galleries removed, under direction of William Calwell, an architect and member of the congregation.

References - Primary Sources

1. OS Map 1831, Co Antrim 47.
2. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of County Antrim X, Vol 26 (Belfast, 1994), pp 85, 92, 101.

Secondary Sources

1. A. Dowlin, Ballycarry in Olden Days (Belfast, 1963), pp 65-66 [includes photograph of church but erroneously gives date of building as 1832].

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a church of early 19th century foundation which retains some original features but which has had significant later alterations which have diminished its standing or value as an example of late Georgian architecture.