Altedesert Church of Ireland Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Exterior Description and Setting
A Victorian stone-built church in Gothic Revival style, consisting of a nave flanked on the south side by an aisle and a western tower with spire, and on the north side by a small vestry.

It stands in a built up area, within its own grounds which occupy the centre of the town square.

The main entrance faces south in the base of the tower.
The south elevation consists of the tower set back slightly to the left of a three-bay south aisle. The south aisle has walling of roughly coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar sandstone dressings to windows, plinth, block quoins to extremities, and Gothic shaped sandstone corbels to the eaves. There is a small rectangular perforated cast-iron vent in the plinth. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. Rainwater goods are moulded cast iron guttering with circular downpipes. There are three sets of coupled arched windows set in irregular block surrounds, and containing iron latticework glazing.

The three stage tower is of snecked sandstone rubble with ashlar sandstone dressings, and an ashlar sandstone spire. It has diagonal buttresses which rise to tall corner pinnacles either side of small gables at parapet level. Tower stages are marked by moulded string courses. The main entrance has an arched timber sheeted door with decorative ironwork hinges set in two recessed orders with circular stone colonnettes and a relieving arch, surmounted by an inscribed datestone of 1877 set in a small arched surround. In the second stage of the tower is a small trefoil window of leaded glazing. The belfry stage has a triplet of openings divided by colonnettes and containing timber louvres. The gable above contains a circular clock face. The spire is decorated with ocular openings and imbrications, and is surmounted by a scrolling ironwork finial.
The other faces of the tower are similar to the front except that the gables contain cusped circular blind panels intead of a clock face, and there is a Gothic lancet window in the ground floor of the west face.

The west gable of the nave is of three bays, with a narrow blind lancet to each side of a pointed-arched entrance and one above it, set into a larger blind Gothic arch, all surmounted by a twin-pinnacled rectangular bellcote which no longer contains a bell. Walling is mainly of regular courses of squared rubble alternating with small stones, forming an unusual pattern, with coarser rubble around the doorway as though that part has been rebuilt later. A diagonal buttress on the north-west corner rises to a sharp pinnacle. The bellcote and dressings are of ashlar sandstone except around the doorway which is not dressed. It contains a rectangular timber sheeted door and arched tympanum.

The north wall of the nave is of patterned walling similar to the gable, with projecting ashlar plinth, eaves course, and dressings to the four windows, which contain uPVC frames and imitation diamond leading.
The vestry of lean-to form is of rough coursed rubble and contains a shouldered rectangular doorway and a pair of small coupled Gothic windows with lozenge glazing. Roofs and rainwater goods on the north elevation are as previous to the aisle.

The east elevation comprises the two gables of the nave and aisle side by side, with the aisle slightly set back. Walling of both is of roughly squared rubble with ashlar dressings to the windows.

SETTING:
The grounds are mostly laid in tarmac, with small lawns to the south and west, enclosed by boundary walling of rubble sandstone, partly rendered on the inside faces, with rough stone copings except to the front where modern railings have replaced the upper courses. Access to the churchyard is through a pair of modern steel gates at the front, mounted on square sandstone piers.

Historical information

Built in two stages, the nave, which was the original church in its entirety, in 1841, and a south aisle and western tower and spire in 1877, the additions of 1877 being erected on behalf of John and Armar Lowry, of the local land-owning family, “a tribute of attachment to their birthplace”. Font erected 1869; pulpit erected 1877. The original church was consecrated on 7 April 1841.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map of 1906-7.
2. Datestone of 1877 on the tower.

Secondary Sources
1. J.B. Leslie, Armagh Clergy and Parishes (Dundalk, 1911), pp 87-88.
2. UAHS, Dungannon and Cookstown (Belfast, 1971), p 56.
3. A.J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North-West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979), p 455.

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

Evaluation

The is an impressive stone-built Victorian church in Gothic Revival style consisting of two main phases of building - a nave which dates from 1841 and a south aisle and western tower and spire from 1877. Both parts are of interest in themselves, the nave for its unusual masonry patterning and unusual west gable arrangement, the well-proportioned tower and spire for its bold and vigorous form. Together the parts demonstrate a historic development and form a curious mixture externally but one which forms an important and essential accent in the middle of the town square. Despite some minor changes inside, the building retains a main interior of some interest and quality enhanced by some typically High Victorian ornamented fittings and furnishings.