Coagh Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey building of roughly square plan with rendered walls and half-hipped slated roof. It stands near the southwest limit of the village, facing the public road but set well back from it within its own grounds.

Walling is of smooth cement render, lined and blocked, with a slightly projecting plinth and painted quoins to the extremities and projecting cills. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with a set of four very small ventilators incorporated in a line near the top of the roof and another set of four near the bottom. Rainwater goods are of metal with half-round guttering returning on the right hand gable to a circular downpipe; to the rear, the guttering is moulded.

The main entrance faces north-west, located in the centre of a symmetrical front with two semi-circular headed windows to each side of it. Windows are modern uPVC replacements subdivided to represent Georgian paned sashes. The main entrance contains a rectangular timber panelled two-leaf door set in a moulded semi-circular headed opening with panelled pilasters and modern decorative wrought ironwork to the fanlight. The entrance is approached by a flight of three sandstone steps and also by a modern ramp with steel-railings across the face of the building.

The north-east elevation is symmetrical and contains four windows similar in detail to the entrance front. There is a plain stringcourse at eaves level but no plinth. In the wall area above the stringcourse is a small ocular window.

The south-east or rear elevation consists of the plain wall of the main block without quoins or plinth, but with a circular flanged iron pattress plate appearing at the left hand end. There are two windows, similar to previous but with recessed cills, one to each side of an almost central projecting lower gabled return. This block is of similar materials to the main building and contains two modern rectangular windows in the south-west side, and one similar window and a doorway in the north-east side. To the right hand end is a smaller lean-to roofed projection of similar materials which has two similar modern windows in the main face and a doorway in the end.

The south-west elevation is similar to the north-east but without stringcourse or ocular opening.

SETTING:
The building is approached by a gravel driveway on axis with the main entrance from a wide gravel car park accessed via a gateway from the road. The driveway is flanked to each side by lawns which are planted with mature trees, and broadens immediately in front of the building. Along each side of the building and across the rear are concrete paved pathways, with a grassy graveyard beyond that to the sides and rear. Memorials are mainly of the 19th and 20th centuries. The boundary to the front consists of plain modern iron railings on a low plinth wall of cement render, with modern rubble stone square end piers, and gate piers which contain low modern gates.

Historical information

The precise date of building is not recorded but it may be presumed to date from the late 18th century. The congregation was established in 1708, and the first minister installed in 1711. This building was probably built during the ministry of Rev John McClelland who was installed in 1755 and died in 1798. His is the earliest grave to be found in the cemetery.

References - Primary Sources
1. OS Map of 1833.

Secondary Sources
1. A.J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North-West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979), p 198.
2. Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, A History of Congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland 1610-1982 (Belfast, 1982), pp 319-320.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A restrained single-storey building of roughly square plan with rendered walls and half-hipped slated roof. This is an example of a late Georgian meeting house in the classical tradition with an unusual plan that retains its overall appearance and general character despite the loss of some original fabric such as its timber sashed windows. It enjoys a pleasant setting within its own grounds forming an architectural set-piece of some charm, while retaining in its interior a box-pew arrangement of seating which is characteristic of the period but now no longer common. Had the original windows survived, the architectural quality and, therefore, the grade of the church would have been higher.