Methodist Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A small rectangular mid-19th century Romanesque-style church built of sandstone, four bays long to the sides, with a three-bay gabled front, and a long modern rear extension which lies at a lower level.

It stands in a built-up area, facing the main street of the town but set back slightly from it within its own grounds, and located immediately next to the Methodist Manse to which it is joined by a short stone balustrade.

The main entrance faces west, located in the centre of the west gable which is symmetrical. Pilaster piers divide the façade into three bays, with a prominent corbel table raking up below the gable copings which rise to a bellcote at the apex.
Walling is of snecked sandstone rubble, with ashlar sandstone dressings.
The main entrance contains a pair of rectangular timber boarded doors decorated with ornamented ironwork hinges with a semi-circular fanlight above, set within a semi-circular arch and flanked by scollop-capped circular colonnettes. It is reached by a broad flight of original stone steps which have a central handrail fixed. Two later handrails are also fixed to the front wall each side of the entrance.
Above the entrance is a pair of semi-circular arched coupled windows and a small oculus all set in a semi-circular arch and divided by scollop-capped colonnettes. These windows contain leaded lights.
Outer bays of the façade each contain a semi-circular headed lancet window flanked by similar colonnettes as elsewhere. These windows contain translucent glazing set in wooden astragals of five main panes with margin lights.
The bellcote is supported by weathered buttresses rising off the gable coping, and contains a semi-circular headed opening which is flanked by miniature colonnettes, detailed as previously, and is surmounted by a stone roof carried on corbels with a large decorative ironwork finial at the apex.
Fixed on to the wall below the window of the right hand bay of the gable is a substantial stone shield retained from a previous church, inscribed 'Primitive Wesleyan Methodist and Sunday School, Bible and Missionary Societi (sic), Meeting House 1825'. Abutting the south side of the building at the front is a short run of stone balustrading linking it with the adjacent manse.

The side elevations, facing north and south, are each four windows wide and of two storeys, containing a hall below the church accommodated by a drop in ground level from the street front to the rear.
Walling is of random rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings to openings, projecting eaves course, and quoins to the west end. Roofs are of Bangor blue slates in regular courses.
Rainwater goods are of cast iron.
Upper windows, to the church, are tall semi-circular arched lancets, fixed lights with wooden astragals, three panes wide with margins, incorporating a centrally pivoting section of leaded glazing. These windows are set in ashlar sandstone irregular block surrounds, stop-chamfered, with triangular shaped upper edges to the voussoirs.
Lower windows, to the hall, are segmental headed timber, of varying types, set in irregular block surrounds with projecting sandstone cills. The doorway contains a panelled door. High in the side walls, between the upper windows and level with their heads are three projecting cast iron tie-bars with circular plates.

The rear, or east gable, is plain in character, smooth cement rendered, with timber barge boards. It contains a pair of coupled semi-circular headed windows and a small oculus containing stained glass in timber frames set in plain reveals, with a narrow lancet opening to the apex, semi-circular headed, and chamfered, containing timber louvres.
The lower portion of the gable is obscured by a later modern flat-roofed extension which leads to a long gabled modern hall complex.

SETTING:
To the front of the church is a small forcourt laid with tarmac and enclosed by a plinth wall, with gates and railings. A tarmac driveway skirts the church on the north side, accessed through a modern steel gate, and leads to an extensive tarmac carpark to the rear. The south side of the church property to the rear directly overlooks the garden of the manse.

FRONT BOUNDARY WALL, GATES, AND RAILINGS:
These consist of a low smooth cement rendered plinth wall with sandstone copings surmounted by original wrought iron railings, containing a pair of similar gates, terminating at the front in a smooth rendered pier on the south side, and returning on the north side to the front wall of the church. The plinth wall on the north side is roughcast to the outer face and forms a retaining wall where the ground slopes down to the side of the church.

Historical information

A ‘Methodist Meeting House’ shown close to site (but set back from the street line) on OS map of 1857. Present building appears to have been built in 1858, as it is shown on the valuation map of 1859 and recorded in the valuation of that year as a ‘Wesleyan Methodist Chapel’. The authorship is uncertain, however the building does show certain stylistic similarities with other Methodist churches of the 1850s and 1860s, at Ballymoney, Donegall Town and Newtownards.

A Methodist Chapel is recorded as standing at the east side of the southern end of William Street (probably on the site of the present no.2 William Street) in the valuation of January 1835. This is noted as measuring 40ft x 25 x 17½.

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Pigot & Co's Provincial Directory of Ireland’, (Manchester, 1824)
2 PRONI OS/9/10/1 OS plan of Cookstown, 1833
3 PRONI VAL/1B/622A First valuation, Derryloran parish, 1834-c.1838
4 PRONI VAL/1D/6/2 Valuation plan of Cookstown, c.1838
5 Lewis, Samuel, ‘A topographical dictionary of Ireland…’ vol.1, (London, 1837)
6 ‘Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland’, (Manchester, 1846)
7 PRONI VAL/2C/63 Second valuation, Union of Cookstown (Dublin, 1859) [This is the printed version of the second valuation. The handwritten version (which may have been more detailed and include property dimensions etc.) no longer exists. The printed volume merely provides names of tenants and leaseholders, and rateable values.]
8 PRONI VAL/2D/6/3/1-2 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1859-82 [2 sheets]
9 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5A Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1860-63
10 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5B Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1864-68
11 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5C Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1868-81
12 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5D Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1881
13 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5E Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1881
14 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5F Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1882-90
15 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5G Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1882-88
16 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5J Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1889-94 [The reference number for this book is out of sequence in the
PRONI catalogue- the dates it covers are actually earlier than VAL/12B/37/5H.]
17 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5H Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1895-99
18 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5K Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1889-99
19 PRONI VAL/12E/171/1/1-2 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1892-97 [2 sheets]
20 PRONI OS/33/1/1-5 OS plan of Cookstown, 1895 [5 sheets]
21 PRONI OS/9/10/2/1-2 OS plan of Cookstown, index map, 1895 [2 sheets]
22 PRONI OS/9/10/3/1-5 OS plan of Cookstown, 1895 [5 sheets]
23 PRONI VAL/12E/171/2/1-3 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1897-1910 [3 sheets]
24 PRONI VAL/12B/37/7A Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1901-07
25 PRONI VAL/12B/37/7B Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1909-15
26 PRONI OS/33/2/1-4 OS plan, 1909 & 1918 [4 sheets]
27 PRONI VAL/12B/37/7C Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1916-29
28 PRONI VAL/3G/142/1 /1-4 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1936-37 [4 sheets]
29 PRONI VAL/3C/7/8 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Cookstown Urban, 1936-57
30 PRONI VAL/3G/142/2/1-4 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1937-51
31 PRONI VAL/4B/6/10 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Cookstown Urban vol.1, 1956-72
32 PRONI VAL/4B/6/11 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Cookstown Urban vol.2E, 1956-72

Secondary sources
1 Oram, R.W. and Rankin, P.J., Historic buildings…Dungannon & Cookstown (Belfast, UAHS, 1971)
2 Rowan, A.J., ‘The buildings of Ireland – North west Ulster’, (London, 1979), pp.216, 239.

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
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

This is an attractive example of a small mid-19th century church in a neo-Romanesque style, well proportioned and ornamentally treated, with a hall-type plan typical of non-conformist churches. Apart from some minor alterations to the interior of the porch the interior remains intact. There is an extensive later addition to the rear but it lies at lower level than the main street and does not spoil the overall appearance at the front which is one of considerable charm, enhanced by the presence of original front boundary wall, gates and railings. It stands as a building of very distinctive appearance and character, and together with its manse which stands beside it, forms an interesting local group.
In a wider more national context it is of considereable interest due to its architectural association with a small number of other Methodist churches of the same period elsewhere in Ulster - in Ballymoney in Co Antrim, Newtownards in Co Down, and Donegal town in the Republic of Ireland, which are almost identical in plan and appearance and are clearly by the same architect whose identity has not yet been recorded