Derg Parish Church,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached double-height Church of Ireland church, dated 1731, located to the west side of Main Street. Church consists of rectangular nave with square tower to west, possibly built on the remains of an earlier seventeenth century tower; additional aisle to north, built c.1870; gabled chancel to east and single-storey lean-to extension with cat-slide roof, both added c.1905; single-storey flat-roofed extension (vestry) to north-west, dated 1971 (of little interest).

Roofs are pitched natural slate with blue/black clay ridge tiles; raised stone verges; bead moulded kneeler stones and exposed timber rafter-ends to north aisle; chimney-stacks to gables. Walls are ruled-and-lined rendered with chamfered quoins over projecting plinth; roughcast to tower; roughly coursed rubble with ashlar sandstone quoins to north aisle; squared-and-snecked rockfaced sandstone with ashlar quoins to chancel. Windows are round-arched-headed containing leaded stained glass surmounted by hood mould with moulded stops; sandstone sills; windows to north aisle have stepped sandstone surrounds with chamfered sills (no hood moulding).

Principal elevation faces south and is five windows wide.

West gable is abutted at centre by stepped two-stage square tower containing single window at first stage; south elevation contains replacement round-arched-headed double-leaf timber panelled doors in sandstone architrave; flanked by replacement sandstone columns surmounted by frieze, inscribed ‘DOM HUGO EDWARDS ARMIGR ÆDEM HANC SACRAM SUIS PLERUM Que SUMPTIBUS REÆ DIFFICANDUM CURAVIT ANNO DOM MDCCXXXI IN QUOD PINMET LAUDABILE PROPOSITUM RITE REVERENDUS HENRICUS DOWNES DD EPISCOPUS DERRENSIS ET REVERENDUS ROBERTUS DOWNES AM PAROCHUS AULIQUE MUNIFICENTIAM SUAM LIBERE CONTULERUNT’; surmounted by broken pediment containing Coat of Arms; second stage containing single round-arched-headed louvred opening to each elevation; crenellated parapet with stone finials to corners. Elevation abutted at left by gabled aisle consisting of sandstone tracery rose window surmounted by hood mould with label stops and rubble voussoirs; abutted at ground floor by extension.

North elevation is abutted by five-window-wide aisle; abutted at left by lean-to extension containing single square-headed window at left; stepped ashlar chimney-stack to party wall with aisle; west elevation contains single window; east elevation contains round-arched-headed vertically-sheeted timber door in bead moulded architrave surmounted by stained glass oculus.

East gable is abutted at centre by gabled chancel containing large pointed-arched-headed geometrical tracery window surmounted by hood mould with decorative label stops and rubble voussoirs; south elevation contains wall-mounted memorial plaque, dated 1759. Elevation separated, at right, by rubble buttress from gabled aisle containing large pointed-arched-headed plate tracery window surmounted by hood mould with label stops and rubble voussoirs.

Set within churchyard containing selection of grave markers dating from the early eighteenth-century to present day. Site bounded to road at east by rubble plinth wall with stone coping surmounted by cast-iron railing; access through smooth rendered square pillars supporting pair of cast-iron gates at north-east and single gate at south-east; four-bay two-storey roughcast and red brick parochial hall to north-east, accessed directly from street, largely modernised.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Ruled-and-lined render; coursed rubble to north aisle
Windows Round-arched-headed containing leaded stained glass
RWG Replacement cast-iron ogee profile gutters and square downpipes

Historical information

The church was built in 1731 on the site of an earlier church. An aisle was added in the 1860s and a chancel and extension in 1896. The interior was renovated in the 1950s.

The church first appears on the 1833 OS Map as a simple rectangular structure captioned ‘Church’ and ‘Church Yd’. The tower which was present at this time is not visible on the 1833 map, probably because it extended almost the full width of the church, although it is visible on the Griffith’s Valuation Town Plan (1856-64). By the 1905 OS Map the plan of the church has changed considerably with additions to west, north and east.

The Townland Valuation (1828-40) records a ‘Protestant Church and Sexton’s House’ valued at £10. In Griffith’s Valuation the ‘Church, sexton’s house and graveyard’ are valued at £16 and £2 for the yard. In 1872, the value is revised to £23 because of an ‘addition’ – this probably refers to the building of the north aisle.

OS Memoirs record that, “The only church in the parish is situated in the town. It is a plain stone building with a square tower and low steeple. It was rebuilt in 1735. The cost, which was paid by subscription, is not known. The body of the church is 56 feet long and 28 feet broad, and is neatly fitted with pews, affording accommodation for 260 persons. The average attendance is 220.” (p.137)

The Diocesan History notes, “The present church in the town of Castlederg was built in 1731. The parish was amalgamated with Termonamongan in 1971” (p.63) A further note states, “Church destroyed by Phelim O’Neill in 1641 and remained in ruins till 1731 when present church was built by Hugh Edwards of Castle Gore. It was much improved in 1828” (p.176)

The church consists of rectangular nave, dated both externally and internally 1731, with square tower to west. A church history information leaflet states that the tower may be a survival from an ancient pre-reformation church that had been restored in the early 1600s and destroyed in 1641.

An inscription on the replacement entrance entablature reads ‘DOM HUGO EDWARDS ARMIGR ÆDEM HANC SACRAM SUIS PLERUM Que SUMPTIBUS REÆ DIFFICANDUM CURAVIT ANNO DOM MDCCXXXI IN QUOD PINMET LAUDABILE PROPOSITUM RITE REVERENDUS HENRICUS DOWNES DD EPISCOPUS DERRENSIS ET REVERENDUS ROBERTUS DOWNES AM PAROCHUS AULIQUE MUNIFICENTIAM SUAM LIBERE CONTULERUNT’.
This translates as, “In the year 1731 Hugh Edwards provided through his own resources for the rebuilding of this Holy Edifice, into which holy and praiseworthy work the Right Rev. Henry Downes, D.D., Bishop of Derry, and the Rev. Robert Downes, M.A., Rector, and other excellent men freely contributed of their wealth”.

The church history leaflet reads,“This church of 1731 was a simple building and consisted only of the present nave with a gallery at the back entered by a stairway from the porch…there was no chancel and the Communion Table, reading pew and pulpit were probably grouped at the east end. There were only three windows in the south wall.”

The north aisle, according to Rowan built 1866 by Welland & Gillespie, after the great Irish religious revival, is significantly different to the original nave stylistically, built of rubble stone with more sophisticated detailing, such as exposed timber rafter-ends to eaves and decorative label-stops. (p.182) Gabled chancel to east and single-storey lean-to extension with cat-slide roof both date from the late nineteenth century, 1896, according to the church history. This is shown by the differing stonework detailing and the inclusion of a chimney-stack to the north aisle, evidently retained and built around at the time the lean-to was added.

A major renovation of the interior took place in late 1950s, evidenced by doors from porch to nave dated 1957 and stained glass windows to south of nave and in porch, and entrance doors, all dated 1959.

There is a single-storey flat-roofed vestry extension to north-west (of no interest), dated 1971 to commemorate the ‘connection of the Ferguson and Smyly families with this parish since the purchase of land in Castlederg by John Ferguson, Apothecary, of Strabane’. The tiled floor of the porch was also replaced at this time. The timber panelling in the porch was replaced in 1999.

There are a number of memorials in the church, to the Edwards, Hamilton, Smyly and Ferguson families. The graveyard contains tombstones dating back to 1689.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/16/1 -First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/16/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1855)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/16/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905)
4. PRONI VAL/1A/6/16 -Townland Valuation Map
5. PRONI VAL/1/D/6/3 -Townland Valuation Town Plan (c.1834)
6. PRONI VAL/1B/626A -Townland Valuation Records (1828-1840)
7. PRONI VAL/2/D/6/5 -Griffith’s Valuation Town Plan (c.1859)
8. PRONI Griffith’s Valuation, printed copy -Union of Castlederg
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/166/1 -Annual Revision Records Town Plan (1904-9)
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/35/6A-F -Annual Revision Records (1850-1935)
11. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Tyrone I, 1821, 1823, 1833-36, Vol. 5.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1990.

Secondary Sources

1. Fawcett, F. W., D. W. T. Crooks and James B. Leslie. “Clergy of Derry and Raphoe.” Belfast and Londonderry: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1999.
2. Information supplied by church – ‘History of St John’s Derg’ (1981)
3. Rowan, Alistair. “North West Ulster: Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.” Buildings of Ireland Series. Dublin: Penguin Books, 1979.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A detached double-height Church of Ireland church, dated 1731, located to the west side of Main Street. The original early eighteenth-century church has been much altered during its life, including addition of north aisle and chancel during the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century. These additions have served to enhance the church, adapting it to the changing needs of the local community. The church displays some simple yet well-detailed design and the differing styles of the nave and aisle internally and externally complement each other to create a uniform layout. The church remains one of the earliest and most important elements within the rural town of Castlederg and it enjoys a good setting set back behind high quality gates and railings off the Main Street of Castlederg..