Presbyterian Hall,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Gable-fronted single-bay rectangular former Presbyterian Church, built c.1790, with attached double-height, gable-fronted Primary School, built c.1910.

Presbyterian Hall:
Rectangular on plan, facing east with front entrance porch, two-storey dwelling attached to north side elevation with rear porch to northwest corner and a corridor to the south side elevation connecting the hall to the neighbouring school.

Pitched artificial slate roof with plastic rainwater goods to timber fascia. Pebbledash cement rendered walling with smooth rendered plinth course. Rectangular stone plaque to north side elevation states… 'This House was Built 1739 Chiefly, by Means of the Revd. mr. Nehermiah, Donaldson'.

Gabled east front elevation with a pointed-arched window opening to the upper level with replacement hardwood casement window and stone sill. Small central gabled projecting entrance porch is flanked by pair of square-headed window openings, stone sills and hardwood casement windows. Entrance porch has artificial slate roof, plastic rainwater goods and a replacement double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber door with pointed-arched fanlight with original timber Y-tracery glazing. Stone step opens onto concrete step to concrete pedestrian footpath.

South side elevation is three windows wide with windows as per front elevation. The westernmost opening is now occupied by a flat-roofed corridor connecting the hall to the neighbouring school.

Rear elevation is blank, forming part of an extension built c.1960.

North side elevation is abutted by adjoining two-storey house, built c.1960, with a lean-to rear entrance porch to the inner angle.

Primary School:
Gable-fronted double-height hall, four windows wide to its side elevations, rectangular on plan, facing east with a connecting flat-roofed extension, c.1960, and further single-storey extension to west rear gable, built c.1980.

Pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge tiles, metal-clad raking coping to either raised gable and steel rainwater goods. Pebbledash rendered walling with tooled stone ashlar kneeler stones to both gables. Remains of a projecting chimneystack to front gable. Square-headed double-height window openings with early mulit-pane steel casement windows and concrete sills. Flat-roofed entrance porch to front gable attached to flat-roofed extension, three windows wide. Double-leaf hardwood doors opening onto flight of concrete steps.

Setting
Corner-sited enclosed to road by rubble stone wall with cement coping. Front door to hall opens onto concrete footpath through front lawn enclosed to road and to south by rubble stone wall opening onto the road by an early wrought-iron pedestrian gate. Corner-sited school grounds finished in bitmac and enclosed by rubble stone wall with cement coping.

Roof: Artificial slate / Natural slate
Walling: Pebbledash cement render
Windows: Replacement Timber casement / Steel casement
RWG: UPVC / Cast-iron

Historical information

Garvetagh Presbyterian Hall:

A datestone on the building reads, “This House was built 1739 chiefly by means of the Revd Nehemiah Donaldson”. The building served as the meeting house for 1st Castlederg congregation before the construction of their new church on a nearby site (HB10/01/005) c.1890. It has remained in use as their church hall with several additions in recent years.

The building is captioned ‘Presbyterian Meeting Ho’ on the first edition of the OS map in 1833. By the third edition of 1905 it has undergone some changes in plan.

The Townland Valuation lists a ‘Presbyterian meeting house and vestry room’ valued at £4.12s. Dimensions are given for both. Griffith’s Valuation describes the occupier as Rev. John Crockett who leases it from Lord Castlestewart. The value is £10 and 10s for the yard. In 1914 Annual Revisions change the description of the building to “Hall” and a note reads ‘old yard and stabling still used with new church’.

The congregation was established in 1700 and Mr Nehemiah Donaldson was the minister from 1716 to 1747. However a history of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland states that the minister at the time ‘set about rebuilding the church in its present form [in 1793]”. Ordnance Survey Memoirs are in broad agreement about this date for the construction of the present church, “Garvetagh Presbyterian meeting house…is a plain stone building 36 feet long and 28 broad. [It] is neatly fitted up with pews [and galleries] affording accommodation for 350 persons. The average attendance is 180. The meeting house was built in 1792 and cost 450 pounds, raised by voluntary subscriptions.” (p.11, 138) It is possible, therefore, that the datestone carried by the current building has been retained from an earlier building on the site.

According to a history of the congregation by Neill, the church building underwent some renovations in the late 1940s with the removal of the gallery, for which the supporting cast iron posts can still be seen, and the installation of a new floor. It was now ‘more suitable for the work of the Sunday School, BB Company and other organisations.’ It was during this renovation that the plaque was discovered dating the building to 1739. In 1958 there were extensions to the hall to designs by Mr Thomas Houston to provide a kitchen and toilets. Mr Potter of Irvinestown was the contractor. In 1987 a new kitchen was built by Lowry Brothers, builders to designs by David Young, architect at a cost of £14,000.

References:

PRONI OS/6/6/24/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1833)
PRONI OS/6/6/24/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1855)
PRONI OS/6/6/24/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1905)
PRONI OS/6/6/24/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1939-50)
PRONI VAL/1/B/633 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
PRONI VAL/2/B/6/35 – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
PRONI VAL/12/B/35/5A-F – Annual Revision Records (1862-1929)

Secondary Sources

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.
“A History of Congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland 1610-1982” authorised by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Belfast: Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, 1982
Neill, R S K “A Short History of 1st Castlederg Presbyterian Church” Omagh: The Tyrone Constitution Ltd, 1993

Garvetagh Primary School:

‘Garvetagh National School’ is first captioned on the second edition OS map of 1855. It is similarly captioned on the third edition (1905) but by the fourth it seems to have been replaced by a new building.

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists a ‘National School House and office’ leased from the Earl of Castlestuart and valued at £2, but exempted. No significant changes are recorded in Annual Revisions.

The 22nd Report of the Commissioner of National Education (1856) records that the school had an average daily attendance of 33, with a total of 79 on the rolls for the half year ending 30th September 1855.

National Schools were an early attempt to provide free or low-cost ‘integrated’ education. “In 1831 the National School system was established to provide primary education for the poor. Under the terms of the ‘Stanley letter’ ( so called after its author Lord Edward Stanley, the Irish chief secretary), a Board of Commissioners of National Education was empowered to distribute funds for the building of schools, employing of inspectors, training of teachers and providing grants for school requisites. Applications for aid to the board had to be made by local school patrons and, as the aim of the board was to encourage religious harmony, and the ‘mixed education’ of Catholic and Protestant children, it looked with ‘peculiar favour’ on ‘mixed’ applications. Religious instruction was taught separately from moral and secular instruction and strict rules to avoid religious proselytism were laid down. Despite opposition from, and distrust among the churches, the National School system developed steadily through the century, albeit, after the 1830s, with each religious denomination applying for its own schools.

By 1900 there were 8,684 National Schools in existence, and the illiteracy rate in Ireland dropped from 51 per cent in 1841 to 14 per cent in 1901. The Powis Commission (1870) on primary education in Ireland recognised that though de jure the National School system was non-denominational, de facto it had become a denominational one.” (McCormack, p.191)

References:

PRONI OS/6/6/24/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1833)
PRONI OS/6/6/24/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1855)
PRONI OS/6/6/24/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1905)
PRONI OS/6/6/24/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1939-50)
PRONI VAL/1/B/633 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
PRONI VAL/2/B/6/35 – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
PRONI VAL/12/B/35/5A-F – Annual Revision Records (1862-1929)
22nd Report of the Commissioner of National Education (1856) (available at www.books.google.com)

Secondary Sources

McCormack, W.J. “The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture”, Blackwell, 2001

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Originally a late 18th century gable-fronted single-bay rectangular Presbyterian Church, with attached double-height, gable-fronted Primary School, built c.1910. While an interesting group, most of the original fabric from the former Presbyterian Church has been replaced in the 20th century and both buildings have been altered with extensions, detracting from their authenticity and character. The buildings therefore do not meet the criteria for listing.