Strabane Presbyterian Church,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Gable-fronted double-height three-bay church with tower, built 1955 to the designs of Thomas Houston, facing south on the east side of Derry Road. Rectangular on plan, with a large square-plan tower rising from its west side elevation and a series of single-storey flat-roofed annexes to the northeast.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a single brick chimney (or vent) to the rear end. Overhanging concrete moulded eaves arranged in panels to the gables with concrete sprockets. Eaves to the nave support a timber fascia and cast-iron rainwater goods.

Walling is yellow brick laid in stretcher bond with a cement moulded plinth course, simulating stone ashlar. Brickwork to tower is laid in English garden wall bond.

Windows are segmental-headed with cast cement moulded surrounds, concrete transoms and mullions and coated aluminium casement windows with applied lead.

South entrance gable has an oversized segmental-headed central opening set in a moulded cast cement splayed surround containing a pair of concrete mullions and a single tramsom, coated aluminium glazing above the transom, hardwood frame below the transom with a central double-leaf hardwood door containing an abstract figurative carving. To either side of the central opening is a square-headed door opening recessed within a moulded cast cement surround arranged in panels to the reveals and soffits containing double-leaf hardwood doors with tongue-and-groove panels and bronze door furniture. Doors open onto concrete paved platform spanning front elevation with steps to the bitmac forecourt.

West nave elevation has four large segmental-headed windows with a series of small square-headed clerestorey window openings below eaves level with flush concrete sills and recessed concrete lintels, interrupted by a large square-plan tower. The tower has a tall segmental-headed window opening to the second stage with a moulded cast concrete canopy and balconet with iron rail. To the upper stage of the tower are three square-headed louvred openings to all sides with cement coping and a bellcote to the roof comprising four copper-clad columns supporting a pyramidal copper roof and finial sheltering a large copper bell.

The rear north gable has a square-plan projection with a square-headed window opening containing stained glass. The flat-roofed annexe to the northeast corner wraps around part of the rear elevation.

East nave elevation has two large segmental-headed window openings with fifteen clerestorey window openings below eaves level. A single-storey projection to the left with a series of diminutive window openings positioned above on the nave wall. A double-height annexe is set at an angle to the right with three tall square-headed window openings to the south elevation and three square-headed window openings to the east elevation. A further single-storey flat-roofed annexe is attached to the northeast and continues to the west, wrapping around the east end of the rear gable. This annexe has small square-headed window openings with steel-framed windows and a square-headed door opening with cast concrete surround, tongue-and-groove hardwood door and overlight.

Setting:
Set back from the road with its west nave facing the road, set within its own grounds enclosed from the road by a low rubble-stone wall with stacked coping and a pair of low stone piers supporting a pair of steel gates. Bitmac drive and large parking area to the south, with various later buildings to the east of the site.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Brick
Windows Hardwood fixed-pane/ Replacement ppc aluminium /uPVC /Metal casement
RWG Cast-iron

Historical information

The church was dedicated on the 2nd May 1957, work having commenced in 1955 by Messrs. J. T. Robinson & Son of Strabane, contractors, to designs by architect Thomas T. Houston, A.R.I.B.A. of 26, College Gardens, Belfast (McCelland, p.24, 22).

Consequently, the church is not shown on the fourth edition of the OS Map in 1951. A building on the site is captioned “Manse” on the 1905 third edition of the OS Map.

The congregation was organised in 1659 and the previous church, dedicated in 1871, “a structure of cut stone in semi-Gothic style,” was on Meetinghouse Street. (Walker, p.161; McClelland, p.21-22). This church accidentally burnt down on Christmas Day, 1938, and “only the walls, spire and bell were left.” (McClelland, p.23-29).

The present site was cleared in May 1954 and the foundation stone was laid on 19th May 1955 by the Right Hon. Lord MacDermott, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. Buried underneath was “a sealed bottle containing a financial report for 1954, the ‘Strabane Weekly News’ of 14th May 1955, current coins both British and Irish, autographs of the elders, minister and office-bearers of the Church and also of the architect, contractor and foreman. The war memorial organ was built by Alfred E. Davis & Son of Northampton and dedicated in 1957 (McClelland, p.22-4,29).

Rowan (1979) describes it as “a large pink brick hall, nicely handled, in a modern Scandinavian idiom, Segment-topped windows are a clerestory of little slots, a large mullioned window in the gable end flanked by doors in recessed stone frames, and a massive rectangular brick tower offset on one side, square in plan, with a square columned bellcote on top. The interior is a little like a lecture theatre. –Stained glass: east window by Morris & Co.: ‘Christ and the Little Children’”(Rowan, p.492).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/5/1-First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/5/2-Second Edition OS Map (1854)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905)
4. PRONI OS/6/6/4 –Fourth Edition OS Map (1951)

Secondary Sources

1. McClelland, E. E. K. “Friendly Strabane: A Glimpse at the History of the Town and of the Presbyterian Church.”
2. Killen, W. D. “History of the Congregations of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland (Dublin, 1886), p.232.
3. Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland: A History of Congregations.
4. Rowan, Alistair. “North West Ulster: Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.” Buildings of Ireland Series. Dublin: Penguin Books, 1979.
5. Walker, Simon. “Historic Ulster Churches” Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University Belfast, 2000.

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

This substantial church with its somewhat plain appearance reveals a wealth of understated detail and craftsmanship that give the structure an overall coherence, rarely seen in a building of this date. Retaining all original fixtures and fittings, this church is a rare example of a Scandinavian influenced modernist building in Co. Tyrone. The raking floor is an unusual feature, as is the skewed choir, all of which add to the unique ambience of the church, which resembles an auditiorium. Replacing an earlier church, it represents the continuity of Presbyterian worship in the Strabane area and is of local social interest.