Christ Church (C of I)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Bold Early English gothic style C of I church of 1874-79 by John Kennedy, with large three-stage tower with broach spire, transepts, side aisles and a projecting porch and vestry. The church is located on a restricted corner site on the N side of (the) Bowling Green. There is a surrounding pathway and some small areas of planting to south and west.

[The church is set on an NW-SE axis, but for the purposes of this description NE will be read as N etc.]

The church is basically cruciform with transepts and side aisles, chancel to S, three-stage tower with spire and half-round stair-turret to SE, vestry projection to SW, and porch projection to NE. The walls are constructed in squared rock-faced limestone, with sandstone quoins, tracery, dressings, stringcourses, parapets, finials and gargoyles. The roofs of the nave, transepts and other projections are slated. There are reducing corner buttresses to the nave, tower and chancel, with decorative roundel panels to those to the tower. All of the walls rise from bevelled bases.

The S elevation of the church consists of the gable of the chancel to the centre, the side of the vestry to left, and the tower, set back to the right. At the ground floor level of the tower is the main entrance. This consists of a recessed pointed-arch opening filled with a timber double door with elaborate strap hinges. The opening is flanked by small marble colonnettes with decorative floral heads, which ‘support’ a deep moulded archivolt with bands of decoration therein. The entrance sits within a shallow gable-topped bay whose ‘gable’ itself is filled with moulded geometric decoration and a roundel recess. The ‘gable’ also has a moulded verge with a finial and crockets.

To the second stage of the tower, directly above the ‘gable’ are two tall slit windows filled with lattice panes. To the third (belfry) stage there is a pair of large pointed-acrh openings, each containing a geometric tracery consisting of a pair of tall cusped (louvered) lights with trefoil over. The openings each have gable mouldings over with finials. Between the gables there is a gargoyle. The openings to this stage of the tower are repeated to all of its other faces.

The S gable of the chancel projects well beyond the line of the tower, and has a very large pointed arch window with geometric tracery and a drip moulding. This lights of this window are filled with pictorial stained glass. They are each covered by fine metal grills, the action of rainwater against which has discoloured the stonework beneath. To the apex of the gable there is a small, unusual, ‘lemon’-shaped niche, with moulding over.

The S face of the vestry has a pair of relatively small cusped windows, with lattice panes. Directly in front of the is face of the vestry there is a sunken flight of stone steps which lead to a basement level doorway (with wrought-iron security gate) which leads into the boiler house situated directly below the boiler house itself. The boiler house is no longer used. A low wall to the S side obscures the sunken steps from view. The wall matches the stonework of the church itself.

The W elevation consists of the side aisle (with nave set back ‘above’ it), the gable of the W transept and the gable of the vestry. The side aisle has three pointed arch windows with geometric tracery. Each window is filled with pictorial stained glass. The window to far left is much narrower than the others. To the nave there are three windows each with three cusped lights, the central of which is taller. These windows are filled with lattice panes. The gable of the E transept has a large window consisting of a grouping of five tall narrow cusped lights, rising in height towards the centre. The tallest central light itself also incorporates a trefoil. The dressing to this window look like relatively recent replacements. To the apex of the gable are three small pointed-arch niches.

The uneven W facing gable of the vestry is blank. Between it and the gable of the transept there is a small pitched roof (lean-to like) section belonging to the vestry. This section contains a doorway with ‘shoulders’ and a timber door, with a small flat-arch window to its right with lattice panes. Below this window there is a small lean-to projection with timber door to front.

The N elevation consists of the gable of the nave flanked by the ends of the side aisles, with the N face of the porch projection to left. The porch projection has a narrow cusped window with lattice panes. The side aisles each have a narrow pointed arch window with geometric tracery and pictorial stained glass. The nave has a large ‘window’ made up of three tall curved-arch headed lights with geometric tracery and pictorial stained glass. The dressings to this window may have been replaced. To the apex of the gable of the nave there are three very small pointed-arch niches.

The E elevation consists of the tower, to left, the gable of the E transept, the side aisle, and the front gable of the porch. To the ground floor level of the tower there is a cusped window to left, with lattice panes. To right of this there is a projecting half-round stair-tower with a half-conical stone roof with finial. This stair-tower has slit windows to both stages.

The gable of the E transept is as that to W, but with drip moulding over the window. The side aisle has two windows similar to the side aisle to W, but with a quatrefoil to one window, and a trefoil to the other.

The gable of the porch has an entrance similar to that on the tower, only slightly smaller and with two colonnettes to each side inside of three. It also has a drip moulding and the flanking buttresses have decorative gables. Directly above the doorway there are three small cusped windows with lattice panes.

As stated above, the roofs of all of the sections (apart from the spire and that of the stair-tower) are slated, with red clay ridge tiles. The spire is clad in sandstone and has pairs of niches (set within small gabled projections) to all faces, roughly half way along its length. The spire is topped with a cockerel weathervane. There is a tall stone chimneystack to the W edge of the roof of the chancel (next to the vestry), whose upper stage has curved sides. The rainwater goods are metal and include square downspouts attached to the walls with decorative brackets.

The church is encompassed by a gravel-covered pathway, and a recently constructed concrete disabled access ramp leading to the entrance to the base of the tower. The church grounds are enclosed by a low wall of similar construction to the church itself. The wall has some decorative octagonal piers rising from tall square bases, the piers topped with (octagonal) pyramidal caps, with finials to some. The wall itself has decorative iron railings and iron gates to the S and W, both of which may be replacements.

Historical information

This church was built between 1874 and 1879, replacing an earlier 17th century church which stood in the old graveyard on the corner of Patrick Street and Church Street. It was designed by John Kennedy of Londonderry, after a competition between him and eight other architects, and built on ground purchased by the then rector, Rev. William Alexander. It was built at a cost of £6,503 3s 1d by builder Hugh McClay, and consecrated by the William Alexander, who by that stage had become Bishop of Derry. The church was dedicated to Rev. James Smith, a much loved former rector who died in 1870.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31B Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1864-73)
2 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31C Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1874-81)
3 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31D Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1882-91)
4 PRONI OS/8/25/1/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
5 PRONI OS/8/25/1/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
6 PRONI VAL/12E/187/1/1-12 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1884 [-1908])
7 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31E Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
8 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31F Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
9 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31G Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
10 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31H Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
11 PRONI OS/8/25/2/1-3 OS town plan of Strabane (1905)
12 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
13 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31J Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
14 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31K Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
15 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31L Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31M Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
17 PRONI VAL/3B/7/14 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Strabane UD (1935
18 PRONI VAL/3C/7/23 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, annual revisions, Strabane UD (1936-57)
19 PRONI VAL/3G/159/1/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1936-55)
20 PRONI VAL/3G/159/2/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1951-55) [Sheets 1 and 3 are currently missing.]
21 EHS OS map (1:10,000 scale), sheet 72 (1983)

Secondary sources
1 Rowan, Alistair, ‘The Buildings of Ireland- North West Ulster’ (London, 1979), pp.492-93
2 Williams, Jeremy, ‘A Companion Guide to the Architecture of Ireland, 1837-1921’ (Dublin, 1994), p.358
3 Bradley, Jim et al, ‘The Fair River Valley: Strabane Through the Ages’, (Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2000)

Other
references
1 EHS HB10/14/009 First Survey report (10 Feb 1970)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Bold Early English style gothic C of I church of 1874-79 by John Kennedy, with large three-stage tower with broach spire, transepts, side aisles and a projecting porch and vestry. This church makes an important contribution to Strabane’s architectural heritage. It is well preserved internally as well as externally.