St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached double-height Gothic Revival Roman Catholic Church, dated 1898, located to the east side of Chapel Lane. Church is cruciform-on-plan consisting of central nave, north and south transepts, canted chancel to east abutted left and right by double-height gable return; single-storey lean-to porch to south at re-entrant angle with transept; square tower to north-west; single-storey sacristy to north-east.

Roofs are pitched natural slate with clay crested ridge tiles over corbelled sandstone eaves course; raised stone verges with gablets on moulded kneelers; openwork stone cross finials to gables; hipped natural slate to sacristy. Walls are squared-and-snecked rock-faced rubble with sandstone quoins over projecting plinth; angle buttresses with offsets. Windows are cusped gothic containing leaded stained glass in stepped sandstone surrounds with rubble voussoirs over hood moulding with carved stops.

Principal gable faces west and contains central single-storey projecting gabled entrance flanked by square piers with cross gable coping and cross finial; replacement double-leaf vertically sheeted timber doors in gothic double rebated surround with collonettes; carved sandstone spandrel panel inscribed ‘ECCE SALVADOR MUNDI’; moulded cornice to apex with diapering; entrance flanked at either side by single gothic window. String-course carved with gothic-headed colonnade to upper level; central rose window in round-arched-headed double rebated ashlar sandstone recessed bay surmounted by hood moulding with carved stops; trefoil opening to apex (carved as before); buttress at right surmounted by square finial containing gothic apertures supported by columns to each elevation.

Elevation abutted at left by three-stage tower; first stage contains granite datestone surmounted by gothic window; single window to north and east; moulded string-course to second stage; cusped gothic niche containing statue of St Patrick supported on corbelled bracket surmounted by gabled hood moulding with crockets and finial; pair of quatrefoil windows over; pair of windows to north; single window to east; moulded string course to ashlar bell stage; pair of chamfered gothic louvred openings to each elevation; surmounted by broached octagonal spire.

North elevation consists of two-window-wide nave at centre; abutted at right by tower; abutted at left by gabled transept containing two pairs of plate tracery windows surmounted at centre by rose window with hood mould; trefoil to apex; abutted at ground floor left by sacristy; west elevation abutted by single-storey lean-to projection containing three quatrefoil windows; east elevation abutted by return.

Sacristy contains two square-headed windows with leaded stained glass; square-headed window flanked at right by chamfered sandstone shouldered entrance opening containing replacement square-headed vertically sheeted timber door to west; two square-headed windows to east.

East elevation consists of canted chancel to centre; pair of gothic windows with shared rubble voussoirs (no hood mouldings) to left and right cheeks; round-arched-headed ashlar sandstone recessed bay surmounted by hood moulding containing rose window to east; chancel abutted left and right by gabled returns each containing pair of windows (as before).

South elevation consists of three-window-wide nave at left; third window from left is abutted at ground floor by porch consisting of shouldered entrance containing replacement vertically sheeted timber door; single square-headed window to west; abutted at right by gabled transept, detailed as north.

Setting:-
Set within churchyard with carpark to west; memorial stones to south mark graves of previous parish priests. Site bound to road at west by rubble walling with concrete saddleback coping; access through pair of square sandstone piers with pyramidal coping; rubble boundary wall to south; hedging and rubble walling at north mark boundary with parochial house (HB11/16/009B); access through pair of sandstone piers supporting wrought-iron gate. Recent hall, built c.2007, to north-east (of no interest). Graveyard (HB11/16/009C) to north of Chapel Lane.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Rock-faced rubble
Windows: Stained glass
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The church is first shown on third edition OS map of 1905-6, captioned ‘St Patrick’s RC Church’. The previous edition of 1854 shows the Gortin Union workhouse on the site of the current church.

Valuation Revisions record the previous building on site; the ‘Union Workhouse’, which is deleted in 1892. The ‘RC Church (temporary) and yard’ is added in 1893; the building valuation is £10. A note reads ‘…now used as a temporary chapel by Father Healy…’, and in 1903 the valuation increases to £70, and the word ‘temporary’ is deleted. The church is dated 1898 on the exterior of the tower.

The graveyard is added to exemptions in 1892.

The Parochial house is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1905-6, and added to the site reference in 1892 is a ‘house, office and land’, which is valued at £10, the occupier is the Rev. Adrian White. Also added in 1912 is ‘house’, leased from Rev. Francis Healy, which is valued at £20, this is increased to £25 in 1913, with the addition of the Rev. Healy as occupier in 1913 and the lessor is revised to the most Rev. D. McHugh.

The local newspaper ‘Tyrone Constitution’ has an article from February 1894, in which the Rev. Francis Hardy [Healy?] PP Gortin ‘…lamented to the congregation that he was at present engaged in collecting subscriptions for a new Catholic Church in Gortin…[and] lately a temporary place of worship had been provided in one of the large rooms of the old workhouse buildings…the site [for the]… proposed church…was found most convenient during this late inclement weather... [a] Mr Patrick McCallagh...had purchased the building and site [for the church]…’.

Rowan describes the church as ‘an attractive stone church by E.J. Toye of Derry, [which is] well placed just east of the village…[the] foundation stone is dated 1898, [the] interior finished by April 1902’.(1979, pg 311)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/18/1-First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/18/2-Second Edition OS Map (1854)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/18/3-Third Edition OS Map (1905-6)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/39/6A-E –Valuation Revisions (1860-1929)
5. PRONI VAL/12/E/178/2 –Town Plan of Gortin.

Secondary Sources

1. The Buildings of Ireland-North West Ulster. Alistair Rowan, 1979. Penguin.
2. Tyrone Constitution: Fri 16th, Feb 1894.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A detached double-height Gothic Revival Roman Catholic Church, dated 1898. The church is a well-conceived design and has fine detailing, in the stonework such as the label-stops and carvings along with the fine leaded stained glass rose windows. Its original character survives in its proportions, craftsmanship and fine interior. It is a good example of a late Victorian church that is typical hereabouts.

General comments

This record has been renumbered as part of a group - previously HB11/16/006.