Tirwinny Methodist Church and Former Stable

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A small rural church in a picturesque landscape at a cross-roads.
There is an integral graveyard and an adjacent former stable, now a store.

Church is a small barn type with a porch. Entrance gable, which has a small chimney which served a fromer stove, facing South-East. All walls rendered. All walls except rear (North-West) wall painted. Both main roof and porch roof double-pitched Bangor blue slates. Windows are painted timber , all pointed with Y-tracery in painted timber. One entrance door only, having shallow pointed arch. Door leaf of TVG boarding. . Small lean-to to North-West gable. Plaque on porch gives date of construction of 1870.

Former stable of stone with large, dressed quoins, with double-pitched roof of corrugated metal.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This building is a rare survival of a small, plain, rural, non-conformist church in a pleasant setting.
The most inportant aspects are :
1. The size:
The church is unusually small.
2. The plainness.
Apart from the pews and the rail between the dias and the congregation, which are have some shape to them, there is absolutely no decoration or emrichment. Although the ceiling is relatively modern the rest of the building is absolutely authentic and its severity represents the very plain, honest worship practices amongst non-conformists in the 19th century.
3. The setting.
The church sits near a country crossroads in unspoiled rolling drumlin landscape, with small fields divided by hedges which contain mature trees. There are, at the moment, no other buildings within view of the church.