PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Largely basalt-built Gothic style single-storey double-height Presbyterian Church with a reducing two-stage tower, built in 1861-64 to a design by James McNea, with copper-clad spire added to the tower post-1888 and large, contrastingly modern, lower two-storey hall extension which was either rebuilt, or remodelled in 2003-04. The church is rectangular in plan and faces roughly E, with the tower to the NE corner and the large extension (which is much broader than the church), completely covering the entire W end of the building and part of the W end of the S elevation also. To the E end of the same elevation there is a relatively narrow modern part-single, part two-storey projection which acts as a link from the church to what was originally a pair of semidetached houses, now extended and converted to church offices.

In basic terms the church is a gable-fronted block with walls in squared, rock-faced semi-coursed basalt, and quoins and other dressings in light grey-brown sandstone. To the corners there are reducing diagonal buttresses, in dressed sandstone with curiously irregular infills in basalt, with similar buttresses to the lower stage of the tower. The tower is finished in the same manner as the walls and has a sandstone parapet with a series of cusped niches (in the manner of a blind arcade), and tall corner pinnacles; the spire is octagonal in plan and has a lucarne to every other facet. Most of the openings throughout the building have pointed arch heads (unless otherwise stated) and the gabled roof is slated with lead-clad gable parapets, bracketed eaves and three ridge ventilation projections (one of which is modern).

The front gable has a central shallow entrance ‘porch’ projection with a pitched roof covered in dressed stone tiles, end reducing buttresses, and a pointed arch entrance with moulded sandstone archivolt with three-quarter Tuscan column jambs and a modern door and overlight. Directly over the porch is a relatively large window with drip moulding, sandstone tracery and stained glazing, and above again is a quatrefoil-like opening set in a small roundel recess. The tower has tall louvered openings to the E, W and N faces of the upper stage, and a similar-sized window (with stained glass) to the lower stage of the W face. There is a doorway to the N face with panelled (and partially louvered) timber door and arch panel, over which is a roundel date stone (‘A.D.1862’).

On the N face of the main body of the church there are four relatively tall windows with stained glazing. The S face has a similar arrangement, although most of these are obscured from view and can only be seen from the extensions further to the S. The W gable is abutted by the modern hall extension and only a small (rendered) upper portion remains visible.

The hall extension (which was enlarged and remodelled c.2004) contains no features of interest. The two-storey pair of former houses to the S (built post-1864) have retained much of their original appearance, but have been comprehensively refurbished, and a large modern return added to the rear as well as the link directly to the church and to the hall extension (work which appears to have been carried out c.1993-94). All original window frames and doors have been replaced with modern versions, the chimneystacks removed and roof covering replaced with modern tiling.

Around the exposed N and E sides, the church is enclosed by a low stone walling with painted stone coping and wrought-iron railings. A significant section of the walling to the N has been altered with concrete coping and railings of slightly different design now in place, whilst to the section of the walling to the E end of this side (beyond a pedestrian gateway) in lower and constructed grey brick. The main gateway to the E has piers and coping as the original sections of the walling and what appear to be original wrought-iron gates with a wrought-iron ‘arch’ over (which may originally have had a lamp fitting). The area between the walling and the church itself has been re-paved.

Historical information

This church was built for the ‘2nd Lurgan’ or ‘Hill Street’ Presbyterian congregation in at some point between late 1861 and May 1864 to a design by Belfast architect James McNea. The spire was added post-1888, and the present hall extension enlarged and remodelled in c.2004.

The Hill Street Congregation was established largely through the efforts of Rev. L.E. Berkley, who had been appointed as Minister of the original Lurgan Presbyterian congregation in High Street (present ‘1st Lurgan’) in 1858. In the decade leading up to this the population of the town had practically doubled, and this, coupled with the effects of the Great Revival in 1859, appears to have prompted the call for the founding of the new congregation and the construction of a new church. Hill Street, the chosen location for the new building, was at that point a relatively new thoroughfare, first appearing by name in sources in 1855, and probably laid out not long before this, possibly, judging from the oldest houses along it, the later 1840s.

The congregation intially met in a 'wooden hut' close to the present site, but plans were soon in place for a more permanent structure. A tender notice for the building work was advertised in Summer 1861, but the church was still in the process of construction in late October of the following year, when it ‘suffered severely’ in ‘heavy gales’, with the result that one of the gables, ‘which was almost finished, after having stood the fury of the storm for several days, was overturned [and] the sidewalls also damaged by the shock of the fall.’ This obviously delayed completion, and although the date stone on the tower reads ‘1862’, the building was not officially opened (by Rev. Henry Cooke) until 29 May 1864.

Map and valuation evidence shows that in its original form, the church possessed a single-storey 18ftsq projection (quite likely a session room), centrally-located on rear gable. This was replaced at some point, (the valuations suggest before 1869), by a larger two-storey addition which housed a school room. The spire was added after 1888, as it is not shown on a photograph dating from around that time; its style suggests it is of c.1900. The windows of the church may have been replaced at this stage also, as the same c.1888 photograph shows that they originally possessed lattice panes. Maps indicate that sometime between 1937 and 1954 the schoolroom section became linked (via a narrow extension) to formerly separate structure to the west, and by 1963-64 both had been replaced by a large single hall which was itself either largely replaced, or remodelled, in 2003-04.

The interior of the church looks to have been refurbished in the mid-20th century, possibly during the 1930s.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Ulster General Advertiser’, 29 June 1861
2 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 28 October, 11 November 1862
3 ‘Londonderry Standard’, 1 June 1864
4 PRONI VAL12E/68/1 Valuation map, 1864 (with later annotations up to c.1900)
5 PRONI VAL12B/14/8A Valuation book, 1864-69
6 Bassett, George Henry, ‘The Book of County Armagh’ (1888)
7 OS maps, c.1883, 1906, 1937, 1954. 1963-64

Secondary sources
1 McCorry, Francis X., ‘Lurgan: An irish Provincial Town, 1610-1970’, Inglewood Press, 1993, p.130
2 Cassels, D.B., “Presbyterianism in Lurgan” in ‘Review – Journal of Craigavon Historical Society’, Vol.5 No.1
3 McCorry, Francis X., 'Jourbeys in County Armagh and adjoining districts', Lurgan, 2000, p.90
4 Mulligan, Kevin, 'South Ulster', Yale, 2013, p.429

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
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

This church of 1861-64 is one of the earliest local Gothic Style Presbyterian churches, architect James McNea breaking with the Classical forms long favoured by most congregations up to this point, and presaging the ‘hall and corner tower’ freestyle Gothic designs popularised by Young & Mackenzie a decade later. As Lurgan’s second oldest Presbyterian church and one of the earliest buildings in Hill Street, it is also of considerable local importance, and despite the present of a large modern extensions, much of the original fabric remains intact, and the building remains a good early example of its type.