Brookvale Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing single-storey rendered Presbyterian church, dated 1894, replacing an earlier church erected 1833. Rectangular on plan set on a north-south axis with entrance porch to the north and extension to the south. Set on an elevated site to the east of Brookvale Road with a single-storey structure to the entrance and a further single-storey hall to the east, built c.2000.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and cast-iron downpipes. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling with painted rusticated rendered quoins and projecting plinth course. Pointed-headed window openings with moulded architrave surrounds, painted masonry sills and replacement hardwood Y-tracery windows.

Principal west elevation is four windows wide with a central recessed slate date plaque stating; ‘BROOKVALE / ERECTED 1833 / RENOVATED 1894’. The windows have leaded glazing with coloured margin lights.

Blank north gable abutted by diminutive gable-ended entrance porch having pitched natural slate roof and a square-headed door opening to the west with replacement hardwood door.

East elevation is four windows wide.

Blank south gable abutted by single-storey extension having pitched artificial slate roof, square-headed window openings with hardwood casement windows and a flat-roofed entrance porch to the re-entrant angle having a hardwood sheeted door.

Setting

Positioned on an elevated site to the east of Brookvale Road overlooking a crossroads on Loughbrickland Road. Site set out in lawns enclosed to the road by cement rendered walls with steel gates on rendered piers. To north of the entrance gates is a single-storey rendered structure and a further single-storey hall to the east of the site. Bitmac driveways encircle the church with a small burial ground to the east with largely late twentieth-century polished stone grave markers.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: render
Windows: timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Brookvale Presbyterian church was built in 1833 and has since undergone several phases of renovation, most notably in 1894 and 1984. The church is a plain hall in a vernacular style that has retained the simplicity characteristic of early nineteenth century meeting houses.

A ‘Covenanters’ Meeting Ho[use]’ is shown on the first edition OS map of 1833, square on plan and occupying a remote, rural site. The meeting house is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) at a valuation of £7.3s. At the time of listing the building was unfinished and ‘not ceiled’. Dimensions are given of 65x31x18, suggesting that the contemporary OS map representation is not to scale. OS Memoirs state in 1834 that the house had been ‘lately’ built, by subscription and was capable of holding 400 persons. (OS Memoirs)

In Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the building is recorded as a Presbyterian Meeting Ho[use], sexton’s house and yard of 1 rood 35 perches. The buildings valuation is £8. The contemporary map shows a rectangular structure with attached extension, much as the building appears today, and a sexton’s house at the roadside which appears to have survived. There are no further changes in Annual Revisions.

The congregation at Brookvale formed as a Seceder cause in 1833, originally known as Grallagh or Ballymogra. The Newry Telegraph records on 15th November 1833 that the Earl of Roden had given £5 to help build the meeting-house for a congregation ‘lately formed at Ballymagna’. The first minister was Rev James Patterson (1834-37) and he was succeeded by Rev John Carey in 1840. Rev John Carey, (1800-91) who claimed he was a descendant of Anne Boleyn’s sister, was ordained on 2nd April 1839 as minister of the new church of Albany in Co Tyrone but resigned a year later following a disagreement over financial matters and provision of regular services. He was then installed as minister of Brookvale but suspended after two years for attempting to obtain money for his congregation by using a forged document and ultimately deposed from the ministry by the General Assembly. In February 1843 Carey was accused of the attempted murder of a clerical colleague who had been his opponent and was shot and wounded while praying in his pulpit. Carey escaped charges and went into the flax business, moving to Rarity Cottage in Toome where through moneylending and trading in sand and eels he increased his wealth considerably. He became a generous benefactor to the Presbyterian Church and founded a studentship for intending missionaries as well as building a church in Gujarat, India. He established the Carey lectureship, an annual series of lectures delivered in Magee College, Derry or the Union Theological College. Politically Carey was a liberal and supported the tenant right campaign. When the local landlord refused permission for Toome village hall to be used for a political meeting, Carey built a large meeting room known as the ‘Temple of Liberty, Learning and Select Amusement’ which seated 1500 people, had a library of 5,000 books and a £600 pipe organ. The temple survived until 1911 when it was burnt down in an arson attack. (Dictionary of Irish Biography)

According to a datestone on the church itself, renovation work took place in 1894. A valuation plan drawn up in the 1930s shows the church with single-storey extensions to north and south, the sexton’s house and a ‘store’ of wood and corrugated iron to the south which appears to have since been rebuilt in more durable materials.

The congregation was united with First Rathfriland from 1933 to 1969 and then with Ryans from 1970. (Kirkpatrick) The church reopened in May 1984 after extensive redecoration and refurbishment by John McDowell, Jack Andrews and Trevor Graham builders and Stanley Moore & Son Ltd refurbishers. Gifts were received from well-wishers including vestibule doors, ceiling, lighting system, carpeting, a reading desk, entrance gates and a public address system. Slates for the new roof were provided by an anonymous donor. A photograph of the renovation in the Mourne Observer shows the church with quoins painted in a dark colour which have since been removed. (Mourne Observer 3rd May 1984) Membership currently stands at 50 families. (Kirkpatrick)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/41/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/41/2 Second Edition OS map 1853
3. PRONI OS/6/3/41/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/41/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/350 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48A Griffiths Valuation (1861)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-G Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/C/4 First General Revaluation 1933-57
10. Mourne Observer 3rd May 1984
11. 1901 census online
12. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Vol. 12.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1992.
2. “A History of Congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland 1610-1982” authorised by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Belfast: Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, 1982 (available at www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com)
3. Kirkpatrick, L “Presbyterians in Ireland” Booklink, 2006
4. McGuire, J and Quinn, J, eds “Dictionary of Irish Biography” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Royal Irish Academy, 2009

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Free-standing single-storey rendered church, dated 1894, replacing an earlier church erected 1833. Rectangular on plan set on a north-south axis with entrance porch to the north and extension to the south. Extensively refurbished c.1990, the simple form of this rural church has survived, although the loss of original glazing compromises its character. It is of a common type and not among the best examples.

General comments

Criteria; A, H-, J