Clough Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Largely plain, cruciform Presbyterian church, the earliest section of which dates from c.1735, but which assumed its present plan form c.1840s, with a large modern porch added to one of the angles in 1996. The church is set to the S of The Square near the centre of the small village of Clough and is surrounded by a graveyard.

The recently constructed main entrance porch is set in the junction between the NE & NW wings. It gives the composition of the front an uncompromisingly modern aesthetic. The double doors are sheeted and have small vision panels and a plain fanlight which is surmounted by a stylised key stone feature. The door is centred in a gable with ‘chamfered wings’. This gable has a bracketed canopy set at the apex. Beneath the canopy is a small glazed oculus. To the chamfered wings on either side of the door is a modern multi-pane window with top opener.

The four wings are identical but for minor variations. The gables each have a single window to first floor and a door to the centre of the ground floor (barring that to the NW– which has no door and two evenly spaced ground floor windows). The side walls to the wings each have two unevenly spaced windows (barring the side walls facing the porch and the S wall of the SW wing- each of which have a single window). The windows are now modern top hung frames with Georgian-like panes.

The corners all have moulded in/out quoins. The walls are finished in lined render. The roof is finished in Bangor blue slate. Cast iron rw goods.

Historical information

This church is shown on the OS map of 1834 as a roughly T shaped building with the wing to the south much shorter than present. On the valuation plan of Clough of c.1836-38 a small projection is shown to the north side, but this is not mentioned by the OS Memoir description of December 1836. The Memoirs do state, however, that the structure ‘was built about the year 1735 by general subscription’. On the revised OS map of 1858 the building is shown with the cruciform plan of today.

The building remained in its mid 19th century form until 1996-97 when the large porch was added to the N angle. The modern window frames appear to have been installed at the same time.

The communion table and pulpit date from 1955.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/37/1 OS map, Down sh 37, 1834
2 Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of Co Down IV’, (QUB 1992) [1836], p.94
3 PRONI VAL/1B/387 1st valuation, Loughinisland, 1836-38
4 PRONI VAL/1D/3/19 valuation plan of Clough, 1836-38
5 PRONI VAL/2D/3/2 valuation plan of Clough, c.1860 [with annotations of c.1905]
6 PRONI 2nd valuation, Loughinisland, c.1860 [in print]
7 PRONI OS/8/78/1 OS plan of Clough, 1901
8 PRONI VAL/3G/64/1 valuation plan of Clough, 1935-1956

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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Early and well proportioned, largely plain, cruciform Presbyterian church, the earliest section of which dates from c.1735, but which assumed its present plan form c.1840s, with a large modern porch added to one of the angles in 1996.