Ballinderry Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing single-cell rendered early-nineteenth century barn church, located on the north side of Meeting House Road. Rectangular on plan on an east/west axis with two-storey entrance wing to the east gable and Ministers' Room and extension to the west.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and timber fascia to both gable ends. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to rendered eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Painted ruled and lined rendered walling, smooth render plinth course and rusticated render quoins. Pointed-headed window openings with render hood mouldings and replacement multi-pane timber windows with Y-tracery and painted masonry sills.

South nave elevation is five windows wide with entrance wing attached to the east gable. Square-headed door opening to the entrance wing with hood moulding and double-leaf hardwood panelled doors. Pointed arched window above the entrance with timber fixed-pane window.

East gable abutted by slightly lower gabled entrance wing with single square-headed window opening to ground floor having timber casement window.

North nave elevation is four windows wide partly abutted by single-storey extension to northwest corner having hipped natural slate roof, bipartite timber sash window and steel door.

West gable has pointed-headed window opening with hood moulding and stone Y-tracery with coloured leaded glazing. Gable abutted by single-storey Ministers' Room and extension fronting onto rural lane.

Setting:
Located on the north side of Meeting House Road enclosed to the road by rendered stone wall with concrete coping and pair of rendered redbrick pillars with pyramidal capstones and wrought-iron gates. Concrete footpath through front lawn with some upstanding stone and marble grave-markers dating from 1857 to the present. Rear site extends northwards with many marble and stone grave-markers from the twentieth-century.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Ruled and lined render
Windows Pointed-headed with hood mouldings and replacement timber windows

Historical information

The Presbyterian Church at Aghacarnan appears on the first Ordnance Survey map of 1832 as a rectangular shaped ‘Presbyterian Meeting House’ with one small out office. The Townland Valuation of c. 1835 records the Meeting House as a class 1a building 60 ft by 25 feet and 16 ft high. The Church building was valued at £11. 4s. 3d.

In 1838 the Ordnance Survey Memoirs record the Meeting House as an ‘oblong edifice, 2-storeys high and slated … walls of stones and lime and two feet in thickness, and floor boarded … lit by two Gothic windows in front and four oblong windows in the rear.’ The building could accommodate a congregation of 330 people. It replaced an earlier Meeting House on the site which had been founded over a century previously by the Rev. John Heastie. The new meeting house was built in 1805 at an unknown cost. The writer states that in 1826 the Meeting House was improved with the addition of a slated roof and the renovation of the interior at the cost of £150. £25 of which was supplied by the Marquis of Hertford. In 1838 the minister of Ballinderry Meeting House was the Rev. Henry Leebody who received a total income of £75, £50 of which was supplied by ‘royal bounty.’

The second Ordnance Survey map of 1857 records the ‘Graveyard’ adjoining the Church site, there is no discernible change to the site in the later editions of the maps except that the building is called ‘Presbyterian Church and Graveyard’ after 1901 and the small out office has been taken down. Griffiths Valuation (1856-64) values the Meeting House at £7. 15s. and the Annual Revisions maintain this value until the end of the revisions in 1929. The oldest tomb found in the graveyard dates from 1857.

Kelly states that the first Presbyterian congregation in the area was in Glenavy in 1674 but that Ballinderry became a separate congregation in 1713 when the first Meeting House was presumably erected. In 1724 Rev. John Hasty became the first minister of the congregation. In 1929 the church was united with Moira when Rev. George McFarland took over a joint charge. This was maintained until Ballinderry Presbyterian Church ended its union with Moira in October 2000. In the early 1950s a Church Hall, known as the Stables Hall, was added to the site and in 2000 an extension joined the Stables Hall to a new hall which had been erected in 1990. In 2003, during the incumbency of Rev. William Henry an extension was added to the Minister’s room (Kelly, p. 145). The Church was listed in August 1988 (NIEA File).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI VAL/1/A/1/63 – Field Map c.1830
2. PRONI VAL/1/B/167 – Townland Valuation
3. PRONI OS/6/1/63/1 – First Edition OS Map 1832
4. PRONI OS/6/1/63/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1857
5. PRONI OS/6/1/63/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-1901
6. PRONI OS/6/1/63/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-1921
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/55 – Griffith’s Valuation 1859
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/1 A – Annual Revisions 1863-1879
1. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/1 B – Annual Revisions 1880-1888
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/1 C – Annual Revisions 1888-1901
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/1 D – Annual Revisions 1902-1912
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/1 E – Annual Revisions 1913-1929
NIEA File – HB19/03/042.

Secondary Sources

1. Kelly, D., ‘Lisburn’s rich church heritage: Churches and places of worship in the Lisburn city area’ Lisburn: Impression Print and Design, 2009.

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
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Free-standing single-cell early nineteenth-century rendered barn church, located on the north side of Meeting House Road. A simple church with modest detailing and materials in an attractive rural landscaped site. Whilst the interior to the hall retains most of the original fabric the unsympathetic replacement timber casement windows detract from the overall external appearance. Despite this, the building retains its architectural as well as social interest and remains a focal point for the local community.