First Lisburn Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing double-height stone church, dated 1768, enlarged 1873, with gable-fronted entrance block added 1970 to the front elevation facing Market Square. Rectangular on plan facing north with double-height rear projection, set within its own grounds fronting onto Market Square.

Church:
Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded lead ridge and masonry coping to either gable end and metal cylindrical roof vents to the ridge. Cast-iron half-round guttering on iron brackets to a moulded eaves cornice and cast-iron downpipes. Random rubble stone galleted walling to both side elevations with cement pointing and rusticated stone quoins, cement rendered to the rear gable and projection.

Two-storey east side elevation, five windows wide, with exposed rubble stone walling, galleted and cement pointed with moulded stone eaves course returning to the rear gable and rusticated stone quoins. Round-headed window openings to the upper level, three-centred to the lower level, both with redbrick arches, masonry reveals and sills with recessed masonry frames and weather glazing to stained glass windows. The rear cement rendered gable has masonry coping and an apex block with a pair of double-height round-headed window openings flanking the central pulpit bay. The rear gable is abutted by lower rendered projection having hipped natural slate roof and further lean-to slated projection. Five-bay west side elevation abutted by row of flat-roofed commercial units fronting onto Market Street with the upper windows visible, as per east elevation.

Entrance block:
Hipped natural slate roof, pitched to slightly advanced central gable. Concrete coping to front gable with moulded eaves cornice. Splayed rubble stone wall to both side elevations below sill level with remaining walls built in squared coursed fair-faced cement block walling with fine mortar joints.

Front elevation comprises slightly advanced central gable with multiple lights to the upper half arranged in diamond-plan and triple-arched recessed entrance portico below. Below the main roof is a projecting pre-cast concrete frieze.. The portico is formed in pre-cast concrete with panelled soffits and a pair of supporting concrete columns providing a recessed entrance with terrazzo platform and step. Three pairs of double-leaf hardwood doors with horizontal glazed panels and three etched glass fanlights above. The diamond-plan lights above comprise a series of irregular-sized rectangular openings with stained glass. Both side elevations have a series of slender window openings to the ground floor with replacement uPVC windows, while the frieze, formed in pre-cast concrete comprises a series of semi-circular openings with plain glazing.

Walling Rubble galleted stone / concrete block
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Window Stained glass

Historical information

The meeting house dates from 1768, having undergone several phases of development and renovation since that time.

There has been a presbyterian congregation in Lisburn since at least 1688. The first meeting house, which cost around £500 to build and which was situated at the south end of Bow Street, was destroyed in the fire that consumed most of Lisburn in 1707. A meeting house was then built on the present site at a cost of about £400. However, the present meeting house was not built until 1768. James Fulton was the ‘Director and Overseer of Works’ and John Barclay the ‘Projector and Architect’. Dr Betty, an eminent physician, residing at Chapel Hill, raised funds and took a close interest in the construction. By c1825 it was felt necessary to increase the seating space by extending the gallery. (History of Congregations, p.593-4, History of Presbyterianism in Lisburn)

The meeting house is shown, uncaptioned, on the first edition OS map of 1833 and is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as a ‘Presbyterian Meeting House’ valued at £30, the dimensions of the meeting house being 66x46x24 and the ‘Sessions House’ 10x19.6x9. OS Memoirs remark that it is ‘well lighted with 23 windows and has three fine galleries. The expense of building was between 800 pounds and 900 pounds. Within the last 10 years the galleries have been enlarged and the house is now capable of accommodating upwards of 800 persons’. The memoirs continue that the cost of the improvements was ‘about £250’. (OS Memoirs, p.11)

A school house was built behind the church in 1858 to designs by Thomas Jackson who had designed the Quaker Meeting House in Railway Street a few years previously. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists a Presbyterian Meeting House, School and yard valued at £50 for buildings, the meeting house being of similar dimensions to those listed previously in the Townland Valuation. (History of Presbyterianism in Lisburn)

The question of extending the meeting house had been much discussed over several decades and in 1873 the tender of Verner & Sons was accepted for altering the church to include the then vestibule and the conversion of the adjoining Session House into a vestibule. This added four rows of pews to the seating on the ground floor and in the gallery. A valuation town plan of the period shows the addition made to the church. (History of Presbyterianism in Lisburn)

In 1907, during the ministry of John James Carlyle Breakey, many of the stained glass windows were unveiled, a large number of which commemorate farmer members of the congregation, but there are also memorial windows to Samuel Musgrave, local physician and William Barbour of the Barbour spinning mills. Two large windows on either side of the pulpit were manufactured by Messrs. Meyer & Co., of London, at a cost of £125 each. (History of Presbyterianism in Lisburn)

The Irish Builder of 14th October 1916 invites tenders for a new ceiling, repairs and painting and states that the architects are Messrs Hobart and Heron, Scottish Provident Buildings, Belfast. On 9 December 1916 the same publication announces that the renovations, including a new pitch pine ceiling are being carried out by Messrs, W, J and C Law, Lisburn. The plaster ceiling was prone to collapse and it was therefore decided to replace it. At the same time, a gas engine was installed to provide electricity for power and lighting, the pulpit was replaced, terrazzo flooring put down in the vestibule and an organ chamber and minister’s room added to the church. It was re-opened in December 1918. (History of Presbyterianism in Lisburn)

In 1930 and 1935 two stained glass windows were donated by Mr TM Wilson and Mr RE Barbour respectively, the windows facing each other on the gallery level on either side of the pulpit. Pew seating in the gallery was replaced by tip-up seats in 1940. In 1946 Rev. Hay presented a communion table to the church which necessitated the removal of four rows of pews in the centre of the Church. (History of Presbyterianism in Lisburn)

After 1950 many of the buildings obscuring the church were demolished and in 1970 a new church front was added to designs by Gordon McKnight. The remodelling of the church also provided a new minor hall, cloakrooms and a church office. The project cost £35,000. A new window was installed at this time, blending a cross with a burning bush. (First Lisburn Presbyterian Church)

In 1981 restoration of the church became necessary following severe damage in a bomb attack on the centre of Lisburn. Edward Bell was the architect and James Watson of Belfast restored the windows. A new window, the ‘resurrection window’, incorporating pieces of shattered glass that could not otherwise be reused, was installed. (First Lisburn Presbyterian Church)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/2 – Second Edition OS map 1857
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third Edition OS Map c1900
4. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1921
5. PRONI OS/6/1/68/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/168 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/61A – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/9A-T – Annual Revisions (1863-1924)
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/1/ – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1877-c1898)
10. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/2/ – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1898-c1907)
11. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/4 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1907-c1927)
12. Irish Builder, Vol 58, 14 October 1916, p.507
13. Irish Builder, Vol 58, 9 December 1916, p.612

Secondary Sources
1. “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
2. Craig, W.I. “Presbyterianism in Lisburn from the Seventeenth Century” MacBridge & Son, 1960
3. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Volume 8, Parishes of County Antrim II, 1832-8” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1991
4. Richer, Wiliam (compiled by) “First Lisburn Presbyterian Church, 1688-1988” 1998

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

The understated main body of this eighteenth-century Presbyterian church shares many of the characteristics of various similarly dated churches in the area, such as the galleted roughly coursed stone walling, arched windows and galleried interior. The fine interior detailing is more likely to have been the result of alterations in the nineteenth century, possible by Thomas Jackson. This church however, for most of its existence, hidden behind a terrace of buildings on Market Square, was given the opportunity to make its presence felt on the Square of Lisburn during the later twentieth century, when buildings obscuring the church were demolished and a new entrance hall erected. The original church is of historical and social interest.