Donegore Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A church consisting of nave, chancel and western tower with steep pyramidal slated roof, a small vestry on the south side of the chancel, and a small gabled porch on the north side of the tower. The main entrance is in the north porch.

Roofs of Bangor blue slates. Walling of basalt rubble: the walls of the nave include boulders; the walls of the later tower and chancel are rock-faced. Small shaped sandstone corbels support the gutters. Sandstone weatherings to gable copings; nave and chancel gables surmounted by short square sandstone chimneys with earthenware pots. Tower roof surmounted by a wrought iron finial; north porch finished with a fleur-de-lys coping stone.

Nave has two windows in each side wall: Gothic arched lancets with block sandstone dressings flush with the walls; one stained glass window in each side wall; original glazing currently removed from the others.

Chancel has a tall three-light east window in similar dressings to nave windows but with hood mould and foliated label stops; original stained glass currently removed.

Vestry south wall contains a rectangular ledged timber door in a stop-chamfered block sandstone flush surround, with a small window to the right of it, rectangular timber sliding sash, 2 over 2, with horns, in a chamfered block sandstone surround. East side of vestry has a memorial plaque set against it: looks like red tinted Bath stone, in a moulded granite surround, set on a projecting basalt base; inscription reads "Close to this place lyeth the body of Mr Andrew Stewart, Minister of Donegore who died in Septr. 1634 aged 36 years. Also his son in law Mr Thomas Crawford, Minister of Donegore who died December 1670 aged 45 years."

Tower is of three storeys with three-stage full-height angle buttresses. A small semi-circular stair turret with stone weatherings to the semi-conical roof rises part-way up the tower, on the south side, set in the angle with the nave. Small rectangular windows in lower levels of turret. Ground floor of west wall of tower contains a rectangular window set in block sandstone dressings; first floor contains a pair of Gothic arched lancets. Each face of the belfry stage contains a central Gothic arched lancet, with hood mould and foliated label stops, containing timber louvres.

North porch contains an open archway in its north gable: recessed sandstone colonnettes with carved capitals; hood mould and foliated label stops. Archway contains a High Victorian decorative wrought iron gate which leads into the open entrance porch, floored with stone flags; rear wall contains a Gothic arched entrance to the interior; double doors of ledged pitch pine, varnished, with ornate decorative wrought iron hinges; ironwork handles; incised inscription to outer arch inscribed "Domus mea Domus Orationis", (which means 'My house is the house of prayer'). West wall of north porch contains a blind rectangular window opening, with chamfered sandstone block dressings.

Walls to each side in open porch have marble memorial plaques to dado level; projecting stone dado moulding, looks like Bath stone, with carved stone corbels of foliated type, and depicting human heads, one in the guise of a medieval knight; corbels carry stone transverse ribs of the gothic plaster vaulted ceiling; carved stone bosses to ridge depicting armorial bearings of the Adair family. Dado panelling to right commemorates Henry Adair Esq DL JP of Loughanmore who died on 6th April 1888 who restored the church and built the tower in 1871, and also commemorates other members of the family. Dado panelling to left commemorates "Captain Charles Adair of Lochanmore who in the year 1655 entered into bonds for the maintenance of the minister of this parish and died in 1686", as well as other members of the family.

SETTING: The church stands in a rural area on a sloping site with distant views over the countryside. It lies along a short cul-de-sac off a minor road, within its own grounds.

Boundary walls all round are of basalt rubble with basalt rock copings. Entrance gateway to churchyard is in the east boundary wall: comprises a pair of square basalt rubble piers with basalt rock copings, containing a pair of wrought iron gates. At south-west corner the boundary wall stops on the south side to be abutted by a plain wrought iron railed enclosure which links with a basalt rubble vault or corpse house (HB20/06/003B); the west boundary wall abuts its north gable. At the west end of the north boundary a sizeable portion of the wall is of concrete blockwork with smeared pointing; concrete copings.

The sloping grassy graveyard contains 18th, 19th and 20th century memorials: of note are the following, for reasons of early date or for associational interest mainly – a 19th century railed enclosure, with basalt rubble plinth walls adjacent to the south-east corner of the church with a gate bearing an iron armorial shield showing the Adair arms, and inscribed "The Ancient Burying Place of the Adair Family", but of no special architectural interest.

A plain recumbent stone slab to the south of the vestry door inscribed "This is Mr Stewart and Mr Crawford's Burying Place mentioned in the opposite marble [i.e. the plaque on the external east wall of the vestry]. Here lyeth the body of Thomas Boyd, who departed this life ye 16 of May 1737."

A stone slab bearing two carved paterae, to the south of the west end of the nave, to the memory of Jane Alet, who died in 1746.
A small stone slab with scrolled top, to the south of the tower, to the memory of Rhoda Beggs wife to John Anochr, who died in 1737.
A stone slab with scrolled top, and carved armorial rear face, to the south-west of the tower, to the memory of Revd Hugh Scot, minister, who died in 1736.

Two graves to the south of the above is a comparable stone slab with scrolled top, and carved armorial rear face, to the memory of Margaret Craig, wife of Francis Scot, who died in 1741, but it is broken and portions have been lost.

A 19th century railed enclosure, with basalt plinth walls, to the north of the tower porch, with a gate bearing an iron armorial shield showing the Adair arms and inscribed "The Burying Place of the Adair Family", but of no special architectural interest.

To the east of the above is a sandstone dressed basalt plinth walled and iron balustraded enclosure against the north boundary wall of the graveyard, containing a marble plaque on the boundary wall, to the memory of Sir Samuel Ferguson who died in 1886; Ferguson was President of the Royal Irish Academy, Deputy Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland, and a prominent Irish poet; enclosure and plaque of no special architectural interest.

Historical information

As it stands now the church largely dates from 1871 when the tower, porch, chancel and vestry were added to an earlier nave which itself was given a new roof and new windows.

Nave originally built in 1659 on the site of a Presbyterian meeting house of uncertain date, recorded as "in a decayed state" by 1622. A church was recorded on the site as early as the 14th century but it is believed that the site may have been established long before that, although no medieval fragments remain on the site; continued to be used by Presbyterians until 1688 when it was restored to Anglican use only; underwent alterations in 1817 which "curtailed its length by 21 feet"; described in the ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1838 as "an uninteresting-looking building without tower or belfry, having merely a little arch, from which a bell is suspended, elevated on its western gable. It stands east and west, and measures externally 46 by 31 feet. The walls are 3 feet 6 inches thick. It is pretty well fitted up with pews, but is cold, damp and comfortless; contains accommodation for 120 persons. It is in tolerable repair"; further described in the same source as "perfectly plain and without any architectural ornament".

The alterations and restoration of 1871 were to the designs of John Boyd, architect of Belfast; paid for by Henry Adair of Loughanmore, at a cost of £1,600; builders, Messrs McManus; bell inscribed 'J. Murphy, Founder, Dublin, 1871'; stained glass in east window added 1875, at expense of Henry Adair. The two stained glass windows in the nave were moved to this church in 1984 from their previous position in the private chapel in the coach and stable yard at Loughanmore when that building was converted to domestic use.

The church and graveyard lie within the area of an historic monument, no. ANT50:47.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1832, Co Antrim 50.
2. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 29: Parishes of County Antrim XI, 1832-3, 1835-9 (Belfast, 1995), pp 108, 114, 129, 132.

Secondary Sources
1. J.A. Pilson, History of the Rise and Progress of Belfast and Annals of County Antrim (Belfast, 1846), p 127.
2. L. Ewart, Handbook of the United Diocese of Down and Connor and Dromore (Belfast, 1886), pp 89-90.
3. UAHS, West Antrim (Belfast, 1970), p 17.
4. M. Bell, A History of St John's Church, Donegore (Antrim, 1988).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

This is essentially a mid-Victorian Gothic Revival church in Early English style, which exhibits the plan form, proportions, spatial organisation, structural forms, and some ornamental features that are characteristic of the style and period. Designed by an architect, John Boyd, who was one of the best known of his period in Ulster, it has the added interest of having developed from foundations which go back to the 17th century at least, while also enjoying a conspicuous site and forming a local landmark.