Ballygowan Presbyterian Church,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, relatively plain, two storey gabled Presbyterian church of 1838, sited to the NE of Church Hill (road).

The front (SW) gable has two doorways with timber panelled double doors encased with panelled pilasters with curved brackets supporting a lintel frieze and cornice. At a higher level to the centre is a semicircular arch-headed window with stained glass, archivolt and ‘corbelled’ cill. Directly above this (in the ‘tympanum’) is an inscribed panelled with corbels, cornice and blocking course which reads ‘Trinity Presbyterian Church 1838 Rev. J. Gamble Minister’. The gable has an eaves course and is topped with a small bellcote with semicircular pediment (now partly damaged).

The main SE and NW facades are largely identical. To the ground floor on each are five flat arch windows with (recent looking) moulded lintel and keystone. To the first floor are five taller semicircular arch headed windows with moulded archivolt, keystone and ‘springing course’. The ground floor windows have modern concrete cills, and the upper windows appear to have also.
To the rear gable is a large two storey extension, containing offices, session room, Sunday school etc. To either side and to the rear gable are large square windows with PVC frames. This rear portion is said to have been added in 1962 (though it may have replaced an earlier structure) and extended in c.1993.

The entire façade is finished in lined cement render with chamfered quoins and base to the main church. Eaves course. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates with red clay ridge tiles to main building (some with hounds teeth). Rendered parapets. Cast iron rw goods.

Graveyard to S and W with headstones dating back to the 1840s. Large car park to SE.

Historical information

The (orthodox) Presbyterian congregation of Ballygowan was founded in or shortly before 1836. By 1837 they had acquired the present site (which had hitherto been used as a cockpit) and by August of the following year the church was opened by Dr. Henry Cooke who ‘preached a most eloquent sermon on the occasion’.

Little change appears to have been carried out to the church until c.1919/20 when, according to a church publication of 1938, the organ was installed and a cloak room and ‘commodious’ choir room were added. If these rooms were these were built against the rear gable they must been single storey, because new stained glass was fitted to one of the windows to the rear of the church at the same time, a window which the present two storey extension now completely covers. The same publication also mentions the construction of ‘stabling accommodation and a garage for thirty cars’, though this was undoubtedly sited beyond the church itself.

The next major renovation was carried out in 1961-2 when (among other things) the window openings were repaired and new cills installed. At this time the rooms to the rear gable appear to have been largely rebuilt also. A new office extension was added to the rear in c.1993.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI MIC/1P/406 Records of Ballygowan Presbyterian Church.
2 Linen Hall Library BNL 25th August 1837. [A report of the laying of the foundation stone of the church by Lord Dufferin.]

Secondary sources
1 ‘Ballygowan Presbyterian Church…1838-1938’ (Belfast 1938).

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

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

Evaluation

Large and relatively plain two storey gabled Presbyterian church of 1838, with a large gabled office extension added in c.1962 and extended c.1993. The window openings to the sides of the main church building were repaired in the early 1960s and now have concrete cills and relatively modern looking stained glass.