Kilbride Presbyterian Church, Moyra Road, Doagh, Co Antrim, BT39 0JD

Kilbride Presbyterian Church

Kilbride Presbyterian Church is an attractive detached double-height single-cell Presbyterian church built in 1848, located to the north of the Moyra Road in Doagh. The church was constructed following the opening of the first Presbyterian place of worship in this part of the Six Mile Valley in March 1849, serving 130 families at that time. The building cost £314 14s 3½d, excluding the gallery which was erected around 1860, with the site itself costing £11 5s 0d.

The church is rectangular on plan, aligned north-south, with a two-storey lean-to extension to the north and a pitched two-storey extension to the south gable. The roof is of natural slate, gabled to the south and hipped to the north, with boxed eaves and aluminium rainwater goods.

The south elevation is rendered with pebbledash, while the remainder features roughcast walling with smooth render banding over the plinth. Rendered quoins and plinth details are stepped. Windows throughout are principally lancet-headed timber-framed lattice with margin panes and stained glass detailing, featuring rendered reveals with moulded hoods and projecting rendered cills.

The principal gable faces south, with all windows displaying Y-tracery. A central shallow breakfront contains a pointed-arched entrance opening surmounted by a triplet of stained glass windows sharing a cill, the central window being taller. Above each window is a panel carved in deep relief, bearing a central shield with dates: 1895, 1848, and 1983 respectively. The apex contains a truncated lancet-headed louvred opening with sill. Two further windows flank the breakfront. The entrance door consists of double replacement sheeted doors with sheeted tympanum, accessed by three stone steps.

The west elevation is six openings wide, with a square-headed timber door to the right surmounted by a window opening with Y-tracery head and a metal sheeted balcony above. Other windows on this elevation feature single modern timber transoms. The east elevation mirrors the west elevation in configuration but contains windows only. The rear elevation is partially abutted by the lean-to extension, which features a catslide roof with large roof light and a simple chimneystack with projecting chimneybreast to the east elevation. The extension walls are roughcast with render banding to first-floor cill level and corners. Extension windows are square-headed 1/1 timber sashes with rendered architraves and sills.

The north elevation has openings at first-floor level consisting of two windows and a four-panelled door accessed by a long precast-concrete ramp. The right cheek has a replacement window and door in shared reveal at ground floor with two windows (one diminished) at first floor. The left cheek has windows to each floor.

The interior retains original features of historic significance, including the box pews, which remain largely intact from the mid-nineteenth century. The church was substantially remodelled in the latter part of the twentieth century with the addition of the new double-height vestibule.

The two-storey extension was added in 1898. The site is bounded to the road by a pebbledashed wall with access to a tarmac car park at the south via mild steel gates. The setting includes a graveyard to the east, bounded by a coursed black basalt wall. The graveyard contains the grave of William Galt, reputedly the first Sunday School teacher, whose inscription claims association with "the first Sunday School," which William Galt established in 1768 as the Doagh Book Club, initially as a library before its conversion to educational purposes.

The church is recorded on the Griffiths Valuation Map of 1859, where it was valued at £20 0s 0d and identified as belonging to The Marquis of Donegal as immediate lessor, comprising church, yard, and graveyard. The building remains in use as a Presbyterian Church.