Old Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Staffordstown Road,Next to Sacred Heart Roman Cathholic Church,Staffordstown Road, Cargin, Toomebridge, Co. Antrim, BT41 3QT

Old Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church

This symmetrical early nineteenth-century vernacular Roman Catholic church with Gothic Revival detailing stands in a prominent position off Staffordstown Road in a hillside graveyard. Built in 1821 by Reverend John MacMullan and dedicated in 1829—a year before Catholic Emancipation and following the Catholic Relief Acts—it testifies to the significance of Catholic worship at this early date. The church survives as an important and unusual form, retaining a substantial proportion of its original character despite its current condition.

The building is a T-plan structure with a rectangular nave aligned east-west, abutted to the north by a central sacristy with bellcote. It is six windows wide across its double-height elevation. The nave and north projection are constructed in rubble stone, whilst the porches are brick. Walling is roughcast with smooth-rendered strip corner banding over a chamfered plinth.

Three gabled brick porches project from the structure: one to each of the east and west gables, and one at centre to the south elevation. The south porch is vaulted over a sunken channel with a segmental arch. Each porch contains pointed-arched sheeted painted timber double-leaf doors with wrought-iron strap hinges, stop-ended torus-moulded masonry architraves, and a single step to the threshold.

The roof is pitched natural slate with moulded corbelled stone verges on moulded kneeler blocks bearing gablets with embossed Maltese crosses. Ogee-moulded cast-iron gutters with square downpipes fixed with quatrefoil clasps serve the nave; half-round cast-iron gutters with round downpipes are fitted to the remainder.

Windows throughout are Gothic with painted timber tracery and painted architraves with stone sills. The north elevation features six windows with central two windows abutted by the gabled sanctuary or sacristy. Windows display painted timber Y-tracery with intersecting glazing above, fixed casement mid-section, and four-centred arch-headed 6-light sliding sash to the base. The east gable is centrally abutted by a single-height gabled porch and contains a central round-headed diamond-glazed leaded casement set within pointed-arched tripartite tracery with stop-ended hood mould. The south elevation is centrally abutted to gallery level by the south porch, flanked by single windows to ground and gallery level on each side. The west gable is a handed version of the east.

The sacristy, added after 1837 but before 1858, has diagonal stepped buttresses and is surmounted by a gabled bellcote with stepped base. The bellcote features a pointed-arched opening (now without bell) supported on stop-ended chamfered pillarettes with recessed panels. The bellcote is crowned by a masonry Cross of St. James. The sacristy contains two windows with stringcourse continuous at hood mould level. The projection's left cheek is blank; its right cheek has a square-headed varnished vertically sheeted door with stop-ended label mould.

The south gable is surmounted by a masonry Latin Cross.

Historical records indicate the 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoirs recorded the structure as 54 by 22 feet with accommodation for 500 people. The 1837 memoir states the church was built around thirteen years prior (therefore circa 1824) with an earthen ground floor and gallery. It originally had one round-arched door to each ground floor end and a door to the rear accessing the gallery; all three porches continue to access the nave through round-arched openings. Six Gothic windows fronted the north facade. Construction was supported financially by Lord O'Neill, who gave ten guineas, and General O'Neill, who contributed five guineas.

Before this church's construction, a previous timber mass-house occupied the site, its form likely influencing the masonry successor. The Ordnance Survey map of 1833 records the church as rectangular in plan. The bellcoted projection first appears on the 1858 Ordnance Survey map, creating the current T-plan. The three side porches abutting the nave gables appear on the 1921 Ordnance Survey map, though the round-arched entrances they enclose had been previously recorded in 1837. A 1973 photograph shows lost external items including a brass bell to the bellcote and a wrought-iron Cross of St. James to both east and west nave gables.

The sacristy reused two nave windows recorded in 1837. Windows, entrances, and gallery mentioned in 1837 indicate the altar originally remains in its original north wall location. A south transept was not possible due to the steep hillside. The altar and most unfixed furnishings were removed following redundancy, though a modern multi-step dais indicates the church was reordered following Vatican II. The church was made redundant circa 1991 after a decision was made not to restore the old church but replace it with a new one of the same name, located to the site of the old parish house.

The terraced graveyard site has a masonry sunken passage and retaining wall to non-north elevations. The retaining wall is surmounted by an elaborate mid-nineteenth-century cast-iron railing with orb-capped barley-twisted posts. The passage opens onto a tarmac forecourt to the north with a central drive through the graveyard accessing Staffordstown Road and a dwarf rendered boundary wall. The graveyard contains several fine wrought-iron enclosed family plots and numerous fine nineteenth-century gravestones. Of note to the north is a substantial spired shaft-supported crucifix memorial dedicated to Reverend S Young (circa 1803-1862) and Reverend J. McGlennon (circa 1817-1869). The earliest visible grave is the gravestone to Michael McLarnon (circa 1782-1844), located to the northwest. A replacement church built circa 1990 is located to a higher hillside position to the southeast.