Randalstown Presbyterian Church (Old Congregation), Portglenone Road, Randalstown, Antrim, Co Antrim

Randalstown Presbyterian Church (Old Congregation), Portglenone Road, Randalstown

This is an essentially Georgian church of unusual plan which has lost some original features but has generally been enhanced by later alterations that have contributed to its distinct external proportions and fine, unspoiled galleried interior. It enjoys a pleasant setting in its own grounds and forms an interesting group with the adjacent former session house. Beyond its local interest and social value, it is of wider architectural significance as a rare example of an oval Presbyterian church and an early, innovatory example of the centralised plan form in Irish church architecture generally.

Origins and History

The building was originally built as a Presbyterian meeting house in 1790, with the foundation stone laid on 12th July of that year. The site was originally granted by Rose O'Neill, Marchioness of Antrim, in 1670, when a first meeting house was built and later demolished to make way for the present church; additional ground was given by Earl O'Neill at the time the first church was being built. The congregation split over the choice of a minister and the church was closed from August 1837 to March 1838 as a result.

Subsequent alterations have shaped the building considerably. In 1830–32 a gallery was inserted and the hexagonal entrance porch with its intended belfry was added. In 1868 a new pulpit was inserted to designs by the Belfast architects Boyd and Batt. In 1929, to designs by Belfast architect R. D. Graham, the walls and roof were raised, 18 ocular windows were inserted, a minister's room was added to the rear with internal stairs leading up to the pulpit, and all ground floor pews were replaced. In 1949 a pipe organ was installed, with pipes placed behind a large oval grille above the pulpit; the old enclosed choir box was replaced by rows of choir pews and the pulpit itself was reduced in size and set closer to the wall. In 1956–57 the sexton's cottage, which had formerly stood between the front of the church and the main road, was demolished and a new front boundary wall was built using stone salvaged from the ruins of Ballymena Castle. By 1989 a bell had been installed in the belfry for the first time. In 1996 the seating layout of the choir area was altered and two pews, one to each side of the central aisle, were removed to create an open space at the front of the choir area. The date of the session house is not known, but it appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1829.

Exterior — Main Body

The church is an oval building of basalt rubble with a later hexagonal, cupola-crowned entrance porch of squared basalt and a semi-circular ended annex to the rear. The main entrance faces north.

The oval roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with a flat platform on top and two rectangular ventilation grilles to the front and two more to the rear elevation. The walling of basalt rubble is arranged in two distinct stages: coursed masonry to the lower portion up to the springing height of the window arches, with areas of galletting to the original lime mortar pointing; random rubble masonry to the upper portion with original recessed lime mortar pointing. Two projecting eaves courses are formed of basalt and what appears to be sandstone blocks. Cast iron guttering and downpipes are fitted throughout.

Gothic lancet windows occupy the lower portion of the walls — three to each side of the front entrance porch. These are timber two-light windows with Y-tracery containing leaded quarries, set in smooth cement-rendered reveals with projecting painted stone or concrete cills that follow the curve of the wall. Above each lancet is an elliptical oculus in a radiating, continuously arched basalt surround, fitted with a horizontally pivoted timber window with radial glazing incorporating a central oval light. These ocular windows continue at regular spacing right around the main building. The ocular windows sit in a flush plane, whereas the lancets curve with the line of the main walling.

Beyond the three lancets to each side on the entrance elevation are high-level Gothic arched lunettes containing Y-tracery, positioned level with the arched heads of the lancets, with glazing and surrounds similar to the lancets and similar projecting cills.

At each end of the building, at the extremities of the long transverse axis, is a lateral entrance. Each is semi-circular arched and contains a pair of dark-stained panelled doors, each leaf being six-panel raised and fielded, surmounted by a semi-circular fanlight with intersecting glazing bars and fitted with an octagonal bronze handle. The doors are set in continuous raised smooth cement-rendered reveals. Above each lateral entrance is a pointed lunette of the type described above, with an oculus above that. The lateral doors, their lunettes, and their oculi are all set in a flat plane rather than following the curve of the wall.

Entrance Porch and Cupola

The central projecting entrance porch is surmounted by a lantern and cupola. Its walls are of squared basalt in regular courses with projecting eaves courses as elsewhere; the roof is slated in the same manner and fitted with cast iron gutters. The front face has a central rectangular entrance doorway containing a rectangular timber panelled two-leaf door similar to the lateral entrances, set in a moulded rectangular timber frame. Above this is a recessed date stone of bowed form — apparently originally set in the curved front wall of the main church — with a moulded surround inscribed "Built in 1790, Thomas Henry, Minister." The top edge of this stone is dished or dipped to accommodate an oval ocular timber window containing decorative intersecting tracery with translucent glazing, set in smooth rendered reveals. An antique-style lamp and scrolling iron bracket are mounted above the window. Two broad, deep steps of concrete paving lead to the front entrance.

The side walls of the porch immediately flanking the entrance face each contain a tall Y-traceried lancet in a flat plane, matching those on the main body. Each side wall, in the angles with the main church, contains a pointed lunette in a flat plane as described previously.

The lantern above the porch is hexagonal and of timber construction, with arched openings in each face recessed in rectangular panels with a plain frieze, moulded cornice, and keystone motif. Slate-hung panels sit below a continuous lead-dressed cill. The front face contains a 15-pane timber fixed light surmounted by intersecting tracery lights; the rear face contains a rectangular sheeted timber access door surmounted by a louvred fanlight; the remaining faces are filled with timber louvres. Above the lantern is an ogee domed cupola dressed in lead with a ball finial surmounted by a weathervane.

Rear Elevation

The rear elevation of the main block is of similar character to the front, with three lancets to each side of a central bowed projection and a pointed high-level lunette to each side beyond that, just before the lateral entrance, with ocular windows above each lower opening as on the entrance front. However, the first two ground-floor lancets to each side of the rear projection contain stained glass rather than Y-tracery; clear perspex panels are affixed to the outside of these frames. A basalt rubble chimney in the rear wall, positioned off-centre to the left, has a projecting block cornice and one modern pot.

The central bowed rear projection is two storeys in height. Its walls are of roughly coursed basalt rubble with projecting eaves courses as elsewhere; the roof is slated as before with cast iron gutters and downpipes. Two windows to each floor are symmetrically arranged: rectangular timber sliding sash windows, six over six with horns, incorporating intersecting glazing bars to the top, with exposed moulded sash boxes set in smooth rendered reveals with projecting painted cills. Sash boxes, window frames, and cills are all curved to follow the line of the wall.

Two doorways flank the projection, one to each side next to the main body of the church. On the west side is a rectangular timber six-panel raised-and-fielded door set in moulded frames with smooth rendered reveals. On the east side is a rectangular timber panelled and louvred raised-and-fielded door set in rough cement-rendered reveals with a concrete doorstep area.

Setting and Grounds

The building stands within the built-up area of the town, occupying a site between two main roads. It overlooks the road to the front but is set well back within its own grounds, which are laid out as a graveyard with flat grassy plots to the front and a grassy hill to the rear rising to the road at a higher level. The memorials in the graveyard are of 19th and 20th century date; none is of special architectural interest.

The front boundary is formed by a wall of basalt rubble with a gateway aligned with the front porch. This gateway comprises square piers of rock-faced red sandstone in regular courses surmounted by tinted pink concrete caps, with modern steel double gates incorporating oval panels that reflect the glazing pattern of the oval oculi on the church itself. A similar gateway at the left-hand end is aligned axially with the modern church hall.

The front gateway leads to a broad modern concrete pavement up to the front entrance, with a narrow pavement extending around it to each side, bounded by narrow tarmac strips; tarmac areas occupy the angles between the front porch and the main body of the church, and paved areas are provided outside each lateral doorway. The front part of the graveyard is bounded on the east by a basalt rubble retaining wall to the modern church hall; to the west the boundary is a hedge, with mature trees forming the rear western boundary. The rear boundary is a basalt rubble wall, partly smooth cement-rendered on the inner face, containing a pedestrian gateway to the road at the rear with a pair of plain square rubble piers and rendered caps and a plain ironwork gate.

Immediately to the rear of the church on the east side of the rear projection stands a low cement-rendered store with a flat concrete roof.

Session Room

Standing to the rear of the church on the west side is the detached single-storey rectangular session room, whose date of construction is not precisely known but which appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1829. It is built of basalt rubble walls with a projecting eaves course or frieze and a timber eaves board. The hipped roof is covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses with cast iron gutters and downpipes. The central doorway in the north wall contains a rectangular timber six-panel door — a new replacement for the original two-leaf door — with a chamfered timber frame set in smooth rendered reveals and a modern octagonal brass handle. One window in the east wall and two in the south wall are Gothic arched timber sashes, vertically hung, six over six with intersecting tracery lights to the head, with exposed sash boxes, all painted white, set in smooth rendered reveals with projecting concrete cills. There is a blocked-up former window opening in the west wall.