Old Presbyterian Church, 1A Main Road, Cloughy, BT22 1GB

The Old Presbyterian Church, Cloughey

This stone Presbyterian church, built between 1840 and 1843, stands on the eastern side of the Main Road, 70 metres north of Cloughey village square, with a graveyard on three sides and the beach immediately to the east. Cloughey is a small village on the Ards Peninsula, 7 kilometres north-east of Portaferry and 22.5 kilometres south-east of Newtownards. The church was opened for public worship on 17 May 1843 and remained in use until around 1980, when the congregation moved to a new building at 69b Main Road. The identity of the original architect or builder is not known. The listing covers the church building itself, the front boundary walls, and the entrance gates.

The building is a single-storey, double-height structure with a first-floor balcony, orientated approximately west to east, with an entrance porch to the west and a vestry return to the north. A small lean-to store is attached to the east gable. Walls are of rubble stone throughout, finished externally with a dry pebble dash on a sand cement base, with sand cement banding at the corners, plinth, door and window surrounds, gable parapets, and chimneys. Brick eaves are visible beneath the sand cement render. All roofs are natural slate, possibly green Westmoreland slate, with slate-black clay angle ridge tiles throughout. Chimney stacks with pots survive on all three main gables: the north gable pot is octagonal in cream terracotta, while the pots to the south-east and north-east (vestry return) gables are tall, dark-brown glazed, round-base bishop terracotta type with multiple downdraft venturi tubes to the shaft. All external doors are fitted with one-and-a-half-set steel butt hinges and rim locks. All windows are protected by galvanised steel mesh externally.

The south elevation, which faces the south side of the graveyard, is the main front of the church. Three tall lancet windows (W01 to W03) light the nave. The entrance porch return projects to the left, with an external door of framed, ledged, braced, and sheeted timber in three panels with braces. Two grey-painted cast iron downpipes serve the main elevation, with a single cast iron downpipe to the entrance porch return; all downpipes have matching brackets and shoes, and all guttering is grey uPVC.

The west elevation faces the main road and presents the gable of the entrance porch, which has a smaller matching lancet window (W07), currently protected by an external plywood board. The entrance porch gable has a ball-top finial in slate-black clay which sits proud of, and does not match, the ridge tiles.

The north elevation, facing the north side of the graveyard, has two tall lancet windows (W04 and W06) lighting the nave; W06 is protected by an external plywood board. The rear of the entrance porch return is to the right, with an external door matching that on the south elevation. Two grey-painted cast iron downpipes serve this elevation, with a single cast iron downpipe to the rear of the porch return. Downpipes to the rear elevations, entrance porch, and vestry return terminate approximately 600 millimetres above ground level with no shoes.

The east elevation faces the beach and is otherwise blank, apart from the off-centre lean-to shed to the north. The shed has a single ledged, braced, and sheeted timber door to the south and a single unglazed window opening to the north, finished in materials matching the main building and with no rainwater goods.

Windows throughout are of leaded coloured glass lights, generally mounted direct to the masonry opening. Windows W01, W02, and W04 have a timber frame to the upper arched section. W02 contains stained glass details. All windows have a steel-framed hopper opening section, except W07, where this is missing. Of particular note are five stained glass windows installed in 1931, the work of Clokey, gifted by Dr. David Finnegan — who had spent his childhood in Cloughey — to perpetuate the memory of his parents and three brothers.

The church retains its original layout and much historic interior detailing, including the first-floor gallery (now reduced to the western end) and the original proportions of the space.

The surrounding graveyard is enclosed by a random rubble boundary wall, rendered in places to match the church facing the main road. The original double entrance gates and pedestrian gates survive in wrought iron, painted black.

Historical background and alterations

The Cloughey Presbyterian congregation was formed in January 1841, and a plot for the new church was donated by John Echlin of Echlinville House. Before the church was built, the congregation held services in a variety of temporary locations, including Kirkistown Castle, a local schoolhouse known as the Sand School, a barn at Drumarden, a store at Ballyspurge, and the local Coastguard station. The congregation's first minister, the Reverend James Gamble, was installed in September 1841, described as being in the midst of very unsettled weather. A communion service described as very handsome and neatly executed was donated by Mr Gelston of Tullyhammon in December 1841. Mr Gelston also contributed to the construction of the church itself, alongside contributions from, amongst others, Mrs Thomas Shaw, Mr Samuel McWhirk of Kircubbin, Mr Cathcart, Mr Ervin of Banbridge, Mr William Skelton of Ballygunningham, and Mr William Scott of Kilsorrell. The church was opened for public worship on 17 May 1843 by the Reverend Josias Wilson of Townsend Street, Belfast.

The building underwent extensive alterations in the latter half of 1902, carried out by contractor William Mahood of Portavogie. These works involved: moving the pulpit from the long wall — evidence suggests it was originally on the north wall — to its present position at the eastern end; blocking up the original main entrance, which appears to have been to the south; building the present porch at the west end; reducing the gallery from its original full enclosure around all sides of the interior to its present western extent only; introducing new windows of the long and pointed pattern with coloured glass to the top; replastering the internal walls in cement and applying five-foot-high pine wainscotting; fitting a new heating system; and applying a stone finish to the exterior walls, which appears to have been a smooth, possibly lined, render with quoins. On completion of the works in December 1902, a reporter from the Northern Whig remarked that so complete and successful had been the renovation that anyone looking at the church would now take it both inside and outside for a new building.

Later changes include the installation of the five Clokey stained glass windows in 1931, the replacement of the stone finish render with the present dry dash at some point in the mid-20th century, and the removal of shallow parapets from the main gables. It should be noted that since the date of the building survey, the right-hand lancet window on the south elevation has had a stained glass pane become loose; it has dropped down and is currently contained between the window and the external wire mesh.

While the exterior pebble-dashed finish somewhat detracts from the original historic character of the building, the church retains its original proportions, internal layout, and much of its historic fabric and detailing, giving it significant architectural and social importance within its local community.