Glastry Presbyterian Church, Manse Road, Glastry, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 1DR

Glastry Presbyterian Church

This cruciform single-storey Presbyterian church dates to 1777 and stands on a rise beside Manse Road in the small hamlet of Glastry. Originally built as a 'T' shape, it has since been extended into a cross form. The building features gable ends, semi-circular arch-headed window openings, chamfered quoins, and is surrounded by a graveyard. The entire façade is finished in lined render and painted.

The south-west front elevation contains an almost centrally positioned full-height gabled porch with two levels. The porch's south-east facing gable is blank. The left side of the porch holds a plain timber sheeted door set in a square-headed moulded door surround. Above this is a small upper-level semi-circular arch-headed window with moulded surround and keystone, featuring two vertical sections with semi-circular arch heads, a single horizontal astragal, and a small circular infill on top centre above the arch heads. The vertical sections contain plain glass, with coloured glass in the infill. A small recessed date panel between the door and window is crudely inscribed 'Ann Dom. 1777 Rev W S Dickson Minister'. The right side of the porch contains a matching window to both levels. Flanking the porch on the original main church building are two larger windows of the same design on the left, with a third window set at a higher level and filled with stained glass positioned extremely close to the intersection of the porch wall, leaving no moulding to its right side. A similar arrangement in reverse appears on the right side of the porch.

The north-west gable of the main building contains high-level windows with frames similar to those on the front but without moulding. The south-east gable has the same arrangement, with a small recessed panel below its window crudely inscribed 'Serve God with Gladness'. The rear north-east elevation features a central full-height gabled projection with a small lean-to extension attached to its gable. On either side of the main building are single windows with stained glass, and a similar stained glass window sits at high level on the gable of the projection. On both left and right sides of the projection proper are two windows with frames matching the front elevation, whilst three smaller windows with frames similar to those on the front are positioned to the north-west side of the small lean-to extension. The right side of the lean-to extension contains a plain timber sheeted door; the left side is blank.

All roofs are pitched with a mixture of Bangor blue and asbestos slates. Stone parapets run only to the porch, with a small octagonal 'disguised' chimney set to its apex. PVC gutters and downspouts have been installed throughout.

The church was built in 1777 under the direction of Reverend William Steel Dickson. The Presbyterian congregation originally worshipped in a church built in 1721 near the old Norman motte in Ballyhalbert. In the mid-1770s, members of the congregation from Kircubbin sought to establish their own meeting house in their area. Despite efforts to discourage this, the Kircubbin congregation proceeded with their own independent establishment and minister. In response, the remaining Ballyhalbert congregation decided to relocate to Glastry. In March 1777, Reverend Steel Dickson placed an advertisement in the Belfast News Letter inviting tenders for the building of 'a new meeting house'. Steel Dickson's ministry at Glastry was short-lived; he departed in February 1780 after accepting a call to Portaferry. A professed political and religious radical, he became instrumental in forming the United Irishmen in the 1790s and was subsequently imprisoned for his activities.

It remains unclear whether Dickson's original church included the porch visible today. The current awkwardness of the window arrangement and the proximity of the main entrance and pulpit suggest not. However, by the time of the first Ordnance Survey map in 1834, a porch had been added to the building. In January 1839, the infamous 'Great Wind' destroyed the entire roof. A new manse was built adjacent to the church in 1859. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the church was refurbished with decoration added to the window frames, surrounds, and interior plasterwork, work probably carried out under Reverend Robert Workman, minister from 1871 to 1910. Substantial renovations occurred in 1955-6 and again in the mid-1960s. The windows were replaced in 1991.