Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church, Ballyhemlin Road, Ballyhemlin (near Kircubbin), Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2QY

Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church, Ballyhemlin Road, Ballyhemlin

A plain, simple and unassuming Non-subscribing Presbyterian church built around 1834–1835, retaining a certain rustic charm and remaining largely untouched since its construction. The building is typical of its type and period.

The church is a single-storey gabled structure set beside a country road a few miles north-west of Ballyhalbert. The north-west facing gable features a central narrow timber double door positioned within a gothic arch opening, with a painted raised stone surround and chamfered reveal. Two windows flank the door at a higher level, set in similar gothic arch openings with painted raised stone surrounds, simple aprons, and drop ends below the cills. The windows contain timber frames consisting of twin gothic arches with Y-tracery and both horizontal and vertical astragals. The gable takes the form of a broken pediment with a simple date panel inscribed '1834' at the break.

The north-east side of the church has three windows matching those on the front but without raised stone surrounds. The south-west gable mirrors the north-east side. The south-east rear gable matches the front elevation but has no door and no surrounds to its windows. Large rendered grave crypts are attached to the rear gable.

The walls are now rendered in rough cast over rubble stone, though render has come away in places to reveal stone dressings to windows on the south-west and rear elevations. An eaves course with cast iron gutters and downpipes runs around the building. The pitched roof is covered with Bangor blue slates and topped with a tiny octagonal chimney with a single pot positioned on the ridge near the front. A rubble stone wall runs along the road side to the north-west and south-west. Three small headstones commemorating past ministers stand on the south-west lawn.

This church was erected in 1834–1835 by a newly established Non-subscribing Presbyterian congregation. The formation of Non-subscribing Presbyterian congregations in Ulster stemmed from controversy within the Synod of Ulster during the 1820s between the Remonstrance or 'New Light' party, led by Dr. Henry Montgomery, and the remainder of the Synod under Dr. Henry Cooke. In 1829, Montgomery and seventeen other ministers broke away to form the Remonstrance Synod. Their actions attracted substantial support in the Ballywalter, Ballyhalbert and Kircubbin areas. In 1833, these supporters were accepted into the Remonstrance Synod, and this church was built the following year at Ballyhemlin.

During its early years, the congregation was energetically led by Reverend William Hugh Doherty, who engaged in vigorous theological debate with local Presbyterian ministers, defending the Remonstrant stance through two pamphlets published in 1836 and 1837. An Ordnance Survey memoir of around 1836 recorded that the Presbyterian Meeting House at Ballyhemlin was erected in 1835 and not yet finished at the time of writing. Expenses had been met through public contributions. The building was slated and of plainest architecture, measuring 60 feet by 33 feet and having capacity for around 200 persons, though generally attended by approximately half that number.