First Presbyterian Church, Rampart Street, Dromore, Co Down, BT25 1AG

First Presbyterian Church (Non-Subscribing), Rampart Street, Dromore

This is a symmetrical, classically styled stucco Non-Subscribing Presbyterian church, built around 1800, located on the west side of Rampart Street in Dromore town centre. It is one of the most notable surviving examples of its type in the country, retaining its original proportions, much of its architectural detailing, and a particularly well-preserved 19th-century interior complete with box pews and the typical liturgical arrangement of a three-sided gallery with a pulpit on the long wall.

The building has a lateral rectangular plan with a full-height gabled projection to the rear and a single-storey modern annexe to the east. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles, and the rainwater goods are plastic (uPVC) on bracketed eaves. The walls are finished in ruled-and-lined stucco on a plinth, with raised quoins and double rusticated pilasters rising to a broken-bed pedimented central gable. Windows are a mixture of timber-framed sash and leaded-and-stained glass, with segmental-headed openings to the facade and pointed-headed openings to the other elevations.

The principal (south) elevation is dominated by a gabled central entrance bay featuring a large Venetian window positioned above a double-leaf three-panelled timber door with a segmental-headed transom light, all set within a moulded surround surmounted by a segmental-headed canopy on carved consoles. The left and right bays each have a segmental-headed 1/1 sash window with coloured glass margin panes and panelled aprons in a moulded architrave with painted sills, positioned above a double-leaf three-panelled timber door in a lugged moulded surround.

The west gable has a window to the centre at gallery level and a square-headed window to the ground floor left. The north elevation features a full-height gabled projection to the centre, with two large windows on either side. The east gable has a window to the centre at gallery level and is abutted at ground floor level by the modern annexe, which is symmetrically arranged to the south with a modern six-panelled timber door flanked by segmental-headed 1/1 windows with margin panes. There are three windows to the rear elevation. Leaded-and-stained glass windows are found on the north and west elevations.

The church is set on an elevated site to the west of Rampart Street, surrounded on all sides by a graveyard, the earliest surviving headstone of which dates from 1840. The entrance is via a tarmacadam approach with an adjoining raised car park to the south, alongside a modern church hall. The surrounding area consists mainly of 20th-century housing developments. Views to the north take in Banbridge Road Presbyterian Church and Dromore Primary School.

Historical background

The Non-Subscribing Presbyterian congregation in Dromore has its roots in a split that occurred around 1725. The first Presbyterian congregation in the town had been established in 1660, with its first meeting house built around 1670, before which the congregation met in local houses and barns. In 1724, Alexander Colville — son of a former minister — was selected as preacher, but refused to subscribe to the Westminster Confession. His arrival effectively reaffirmed the congregation as a non-subscribing church. The resulting dispute divided the congregation: the majority left to form what became First Presbyterian Church (Non-Subscribing), while the minority remained at the original site and continued to practise orthodox Presbyterianism in adherence to the General Synod of Ulster.

Between around 1725 and around 1800, the Non-Subscribing congregation met at a meeting house on Pound Street, not far to the north of First Dromore Presbyterian Church on Diamond Road. The current church on Rampart Street was constructed around 1800, though sources differ slightly — Brett gives 1801 and the Ordnance Survey Memoirs note 1802. Brett further suggests that the present external facade may not have been added until around 1840, which would help explain the increase in the building's valuation between the 1830s and the Griffith's Valuation of 1861.

The church first appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1833, where it is depicted as a rectangular building and captioned "Arian Meeting Ho[use]." The contemporary Townland Valuations assessed the meeting house at £14 14s. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs described it as a "plain, stone building 69 feet long and 34 feet broad... the inside is plainly fitted up with pews and there is a gallery. The accommodation is for 1,000 people, the average attendance 500." The memoirs noted that construction costs were met by subscription, though the total amount is not recorded. By 1834, membership was recorded at 1,750, though average attendance was considerably lower. Congregation numbers began to decline following the famine of the late 1840s, though membership remained above 1,000 well into the late 19th century.

No discernible alteration to the building is evident on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1859, though Griffith's Valuation at that time revalued the building — which by then included a sexton's house — at £25. The value was further increased to £33 between 1885 and 1900, possibly reflecting the erection of a Sunday schoolroom within the church grounds around 1885. No significant changes to the layout are recorded on later Ordnance Survey editions of 1903 and 1919–20, nor to the site's valuation by the close of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

Later recorded alterations include the erection of the church manse in 1876 at a cost of £1,300, and the construction of the Sunday schoolroom around 1885. By 1949 membership had fallen to 312, stabilising at approximately 300 by 1995. The modern church hall at the entrance to the grounds was erected prior to 1973, as it first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of that year. The church was listed in 1977 and remains in active use as a place of worship. In 2000, a new suite of rooms was added to the south-east gable of the church.